Whatever Happened To: She Wants Revenge

The post Whatever Happened To: She Wants Revenge appeared first on Consequence.

Whatever Happened To is a series where we dig into the history and happenings of music’s biggest disappearing acts. Today, we’re going on a search to find She Wants Revenge, the California darkwave duo.

In 2006, few new bands were as buzzed about as She Wants Revenge. In January of that year, the duo of singer/guitarist Justin Warfield and multi-instrumentalist Adam Bravin released a self-titled album that evoked the darkwave post-punk of the early ‘80s. The single “Tear You Apart” was a top 10 hit on alternative radio, moody and ominous enough to stand out on playlists dominated by Weezer and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The L.A. band’s Geffen debut album received mixed reviews, including a Pitchfork pan that derided the band as a poor man’s Interpol. But it sold nearly 300,000 copies, amassing a fanbase that included a few celebrities. Joaquin Phoenix directed the video for “Tear You Apart” and Garbage’s Shirley Manson appeared in the video for the follow-up single “These Things.” And the band toured with heroes and influences like Depeche Mode and, later, Peter Murphy of Bauhaus.

The breakthrough of She Wants Revenge was just the most high profile moment in Warfield’s long, unusually varied career, however. A decade before Warfield was a rock frontman whose vocals were compared to Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, he was a rapper whose voice was often likened to A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip.

His father, Maurice Warfield, had been an Epic Records executive, instrumental in the careers of R&B stars like Luther Vandross and Barry White. And in 1991, a 17-year-old Justin Warfield released “Season of the Vic,” a minor rap radio hit produced by another music industry scion, QD III aka Quincy Jones III, son of the legendary Quincy Jones.

Warfield performed on Soul Train, got video airtime on BET, played concerts with Tha Pharcyde and Cypress Hill, and signed to the elder Quincy Jones’s Warner Bros. imprint Qwest Records. He was even an extra on Saved By the Bell. But by the time Warfield released his debut album My Field Trip To Planet 9 in 1993, the excitement around “Season of the Vic” had dissipated, and the Native Tongues-influenced sound of the Prince Paul-produced album was falling out of vogue. The album received glowing reviews but little commercial success, with Warner Bros. devoting its promotional budget to its more established hip-hop acts like Naughty By Nature.

Warfield’s guest appearance on Bomb The Bass’s 1994 dance track “Bug Powder Dust,” a Top 40 hit in the UK, gave him name recognition in England, and over the next few years he rapped on songs by Cornershop, Placebo, and the Chemical Brothers. But his focus was drifting towards singing and playing guitar, and Warfield formed two bands with bassist Gianni Garofalo. The Justin Warfield Supernaut released a self-titled album on Qwest in 1995. And One Inch Punch’s 1996 album The Tao of One Inch Punch was released in Europe by EMI, with their song “Pretty Piece of Flesh” appearing on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack alongside hits by Garbage and The Cardigans.

A decade after his first bands, however, Justin Warfield teamed with an old friend, Adam Bravin, and debuted a deeper, more stylized singing voice with She Wants Revenge. Almost overnight, Warfield’s new band achieved a level of fame that eclipsed all of Warfield’s previous ventures. She Wants Revenge performed at Coachella and Lollapalooza, and released three albums and two EPs. “Take the World” from 2011’s Valleyheart was a minor hit, peaking at No. 36 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart, but the band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2012.

In 2013, on the 20th anniversary of My Field Trip To Planet 9, Warfield returned to hip-hop with a new solo project, The Black Hesh Cult Mixtape, with Bravin producing and co-writing one track. And it wasn’t long before their band was back in the spotlight. She Wants Revenge fan Lady Gaga picked “Tear You Apart” to appear in the first episode of FX’s American Horror Story: Hotel in 2015, and the song experienced a streaming era resurgence, reaching No. 8 on Billboard’s Rock Digital Songs chart.

In 2016, She Wants Revenge embarked on a 10th anniversary tour to celebrate their debut album, and began releasing new singles, though a fourth album never materialized. “Big Love,” debuted on KROQ in 2018, was She Wants Revenge’s last new song, and the band played their final show at the Roxy in February 2020, though it wasn’t billed as such. Six months later, Warfield and Bravin released a statement on Instagram that She Wants Revenge had permanently disbanded. “Two b-boys who met at a party in the Valley, then years later reconnected and started a band,” the statement read. “It’s with a bit of sadness, yet crystal clear certainty that we say to you our friends, She Wants Revenge has run its course.”

In 2015, Adam Bravin co-founded the Hollywood goth club Cloak & Dagger. But the club closed in 2021 amidst a firestorm of controversy, including allegations that Silicon Valley actor Thomas Middleditch had harassed women at the venue. In an Los Angeles Times report, Bravin himself was accused of ignoring multiple instances of sexual misconduct in the club and hitting on his female employees.

Warfield has continued to chart an unpredictable musical path in the decade since She Wants Revenge’s last album. He’s remixed songs for Childish Gambino and Jason DeRulo, and composed music for the Yahoo! Screen sitcom Sin City Saints. Recently, Warfield was appointed VP of Artist Services at Downwrite, a unique platform that offers custom songwriting services — for instance, allowing you to hire an experienced professional songwriter to compose a personalized song for a loved one as a birthday gift.

But She Wants Revenge remains Warfield’s professional calling card, and the band continues racking up tens of millions of plays on streaming services. On January 11, 2022, the band received its first RIAA plaques, with the “Tear You Apart” single being certified both gold and platinum.

Whatever Happened To: She Wants Revenge
Al Shipley

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