Carla Harvey has long defied definition. A trailblazer in heavy music, visual arts, and grief counseling, she’s proven that creativity and catharsis are two sides of the same coin. Best known as co-vocalist for Butcher Babies, Carla has recently turned the page on a new chapter: stepping into the role of Acid Queen with the legendary Lords of Acid and launching her solo project The Violent Hour — a raw, deeply personal endeavor already gaining serious momentum.
Her journey didn’t begin on a stage, though that’s where she was always meant to end up. It began with a violin, and a moment of electrifying clarity. “When I was 11 and heard ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ for the first time, every hair raised on my arm. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life,” she recalls. That spark led a young Carla from fronting local bands in Detroit to a solo cross-country drive to Los Angeles, armed with nothing but a paper map and a dream.
“It felt unbelievably hard back then,” she says. “Scary too… I was just a kid trying to survive in Los Angeles.” She hustled through auditions, combed through music classifieds, and even scoured the Sunset Strip for potential bandmates. For a while, nothing panned out. She even paused to attend mortuary college, thinking maybe the dream had passed her by. But the dream didn’t die — it evolved.
That evolution has taken center stage with her new project, The Violent Hour. Her debut single, “Sick Ones” featuring John 5, is already turning heads, and a second single is due this June, followed by an EP and full-length album. She’s actively seeking touring band members and preparing to take this new sound on the road. “I feel like an excited kid again making music,” she says. “Starting over is hard, but I’ve found a lot of joy in building something from the ground up.”
Meanwhile, stepping into the legacy of Lords of Acid is a different kind of thrill. “It was a bucket list gig to put on the Acid Queen crown,” she admits. Though she hasn’t hit the stage with them yet, she’s embracing the unpredictable energy of it all. When someone asked if she had her dance moves worked out for the tour, she laughed. “Dance moves? What?” she jokes. “I’ve never pre-planned a performance. Music should feel visceral. You should just let it take you over.”
What fans can expect, she says, is pure passion. Not a stage persona, but the unfiltered energy of someone fulfilling a teenage dream. “You’ll see that excited 16-year-old girl who would be shocked and blown away if you told her she’d be fronting Lords of Acid one day.”
Offstage, Carla leads a life of equal intensity. Unable to continue working full-time as a mortician once touring took off, she founded Good Grief in 2016 to provide grief counseling virtually. She now works with clients around the world, including veterans, hospice patients, and children suffering profound losses. “Working with the dying has taught me to truly live,” she reflects. “If something isn’t making you happy, change it.”
Balancing multiple creative outlets and family life would exhaust most people, but for Carla, it’s her default setting. “I like to be busy,” she says. “I give my time to things I’m passionate about. Creating makes me happiest.” Her evenings are spent making music, art, or comics, and when she’s not doing that, she’s stepping up as a fiancée and stepmom. “That’s what life is about, right? Family has become more important to me than ever.”
Her relationship with Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante offers both inspiration and grounding. “Writing The Violent Hour material together has brought us an even deeper intimacy,” she says. While touring schedules once made them feel like ships passing in the night, the act of creating music together has forged a new connection.
That connection extends into Carla’s lifelong love of comics and storytelling. She has new projects in the works, including a comic and her first grief guide. “Books and comics were an escape for me growing up,” she explains. “I started writing and drawing comics in middle school. I could be whoever and whatever I wanted to be.
As a lifelong fan of The Hulk, Carla found empowerment in his duality. “Bruce Banner tried to keep it together, but when he was pushed too far, all that pain exploded into something massive and unstoppable,” she says. That duality — rage and vulnerability, destruction and creation — still fuels her art.
Asked what she’d say to women forging a path in heavy music today, her answer is clear: “Be yourself. That’s your magic.” Don’t try to mold yourself into what the world wants. “Are you weird? Just be weird.” As for what she wishes more people understood about her? “I don’t take myself too seriously,” she says. “I’m just a blue-collar kid who followed her dreams and got pretty lucky.”
With The Violent Hour heating up and her debut as Acid Queen just around the corner, Carla Harvey is entering a new era of creative power — one that feels, at once, like both a beginning and a homecoming. And fans won’t have to wait long to witness it. Carla will hit the road this spring with Lords of Acid, bringing her signature fire to stages across the country.
Catch Carla Harvey live with Lords of Acid on the following dates:
