The Yagas: the heavy metal band fronted by Vera Farmiga
They say that in Hollywood, once an actress passes the age of 35, you’ve only got two roles in store, mothers and witches.
It’s a sad state of affairs, but there is one actor to go against the grain, it’s Vera Farmiga, who has spent her entire career doing things proudly her way. She came to prominence in the late 1990s and 2000s as a character actor popping up in some of the most acclaimed movies of that decade. Showing up in The Departed and Down to the Bone, before being nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the George Clooney classic Up In The Air.
However, her most recognisable work has come in the world of horror, especially as one half of the lead duo in The Conjuring franchise. What she was keeping from us during that time was the fact that she had the singing voice of an angel, but given time, that would be a fact that we’d become well familiar with thanks to the fact that she was married to a heavy metal musician. Renn Hawkey, to be precise, synth player for nu-metal also-rans Deadsy.
Despite the fact that Hawkey had worked as the musical director and producer on a few of Farmiga’s directorial works, the two had never outright collaborated on music. Despite both of them sharing similar tastes in music, Farmiga had never thought about playing it herself until, during the pandemic, Farmiga and Hawkey enrolled their kids in the Woodstock music school Rock School program. Then they found that there was an adult programme as well.
I guess it was the pandemic, what the hell else were they going to do?
What sort of music does Farmiga play in The Yagas?
At first, it very much checked out that The Yagas were formed as part of a rock school program. When the first videos of Farmiga and her band hurtling through Slipknot and Black Sabbath covers hit YouTube, there was a hint of the “middle school dads showing they’re still got it” about the whole project. This is meant with the best will in the world; no band hits the ground running immediately, and one could see the passion they had for the project a mile off.
Eventually, the project gained a name, which brings us to where this article started. Farmiga named the band The Yagas as a tribute to her Slavic heritage and the lifelong fascination she had with the Baba Yaga. A fearsome witch who can sometimes be a kindly helper to a gallant hero, or a ferocious fiend who fries and eats children. Ever the actor, Farmiga explained her connection with the mythical creature as if she was a role to take on.
Speaking to Louder, Farmiga said, “Baba Yaga was always the most intriguing character. She was a shapeshifter; sometimes helpful, sometimes profane. She rode the balance between rich and barren, light and dark, good and bad.” The Yagas music very much does the same, drifting from fearsome to light often in the same song. It’s clear that this is absolutely not a vanity project, a victory lap earned after conquering Hollywood with a billion-dollar franchise.
This is a real-life rock band that everyone involved believes in. One can be sure of that as Vera Farmiga has spent her entire career only doing what she believes in fully, and this is no different.