Bitches Sin is a classic metal/power metal band that has been around since 1980 and after being blown away by the band’s newest release I sent an email interview to founding member Ian Toomey and here is what he said to my questions:

MC: Let's get the typical question out of the way. Give me a history of the band and did you go through many line-up changes in the good ole days?

IAN: Put together by Ian and Pete Toomey in April 1980, Bitches Sin have long been regarded as more than just another New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band. The brothers’ distinctive approach to guitar playing and knack of writing short and snappy songs marked them out as something a little different from the rest of the pack, and alongside Neat labelmates Raven and Jaguar, Bitches Sin are now widely recognized as innovators of the speed metal scene. Early demos, now available as The First Temptation CD and the Your Place Or Mine download, and frenetic live shows brought them to the attention of both Neat Records and Heavy Metal Records, the leading independent metal labels of the time. The results of these unions were the critically acclaimed Always Ready (For Love) single and the album Predator which NWOBHM fans would dearly love to see available on CD. Trademark classics such as Strangers On The Shore and Down The Road also came about in these early days. A second album, Invaders, followed in 1986 to rave reviews, before the Toomey brothers were forced to wind the band up. In the meantime, Ian had formed a side project, Flashpoint, which Pete also joined just before they recorded what appeared to be their one and only album No Point Of Reference in 1987. After that, it was to be some time before either band was heard of again. It wasn’t until the Twenty-First Century that Ian came to realize how highly regarded Bitches Sin had been, and what started out as an exercise in dusting off and releasing the early demos from 2003 to a wider audience turned into a desire to write and play once more. With Pete now living on the other side of the Globe, Ian was unwilling to use the Bitches Sin name but with the headline news that the legendary rock and Metal producer Chris Tsangarides was joining the band this led to the all new album ‘UDUVUDU’ and 10 new songs being recorded.

MC: Way back when how did the band come together to write songs? What was the easiest and hardest song that you had to write?

Ian: Usually Pete and I would write the songs together at home. Sometimes it would be Pete or me writing the music then we would collaborate on the lyrics unless the idea was very clear cut which would mean one of us would end up writing the whole song. That said occasionally it would just happen easily at rehearsal. A good example of an easy song to write would be ‘Ain’t Life A Bitch’ that was written in less than 10 minutes in Urswick Village Hall by the band. The hardest song has happened a few times. Back in the day that would have been ‘Ice angels’ because I knew it was a classic as it was being written and I didn’t want to fuck things up. More recently the title track ‘Rapture’ on the new album for the very same reasons.

MC: Did you play live a lot back then and did you have a good following?

Ian: Playing live back then was a lot easier than now. More venues, less insurance issues, more rewarding etc. We did have a good following and topped many polls and were voted best new band in Holland by Aardschok readers. We did not play live as much as some bands but the venues were consistently bigger.

MC: What were some of the bands that you shared the stage with and did you think you were a good live band?

Ian: We used to put on our own shows apart from a few occasions. So it’s difficult to remember who else we played with. Suffice to say Bitches Sin is still here and they have left the stage a long time ago. We are told we are a good live band but it is not for me to say really that’s for the fans to comment about.

MC: What was it like going into the studio for the 1st time? Do you still have copies of all the stuff you have recorded?

Ian: We went into the studio for the first time only a few months after getting the original Bitches Sin line-up together. All of the 7 tracks we recorded were first take apart from one solo on ‘Ice Angels’. It was a total blast going in to the studio for the first time. It was an evening session and one 8 hour day, which was the next day. This first session plus our legendary ‘BBC Radio1 Friday Rock Show’ session are both still available on a CD titled ‘The First Temptation’ from www.bitchessin.co.uk . I still have copies of all our recordings.

MC: How did the band come up with its name and were any other names considered?

Ian: The name came about one Saturday night in 1980 with my brother Pete. No other names were or have ever been considered.

MC: I have some recent stuff by the band, a recent CD. How did the recording for that go and how has the feedback been on it so far?

Ian: You have our new album ‘The Rapture’. I have to say the honest answer is ‘The Rapture’ should never have happened, believe it or not. In 2009 I had no work and wrote most of the music for ‘The Rapture’. We started recording the backing tracks in January 2010 and during the recording our then vocalist left dropping the band right into a bad situation. When this happened Dave Mills fortunately joined the band and has done an outstanding job. So the rest of the recording went well but felt very difficult at every stage, like drawing blood. Why? Well we were determined not to be stopped by people who had their own agendas plus an overriding desire not to let our fans down. This album had to be outstanding. We finally got the album completed early 2011 and later released in September 2011. The reason for the gap is because we were getting jerked around by record companies and in the end made the correct decision to release the album ourselves. Feedback on ‘The Rapture’ so far has been consistently high in its praise which is very gratifying.

MC: Have you had a chance to play many lives shows to support it?

Ian: Not really, only one or two so far. In England it is so hard now to get gigs and of course the right gigs. However we did well and the new songs from ‘The Rapture’ really kick live.

MC: What are your thoughts on all these social networking sites such as My Space, Twitter, Facebook, etc and please plug any websites you have.

Ian: I don’t trust or understand any of them and frankly I don’t want to. I think we have lost so many freedoms over the years and I find it so difficult to rationalize this with my own life. Maybe some of the guys feel differently.

MC: What sort of musical style do you think the band plays and if somebody who has never heard you, what band would you say you sort of sound like?

Ian: Our musical style is classic 80’s metal but with a modern flavor. A more fan orientated answer would probably be ‘in your face balls to the wall’ style metal. One thing that has always remained the same with Bitches Sin is that we do not now and never have sounded ‘like’ any other band so probably the best idea might be for those who haven’t heard the band before to visit the website www.bitchessin.co.uk and check out the sound files available there.

MC: Do you have any clips of the band floating around on say You Tube?

Ian: Yeah there are a couple of live clips on YouTube as well as quite a few legacy tracks that fans have uploaded. One of the live tracks is the legendary ‘Strangers On The Shore’ from Hoorn in Holland last year.

MC: When can we expect some new music?

Ian: Already!! Hahahaha Well if you’re asking about ‘The Rapture’ it’s only recently been released so hopefully that will keep the fans happy for a while. Brand new music, if you mean a future album, then that is a tough question. With ‘UDUVUDU’ and ‘The Rapture’ as usual we gave everything and were especially wiped after the release of ‘The Rapture’. But…you should always look to the next album however it is probably too soon to commit. Some ideas have been in my head recently, and that is often a good sign, so maybe we’ll get something moving in 2012.

MC: When you not doing band related things, what do you like to do?

Ian – I like chilling, slaughtering anything and everything (especially Zombies) on my Xbox and socializing.

MC: Does the band as a whole pretty much get along and tell me a good funny story about the band?

Ian: We all get on great although we do not live in each other’s pockets so to speak we are in regular contact. For me it is so rewarding to be rehearsing, writing, playing and recording with genuine and very hard working guys who only want the best for Bitches Sin. We were all recently at the ‘Classic Rock Awards’ and chatted with many rockers and it was an ‘as one’ experience like one person if you like. A funny story…check out ‘Bitches Sin Wig Wam Bam’ on YouTube…there was also the time that classically guitar trained Steve Turton said to me during the recording ‘UDUVUDU’ “…y’see Ian you probably only know two chords but cos of the way you play them it sounds like you know a lot more.” Which is probably true, hahaha. Anyway the next day Steve was recording the acoustic intro to the track ‘Nobody Wants You Here’ and because the strings were new they were squeaking as Steve was moving to each chord. Chris Tsangarides made him record the acoustic intro ONE chord at a time ;o)

MC: Do you feel there are too many labels and bands out there now?

Ian: Yeah there are far too many labels and bands now. Why? Well it goes way back to the 80’s initially and shit little record companies signing loads of bands selling about 1,000 to 2,000 records. Then others copied this business model so over the years you end up with a crazy number of both bands and labels. Getting quality and originality to the surface so that true metal fans can hear the music that they should be listening to and spending their hard earned money on is real difficult.

MC: What do you think of I Tunes?

Ian: Essential! There is some great new and old music out in the World and iTunes lets you obtain it in an instant.

MC: Any last words? Horns up for the interview.

Ian: The Universe guides our path and so far it’s done an awesome job!! Thank you for the interview.