Photographed by: [Agustin Hernández](https://instagram.com/agvstin)
LA-based metal band [Patriarchy](https://instagram.com/_patriarchy_), featuring multifaceted artists [Actually Huizenga](https://instagram.com/actuallyhuizenga) and Andrew Means_,_ strikes again subverting our age-old societal boundaries and basking in the dark and weird. The band’s lead starlet Actually has been a mainstay on the nightlife, rock, and art scene of LA. Having worked alongside art institutions like Night Gallery to the infamous strip club Cheetah’s in Hollywood.
Her last release for the track “IT GOES FAST“ sees her devolve from a pale ghoulish figure into a black cat as she screams and screeches her way through the fast paced song.
We caught up with her ahead of her Moroccan Lounge performance and the band’s upcoming album release for, _Asking For It_, which is slated to drop on November 8th via Australian label DERO Arcade.
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Photographed by: [Agustin Hernández](https://instagram.com/agvstin)
**How did you end up working on this new project?**
I was going to give the music up completely and focus on film after David Bowie died. After my depression, sleeping til 4pm, crying into bags of Santitas, I wrote a script and filmed my gnostic vampire film [“The Art of Eating,”](https://vimeo.com/227512539) with money I’d been saving and friends who have saved me. _Honestly, I still think that I will focus on film but merge my music with it- use the film making process to create a world where my band can actually perform and live within a reality of my own making. I will try and tour this new album_ [_"Asking For It"_](https://patriarchy.bandcamp.com/album/asking-for-it) _(which drops November 8th with Dero Arcade), but either way the experience must be documented in a filmic way... Like I told_ [_Vice_](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qbnvyp/actually-huizenga-heavenly-sin-film-interview) _a few years ago, I really do want to be a female version of Vincent Gallo or Mel Gibson (maybe a little bit 'nicer,' but definitely just as rough and politically incorrect)._
So- back to "The Art of Eating" - The soundtrack for this short film (called ["Covered"](https://actuallyactually.bandcamp.com/) that I did with producer Antoni Maiovvi) was going to be my last music release (how i met Dero Arcade!). But right after I finished “The Art of Eating,” this dude named Andrew Means (from the band 3Teeth) asked if I would like to work on some music with him. We clicked right away and wrote/recorded 5 songs in a week.
Since what we made was good- we decided I should make a band and put some sort of name on it. I wanted to call it “Rape”- trying to find a word which describes the human condition we "live" in. Everyone said _Rape_ would frighten too many people away (plus it sounds like grape... although I love the Mae West line "Beulah, peel me a grape." (from the 1933 film "I'm No Angel" ) Anyways, I thought of another word that was close enough – a word that I would like to torture and make my own.
We live in a Patriarchy and it won’t be changing for quite a while... by the time it "changes," most humans will be androids, merging their skin with their phones in new and even more invasive ways. The flocks will be so happy! So, yah, why not grab the patriarchal system by the balls and fuck it? I will fuck and enjoy the situation I’m in- even if it disrespects and discriminates against me.
Photographed by: [Agustin Hernández](https://instagram.com/agvstin)
**What’s the difference between Actually and Patriarchy?**
The Name & the people I worked with on it. The themes of my work have not mutated much, only evolved.
**Who are you inspired by with this direct and aggressively queer aesthetic?**
Recently I have been connecting with the ancient Stoics. Marcus Aurelius really calms me down... but the aggressive queerness you see comes from my Dionysian goblins who like to play with my Apollonian leanings. Recently, Seneca is interesting to me because he must struggle between his stoic practice and living as the life-advisor for the murderous and decadent Emperor Nero. He writes about eating simply, rejecting money, enjoying the purity of an island on which you have been banished, and yet he had a huge mansion, vineyards, slaves, etc etc. In reading his essays and letters, I find that he never even talks about court life with Nero. The art is the escape into the place you can reach your potential- a place where you might even inspire others. Since I have taken part in the horrors of "the industry," I do believe I can relate slightly to his struggle (although I don't need to worry about being ordered to commit suicide..._yet_). I can't be a hermit because I need society and human interaction to do what I do, so how do I find the balance? This is why I feel myself looking more towards someone like Seneca or Marcus Aurelius than Socrates. I am still releasing my fountains of wine and my orgiastic revels; I am attempting to reflect the darkness which emerges from late night inebriation, from those nights when you lose yourself through tears and a vibrator. Have you ever really cried and masturbated? I did recently and it made me wonder if the revered Socrates ever did the same while thinking of his extreme love for Truth or that boy standing next to him at the symposium. I want to be admitted into the symposium. But only slave girls, sex-musicians or hetaira were admitted. I don't necessarily want to be a courtesan, but I do want to be noticed. How can I be taken seriously if I am not noticed as a sexual creature? I want to hold on to power but it seems the only sure way aside from using Sex, is to follow someone like Elizabeth I- to renounce the beauty of love, lust, sex- to be a Virgin Queen in goth white makeup.
**How do you feel about your visual aesthetic changing?**
This goes back to what I was just saying about my struggle between the powerful courtesan and the powerful Virgin Queen. I feel that my sexuality is still very strong, but I am becoming more androgynous, or perhaps even relating to something less human. In "It Goes Fast," I am a vampire cat in a long coat. Meanwhile my "Actually" image- the sexual reptile bathing suit creature sings on a burnt out chimney (in the wreckage of the Malibu fire from November 2019). I actually did lose all of my costumes, props, art work, hard drives, etc in that fire, so I figure perhaps I can burn off that skin as well. Being naked is awesome, but I find myself wearing more as my groupies wear less. Nothing beats a beautiful man getting naked. I think I will start decorating more with naked men. I should pretty much wear naked men.
[**Patriarchy plays The Moroccan Lounge on October 13th, Grab your tickets Here**](https://restlessnites.com/events/f2589a1c4464db68cb62)
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Photography & Direction: [Agustin Hernández](https://instagram.com/agvstin)
Hair: [Kyle Mihm](https://www.instagram.com/kylemihmhair/)
Caskets and Hearse provided by [Ronnie Grubbs of Funeral Coach Plus](https://blog.heritagecoach.com/tag/ronnie-grubbs/)
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