We got inside and inspected the gadgets of this up and coming bay area band. There seems to be a lot more to come from this exciting punk infused quadruple team.
Inspected her gadget
By: Contessa Abono
Can you tell me how touring has been going? Has their been any surprises? What plans do you have for upcoming tour dates?
We’ve been doing sporadic touring lately. We CAN say its been um.. interesting..We’ve had broken a/c’s that turn the rooms into smelly saunas, gotten lost down scary Halloween looking country roads in the middle of the night (and asking directions from lonely gas station folks missing teeth and social skills), lived on slim jim’s, starburst and warm bottled water for a bit, showered in a motel bathroom that had most likely been the scene of a homicide or tragic accident from the look of the stained grout, it goes on. Every day on the road is an adventure. We want to hit the whole U.S. for late spring 2006.
I was going into San Francisco yesterday and saw an IHG sticker on the toll booth! Has there been any changes at shows lately with increasing word getting out about IHG?
Ever since Warped Tour I think we’ve definitely seen an influx of people online and writing us; as far as shows though it’s weird. It really depends on the venue, day of the week, and if it’s an all ages show or not. Some crowds are packed. Others are more tame. The bigger change is that more BANDS are contacting us to do shows with them.
I know you just got a new drummer, how is that working out?
Great! Brandon has been wonderful-he may have been female in a past life or something. We all get along really well and he always has great input on the song we’re writing. He just picked everything up so quickly right from the beginning…
So, how is the process of collaboration different for you guys or how is it the same as other bands you may have worked with?
We’ve seen interviews with bands saying how it’s all an equal collaboration. In our case Jess usually writes the basic structure of the song on guitar either from beginning to end or in parts. Ana then adds a melody, names the song and mood of it.. and will sometimes adjust where the parts go; verse, chorus, bridge etc. Jen adds the bass line and input on structure. Brandon adds the drums and will have input on song structure.
I love the song “almost amazing”, how did the violin come into play with the existing punk style of IHG?
Anton Patzner (Audrye Sessions/Judgement Day) played the Violin parts on “Almost Amazing”. He had played on another bands’ cd that we’re friends with, and Jess heard it and loved it. She gave him a call and he agreed to do the album-he’s even played a couple of live performances with us.
What advice do you have for other musicians especially women that are just starting out in the music business?
The biggest mistake I think we’ve made so far as a band, was promoting ourselves as an “all girl band”. We thought we were helping support women in the industry, and getting it out there that girls can rock out. We still believe that-but we actually ended up hurting ourselves because it segregated us from just being “a band”. We weren’t thought of as an equal, which was what we thought we were pushing for. We had an opportunity to speak with Billy Corgan recently, and he put it perfectly when he said “Why are you limiting yourselves by labeling yourself as a girl band? You don’t need to. Everyone will put that label on you anyway”.
Do you think it is different for women to become a respected musician than it is for men?
Unfortunately yes. We always heard that it was harder for females than for males, but didn’t really realize just how hard until we experienced it ourselves. We’ve been told that females don’t sell as many records and are harder to work with in the studio; and some clubs will only put us on the bill if it is with a bunch of other female bands. Don’t get us wrong-we love playing with other female musicians and fully support that. We just don’t want to be limited to only playing a certain club if it’s a female rock show line-up.
Have you encountered any sexism and/or double standards in the biz?
It sucks. It seems that when people see girls in a band, you immediately need to determine how to dismiss them. a) are they manufactured? b) are they trying to get by on looks? c) oh yeah, are they any good?. Being a girl, there are too many ‘too’s. You’re too young, too old, too good looking, too ugly , too fat, too cute, too loud, too masculine, too pop, too sweet, too many. Either way, we are judged on our appearance and how we fit into each persons concept of a female before all else. You never hear “male rapper J-Z said in an interview today that….” Or “all-male band Green Day to appear tonight on…”
Did you hear the voice for the cartoon character, "inspector gadget", died recently?! Can you tell me how the band name came about?
We did! That’s so sad. The name actually had nothing to do with the cartoon (although we like the cartoon). It’s actually a secret how the name came about…but we will say it’s not after the “Friend’s” episode in which they reference Phoebe’s sister being in a porno with the same name. We had the name before ever hearing about that episode-but everyone thinks that’s where we got it.
What is one of the hardest aspects about being in a band and keeping it going?
Time and money!! Bands are very time consuming-between practices, shows, promoting and trying to keep a day job-it’s hard. And you make very little if anything. The little we make goes back into the band to pay for things like merch, gas, motels, etc. We usually end up paying out-of-pocket a lot.
What does IHG do to keep the songs fresh for each and every show?
Lately we’ve been working on a ton of new material, and trying our best to get new songs solid so that we can introduce them at shows. We’ve introduced quite a few new songs over our last few shows. Usually though if we are going to play the same songs, we mix our set – we won’t play the songs in the same order and we’ll ‘swap’ songs-take one or two out and replace them with something different depending on the venue.