interview conducted by Ash.

I Hate Sally, one of the many great bands based out of Kingston, Ontario,

have a sound uniquely their own. A listen to the first album can confuse

anyone trying to stuff these boys in a genre box: too punk to be metal, yet

too metal to be considered hardcore. Socially-concious lyrics, rapid-fire

tempos, and the occasional thunderous bassline gives you the daily

recommended allowance of punk. Yet, the wall of sheer guitar, both skilled

and abrasive, along with growling, earthy vocals originating from the

musicians' steady diet of beer and cigarettes will have you reminiscing of

the days when Metallica never knew the name Jason Newsted. So pull out the

dusty cassettes, sit back, and read the interview I recently did via email

with Marc, co-growler and guitarist of IHS.

First off, for people who haven't heard IHS, describe

the band's sound.

M- We describe ourselves as punk-metal. A lot of our

stuff is pretty heavy, but we would definitely be too

soft for a death metal show. We get lumped in with

the punk scene it seems. Lots of people say we sound

like Propagandhi meets Iron Maiden... that's pretty

damn cool.

M - Well the tour went really well. The van only broke

down once and we nearly sold all our merch and met

lots of cool people. There are lots of people we

would like to see again and play for again. To answer

part b of the question, we listened to lots Maiden:

"Seventh Son...", "Powerslave", "Fear of the Dark",

and of course "Best of the Beast." There was also

lots of Darkest Hour and Arch Enemy being played. The

"I HATE SALLY live in Bozemon, Montana" was also cool.

M- Everytime you get new people the dynamic totally

changes. But Ben and I have been the primary song

writers from the start, so the main elements seem to

remain in tact. We have always been into heavy music

- lots of good punk and metal. This time w/ Kev and

Nick in the band there was way more we could do in the

songs and it was much more of a band effort. We've

known Kev and Nick for a while, too, so there was never

an issue of trying to get along with them - they are

pretty cool g's.

M- They have made us much more unique. I don't think

we played with a band on our entire tour that sounded

anything like us. Ben and I have maintained the

riffage and punk progressions, but Nick has brought

his brand of playing into the band that is noticably

different than most punk drummers... much more random

and improvised at times. The double kick really adds

to our heavinness too - our past drummers always used

single kick. Kev is the best bass player I have ever

played with. He keeps us all together when Nick is

going crazy and Ben and I are fucking up.

M- Although it was Ben and I who brought in the

original ideas, Kev and Nick put their pieces into each song and made them

sound totally different than I

ever imagined. If something sounded bad, someone

would say something, but Kev and Nick basically just

listened to the riffs and put their parts in with no

problems at all. I would definitely agree that we

have improved... I think it would have been hard not to

with some of those songs from our first release.

M- The last album was more of a compilation of riffs

and songs that Ben and I had compiled over the

years...everything from rock to metal. Although lots

of people like it, there are some hideous songs (i.e.

Alabama 2001). There was not much collaboration in

anything and everything was done really quickly, as

you can likely tell. The new album was also put

together quickly, but it was much more of a group

effort. The songs are more refined and heavier.

We actually re-recorded a couple tracks and they are

by far the weakest songs on the cd, but still much

better with the new lineup and sound. So, musically,

I would say our stuff is more genuinely punk-metal

now, whereas before there was punk and metal, but also

many other styles fused in there. Lyrically, well,

there are no " I Hit Alex" tracks on this one, I'm

sorry to say. A lot of our stuff is pretty serious,

but we'll throw in stuff like "Cliff Burton" or

"80-89" which are on the surface much less serious.

M- It seems like we'll be sticking w/ the 477 even

though the sound is awful. There aren't many gay bars

that hold punk shows and serve $3.25 pitchers. But,

we would like to get a better setup for big bands

though - even in the big room there is not enough room

when we get larger bands coming through. I think that

doing shows both helps and hurts our own band. By

doing shows you automatically get a lot of people

helping you out in return, but it takes time away from

writing new stuff, practicing, booking shows for your

own band, etc. Between the two, I would pick the band

in a second.

M - yes Propagandhi would be cool... i would like to

get Kiss to play the underground.

M- i have a big wart on my hand right now and I am

starting to like it - i think the warts should

stay... besides, lemmy will be the ugliest man on earth

even if he gets them burned off

M- We got stopped at the border and were anally

frisked. well, actually we didn't even get out of

Kingston. Some of the band at the time had no desire

to be in the band and when it came down to travelling,

things were usually bad. The next week the same thing

happened for an Ottawa show and that's when our old

lineup split. I would have loved to play that show

and I hope we are not blacklisted from NNY forever.

M- that sounds like something i would have wanted to

see. hopefully he was naked.