What the Hell Is 305HxC, Anyway?

What the Hell Is 305Hxc, Anyway?

I started 305Hxc because I had some free time to burn and thought it would be fun to make a few shirts and see if anybody wanted them. The original idea was basically me wearing a Make Metalcore 2006 Again tee to concerts.

But if you know me, you know I can never stop at one thing. Everything becomes an experience.

So the shirt became shirts. The shirts became videos. Then came the website, THE ZINE, stupid recurring characters, music discussion, scene history, and whatever the hell else catches my attention. In the span of a few weeks, what started as something fun to do with my free time started becoming a culture brand.

305Hxc is a new take on promoting the music, culture, and community around hardcore and its adjacent genres. It’s a mission to promote inclusivity instead of gatekeeping, to make the culture, not the music, more accessible and inviting while still maintaining the bite, attitude, and drive it had 50 years ago.

Why 305 Matters

South Florida really is exactly what everyone tells you it is culturally: a giant melting pot. White, Black, Caribbean Black, Haitian, Hispanic, you get everything, and of course it bleeds into the music. On one radio station you hear flamenco and reggaeton. On another you hear Staind and Linkin Park. It’s all over the place, so for someone to find just one scene down there is rare.

And if you want to make it in Miami, you need to be different.

Hardcore and metalcore are almost the antithesis of what Miami is supposed to be. Miami is easygoing. Miami is sunshine and beaches, girls in skimpy bathing suits and men driving expensive sports cars.

But what everyone doesn’t realize is that outside of that, Miami is ugly. Really ugly.

It makes sense that the music would eventually reflect that. When bands like Shai Hulud and Poison the Well started exposing some of the uglier feelings people had in the area, it naturally attracted the disenfranchised. There was an attitude to it. There was a sense that we were involved with something very different and maybe even a little dangerous.

It was authentic. For some of us natives, it was the first time we had seen something real come out of our home.

That is why 305 matters. It isn’t decorative branding. 305 is the perspective, not the zip code of the warehouse.

Hardcore Without the Gatekeeping

Understand that this isn’t necessarily an easy place to fit in. Notice the word try.

You can’t force this. You can’t automatically listen to Knocked Loose or Bane and decide that you’re part of something. Those bands are a small fraction of a culture that depends on participation. It depends on its members putting in more than they take.

Hardcore isn’t something you claim. It’s something you participate in long enough that one day you realize it became part of you.

Go to shows. Support bands. Buy somebody’s record. Make something. Talk about the music. Help somebody. Start a band even if it sucks. Book a show. Write about something you love. Participate.

And the weird part is that if you come searching for some identity to adopt, you probably won’t find it. It isn’t something you can manufacture. It just happens.

I didn’t aim to be this way. This wasn’t my plan. I found a song or a band I loved and followed it. More than 25 years later, I’m still discussing some of it like I heard it yesterday.

Be authentic. Be real. Be respectful. Have your opinions. Violently debate.

But don’t use your years in the culture as a weapon against somebody who might be at the beginning of theirs.

Never Mind the Gatekeeping.

We Don’t Have to Agree

Give me your opinion, I’ll give you mine. Tell me I’m wrong, I’ll tell you you’re wrong.

That’s fine.

Hardcore has never needed everybody to agree. Half the fun is having strong opinions and defending them. The important part is the mutual understanding underneath the argument: we understand that we won’t agree, but we are both still here for the exact same reason.

The disagreement isn’t the problem. The disrespect is.

The goal isn’t agreement. The goal is belonging without requiring agreement.

DIY Means Actually Doing It

I had no idea how to do fucking any of this.

I didn’t know how to print a design for a shirt. I didn’t know how to press one. I didn’t know how to properly edit a video, build a website, set up a business, or really do any of the shit required to turn an idea into 305Hxc.

So I asked people who knew more than me, learned what I could, and started doing it myself.

I print everything myself. I press everything myself. I edit everything myself. I built the thing while figuring out how to build the thing.

And I don’t plan on changing that anytime soon. If 305Hxc eventually becomes bigger than one person can reasonably handle, sure. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Until then, I’m DIYing this motherfucker.

You don’t have to know how to do something before you start doing it.

The Good, the Bad, and the Shit That Completely Bombs

I believe in authenticity, and you can’t be authentic if you continue to erase your past.

Hardcore, real hardcore values authenticity. People in this community can sniff out bullshit faster than a police dog. So if I delete every mistake, every bad idea, and every video that bombs, what exactly am I presenting?

Not the truth.

If I delete all of my mistakes, how am I being authentic? How am I learning?

I want 305Hxc to continuously evolve. I want the videos to get better. I want the writing to get better. I want the shirts to get better. I want the whole thing to become better than it was the week before.

I can’t do that if I have nothing to learn from.

The good stays. The bad stays. The shit that completely bombs stays.

That’s the history of the thing being built.

Music Is Still the Reason

Fucking passion.

Emotion. Anger. Resentment. Fear. Sadness.

Hardcore is one of the only places where it feels completely acceptable to express all of that at once.

I’m an emotionally driven person. I feel every emotion individually, and sometimes I don’t know how to handle it. Sabrina Carpenter can’t help me with that. Kendrick Lamar can’t either. That’s not a criticism of them. Their music doesn’t convey or relate to the intensity of the emotions I experience the way hardcore and metalcore do.

Hardcore does.

I feel every ounce of it.

And it doesn’t matter what mood I’m in or how aggressive the music is. This is what gets me through. It’s what makes me feel better. It gives those emotions somewhere to go. It’s what drives me to be better.

Underneath the shirts, videos, jokes, writing, and whatever else 305Hxc becomes, the music is still the reason.

So Why Are You Here?

I haven’t a damn clue yet, and you probably don’t either.

But if you’re here, we have a few rules:

Be real.

Be respectful.

Don’t discriminate.

Know your shit.

Don’t gatekeep.

Contribute. Put in more than you take.

That’s 305Hxc.