Localized: DoomCupcake

Pride isn’t just a celebration, it’s a protest. Let out your rage against society and stigma with Shecock With A Vengeance’s passionate glam-rock and DoomCupcake’s nu-metal mania at June’s Localized performance, with an opening punk-rock set by False Dykotomy. Sponsored by Riso-Geist, this Kilby Court show on Thursday, June 13 opens at 7:00 p.m. and costs just $5 for entry.

DoomCupcake is a four-piece, metal-punk band from Salt Lake City that makes “the kind of music you’d want to hear walking into a Hot Topic.” Zaza Historia VanDyke, lead singer and songwriting expert, started the band about two years ago, right after the pandemic. What started as a solo internet project for her quickly became a full-fledged band after Shecock With A Vengeance’s Sofia Scott messaged her and asked, “How do we book you?” VanDyke then messaged Dave Crespo, and the rest was history.

“The suppression of queer voices and queer people can generate that angst and resentment, and it’s better to let it out in a mosh pit, in your music, than letting it fester.”

From making songs by herself in Logic to creating demos with Crespo (guitar), Cashel Barnett (drums) and Frederick Thorne (bass) to playing shows and festivals, DoomCupcake has worked hard to be the band they are today. After a year of writing songs and working out demos from VanDyke, they jumped in a recording studio and finally made their first single, “Blood, Bath & Beyond.” It was their first time in the studio as a band, and they had written the song only two weeks prior. “It was a magical experience,” says Thorne.

DoomCupcake’s musical influences flow from ’90s to early 2000s rock—Fall Out Boy, Deftones, Cave In, Korn and Limp Bizkit. The band humorously dubs their genre as “Girlfriend Metal” or “Pastry Core.” Their influences definitely show through their music, and it’s a fresh take on the rock sound.

VanDyke is a Black trans woman while Crespo, Barnett and Thorne are lovingly referred to as her “handy white guys.” They are cis, straight men who are allies of the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. To DoomCupcake, pride means standing out and speaking out. It means resilience, inclusivity and protest. “It’s a bit of activism to be in this band because to be an ally, you have to be proactive. It’s our duty to call out any TERF-y bullshit and anti-LGBTQ+ crap that you see,” says Thorne. Crespo, Barnett and Thorne are fiercely protective of VanDyke, but for Thorne, Pride reaches him on a more personal level because his 21-year-old son Max is trans. Thorne says, “Pride was always a beacon of hope for him. Mormon influence is very strong in this state, so Pride is an event that Max stamped hard on the calendar, and it became a big deal for us.”

“A bunch of people like us who feel like we look weird and don’t feel weird—there can be thousands of us all in one place, and that’s dope,” says VanDyke. Barnett adds, “I really like it when, at our shows, sometimes Zaza will do spoken word

[or] a call to action … and she will say [something] along the lines of, ‘How often do you see a Black trans woman with a bunch of white dudes on stage? They are my allies, they are a part of the community as well.’ Playing in this band and living out here has brought me deeper into the LGBT community.”

“That edgy, angsty feeling I had when I was writing all of these songs, mad at the world around you … the suppression of queer voices and queer people can generate that angst and resentment, and it’s better to let it out in a mosh pit, in your music, than letting it fester,” Barnett says.

“Pride was always a beacon of hope for him. Mormon influence is very strong in this state, so Pride is an event that Max stamped hard on the calendar, and it became a big deal for us.”

Barnett says that using music to let out heavier emotions such as rage, anxiety and trauma can be cathartic. “When we play, I want everyone in the room to think, ‘Oh shit, that guy’s going ballistic.’ That’s my protest. It’s for me, but it’s also the release of these dark emotions. When I’m on stage, I want people to think they can do that too. I want to sweat. I want things to come out of me.”

As for what’s next for the band, they plan to play festivals over the summer, make music videos and release a lighthearted track called “Micro-Dose Calzones.” You can find DoomCupcake on Instagram at @doomcupcakeuwu or visit their website at doomcupcake.com. Don’t miss them live at June’s Localized show on Thursday, June 13 at Kilby Court. Get your tickets here.

Read more from the LGBTQ+ Pride Issue here:
Localized: Shecock with a Vengeance
What’s in My Closet? with Ms. Meredith.