Embalmer by day, rock star by night: How Carla Harvey bridges death and music in L.A.

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Carla Harvey, a seasoned rock performer, energetically commanded the small stage at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood. Wearing a tight leather top, a black belt with silver details, and very short shorts, she moved constantly, rocking, headbanging, and jumping. This was only the second performance with her new band, Violent Hour, who joined her onstage dressed in a similar style.

“You are a rock star, girl!” shouts someone in the audience.

Harvey playfully responds with a hushed, “You’re a rock star,” beaming widely. As her band, Violent Hour, launches into their final song, the energetic “Sick Ones” – a blend of Motorhead and Guns N’ Roses – the crowd starts headbanging. This track is the fastest and heaviest on the band’s debut EP, a diverse collection of sounds inspired by the music Harvey grew up with in the 80s – metal, hard rock, and alternative. Ultimately, Violent Hour represents a fresh, joyful start for Harvey, following a difficult breakup with her previous band, Butcher Babies, where she spent 14 years as a founding member and performer.

When Harvey left Butcher Babies, it felt like a real blow, like a dream was over. But her new project, Violent Hour, feels like a total rebirth, and it’s fascinating because it really ties into everything she’s passionate about. She’s spent years working with people facing mortality, and she’s realized there’s a deep connection between death and making music. As she puts it, they actually inspire each other! Knowing life is finite makes her even more driven to create. She believes that art and music are how we truly live on, and the thought of someone discovering her music decades from now is just… magical, you know? It’s a beautiful way to look at it.

Harvey has a unique background, combining expertise in both the practical and emotional sides of death. For the past ten years, she’s worked directly with the deceased and those grieving, as an embalmer, funeral director, hospice worker, and therapist specializing in end-of-life care. She recently completed a master’s degree in thanatology – the study of death – and now works as a grief therapist for Parting Stone, a company that creates memorial rocks from cremated remains, allowing families to keep a tangible connection to their loved ones or place them in meaningful locations.

She first encountered death at five years old, attending her grandfather’s funeral. Family members attempted to comfort her, telling her things like, “Granddad’s in heaven,” or “He’s just sleeping.” But she wasn’t convinced. Looking at him in the casket, she realized, “He’s gone. He’s really dead, and there’s no heaven.” She remembers thinking this clearly. Speaking over Zoom from Galpin Auto Sports Speed Shop, where her band, Violent Hour, was preparing for their first photoshoot, she explained that she immediately understood that what people said about death wasn’t true, and she became an atheist right then and there.

Harvey wasn’t disturbed by death at a young age; she was intrigued by it. She’d examine dead animals and wonder about the cause of their deaths. Instead of children’s books, she gravitated towards medical textbooks at the library, reading about illnesses and how they ended lives. Death was constantly on her mind. “People who knew me growing up would probably say I was a little strange,” Harvey says with a chuckle. “When someone hurt my feelings, I’d imagine they were dead. I’d create a story about how it happened—a heart attack, a car accident—and that helped me cope. I basically convinced myself they were truly gone, which allowed me to move past the hurt.”

Harvey’s childhood in Michigan became difficult when her father left, forcing her and her brother to move from Detroit to live with their grandmother in Southfield. This sudden change made her feel angry and disconnected. Adding to her struggles, she was often teased by classmates about being biracial. She recalls, “Kids would ask, ‘What are you?’ and I felt deeply embarrassed.”

Thinking about death helped Harvey cope with her difficult life, and listening to the radio did too. When she was eleven, hearing Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” on a local rock station was a turning point for her. She described it as an incredibly powerful experience that resonated throughout her body. She loved the feeling so much that she began actively searching for similar moments.

I’ve always been fascinated by stories of people reinventing themselves, and this one is incredible. When she was just 19, she packed up her whole life and drove across the country from Michigan to Los Angeles, chasing a music dream. She really threw herself into the scene – hanging out on the Sunset Strip, becoming a regular at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, and playing in a bunch of different bands, even if they weren’t well-known. But before things really took off musically, she did something totally unexpected: she went back to school… to study mortuary science! She’s explained that she was living a pretty wild life at the time, and seeing people she knew struggle or worse, really made her want a different path. Enrolling in mortuary school felt like the right way to change things.

Harvey excelled in school, graduating as valedictorian. She built a career working with death and loss, first as an embalmer and hospice therapist, then as a funeral home director. Even after joining the band Butcher Babies to focus on music, she continued to help people cope with grief and end-of-life issues, working as a therapist and counselor when the band wasn’t touring or recording.

It’s not every day you meet someone who loves both music and the study of death, which is what Charlie Benante (drummer for Anthrax and Pantera) initially thought when he met Harvey at Ozzfest in 2014. He admits he found her interest in mortuary school a bit unsettling at first. However, once he understood that she wanted to help people cope with loss, it clicked. He realized her deep empathy and love for life perfectly aligned with her career choice. They’ve been together in Chicago since 2020.

In 2024, Carla Harvey was forced to leave Butcher Babies due to the demands of constant touring, and Benante stepped in to help. Initially, she was very angry, then deeply saddened. As Benante explains, loss isn’t limited to the death of a person; Carla was grieving the loss of something she’d built, and felt completely adrift. Benante wanted to lift her spirits and help her rediscover her passion for music, believing she was questioning her ability to continue with it.

Benante and Harvey had previously collaborated on cover songs during the pandemic, giving Benante confidence in her vocal abilities. He then wrote a set of original rock songs they both enjoyed, recording all the instrumental parts himself. Together, they recorded five tracks for their EP, “Violent Hour,” in the first six months of 2025. They plan to release another EP and play more concerts next year.

Benante was the driving creative force behind the band Violent Hour, but he chose not to perform with them live. Instead, he and Harvey held auditions and brought in four talented young women: Allie Kay (guitar and backing vocals), Kiana De León (lead guitar), Jewel Steele (bass), and Sasha De León (drums). Benante sees a parallel between Violent Hour and the 1970s hard rock group the Runaways, who were created and managed by Kim Fowley and launched the careers of Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

Now that the Violent Hour band is set, Benante can focus completely on his work with Anthrax and Pantera, and Harvey can balance her musical pursuits with her studies of death sciences – something she couldn’t do while with Butcher Babies. She’s definitely made sacrifices and faced challenges along the way, though.

I immediately started working on music after work each day, and I still do, especially when recording an EP. I actually enjoy being constantly busy – I love it! I’m very aware that life is short, so if you want to pursue something, you need to act quickly. If you delay, you might miss your chance, so it’s best to do it now.

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2025-11-14 14:38