Living life to the fullest and on the edge keeps Tate moving forward and creating and drawing inspiration to make music—to survive the boredom of life.  “I’m inspired by how slow life is and how normal it feels. I’m inspired by art that shakes me up just as I start to take this world for granted. Sometimes I feel I’ve sank a little too cozily into the normality of laying in bed and watching the world go by, I know then its time to grab my lyric book and guitar and shake myself out of it. If I didn’t have music I’d let myself float out of consciousness like most people I see, It’s the only thing that keeps me in the moment and makes me feel alive I guess. The second I let myself turn on the TV and rot away in the boring normality of life I remind myself I’ve got to keep singing, got to keep making noise even if it sucks, because the normality of life and ticking of the clock would eventually kill me.”
 

Burn the Beauty Queen is the first full length release and puts the full force of the band on display with a sonic display of intensity that goes to a whole level of brutal excellence in sound.  “The whole album is pretty manic, said Tate. My emotions are quite frantic throughout which is the way I wanted to keep it after previously writing a really depressing solo EP which i found totally dull to perform live. I guess with BTBQ there’s a lot of anger in my tone, but that’s only frustration. I’ve felt frustrated all my life with everything and how it all turns out and when i get up on stage and get that frustration out it feels fantastic. It’s weird how i take this negative energy and create such a positive connection with my crowd; the whole room fills with love as i sing about the stuff I hate. I think its because everyone is frustrated and they like to feel that togetherness, it’s nice to feel we are all pissed off! If i ever feel down before I get on stage i re-connect with the lyrics I’m singing, there’s so much sarcasm in the songs that they keep me smiling. I guess I’ve always been inspired by how bi-polar my emotions are, I’m not a depressed person, I’m just a really frustrated one that can’t sit still or take advise.”
 

 

Out of the 90s movements in music it was the riot grrrl that lit a fire in Tate and helped shape the fire and spirit inside her.  “The riot grrrl movement inspired me hugely once I found out about it. People are so afraid of the word feminism, especially men because it sounds like your pointing a finger at them and they get their back up and make hairy armpit jokes or tell you to burn your bra. Feminism has always been about women having equal rights, it’s always been very political and with politics comes so many arguments that I really can’t get into, so many times I tell people “I AM A MUSICIAN, NOT A POLITICIAN”. I hate talking about stuff I don’t know enough about unlike some people. But anyway i was inspired by the 90s riot grrl movement because I had never seen women so liberating. I’d always been held back internally because I always worried what people would think of me, the idea of standing out too much scared me and internally I was screaming yet on the outside i was trying to be the nice girl. Riot Grrrl inspired me to drop the nice girl, to be truthfully honest and go against the tide for the first time in my life. It impacted my music so strongly because from watching other women fight all these stereotypes of what a girl should be like, how they should dress, sing and act i found my inner bad bitch. I was ready more than ever to trash my guitar and sing my words exactly how I meant them; there was no longer a subject I couldn’t touch with my lyrics. I felt empowered by seeing such bravery of girls doing what hardly any girls did, they where playing as loud if not louder than the guys in their scene and I’d never seen that done before. All I needed back then was to see someone push back against what society was telling them to be and I knew instantly I wanted to be part of that and empower people through my music as well.”

And taking it up a notch and kicking the stereotypes aside is something Tate has no fear of taking on.  "Well sure i do! I want be like one of those badass women you see in movies like Tank Girl and Cherry from Planet Terror. I want to inspire other female musicians to be the team captain rather than the cheerleader, to take control of their sexuality and let their tits fire lasers rather than sleep with rockstars. Few people still look at girls in bands and see them as less, I’ve never met a single person in the underground scene that has ever made remarks like this to me, however I know it still exists as though we are still stuck in the 1800s and rather than writing feminist anthems I think it’s more important for girls to up their game and just get more badass, using their femininity as power rather than a weakness. The more time we spend talking about the in-equality in music the less time we have to work our arses off and write cracking songs and prove that all this school ground natter is all just utter bollocks.”
 

 

No matter how far we come I think the best moment for me was when we held our album launch at The Black Heart Camden September last year. Since I first went to Camden when i was 14 I told my mum it was my dream to play Camden and I never knew 4 years later I’d be headlining a packed out venue playing my brand new songs to a crowd of screaming people who loved us. It was the best night ever, people told me how much my music meant to them, they poured they heart out and I thanked them over and over. I treasure that night because I remember looking out just before I got on stage and thinking “YOU DID IT GIRL”.
 

While HOG have put together a great collection of recordings, videos and merchandise, it might catch people off guard that the work involved with this has been DIY and created by the band itself.  “A lot of people assume we are signed and assume we’ve got it easier than them. My mum films our music videos and I edit them all, neither of us have any experience what so ever and people just assume as a band we are loaded because we come across as professional. I think it’s because we’ve taken DIY to another level, usually DIY means filming a band in a garage with a wobbly hand held low-fi camera and hand writing your album name across blank white wallets to send your CD to local radio shows. I hand draw everything, the posters, the t-shirts, the album artwork… everything! And it pisses me off when people don’t see the dedication i put into this band, they can only assume that the band is well off and we get it a lot easier than everyone else trying to do the same thing.”

There is plenty ahead for HOG in the upcoming months.  "We are gonna be recording a new single with a wacky new music video but not sure of a release date for that. I’m currently working on new songs; I have over 20 to choose from for the next album so far! We are playing download for the first time in June and I’m so so excited to say we will be playing our first German Tour in September! I’m not looking forward to the 17 hour drive in a van with farting men so I guess I’m gonna load up on beans and join them to stop me killing them all."
 

 

And putting it all together for Tate and her progress with HOG, it's about keeping it real and true and just like the pure intensity behind the music will leave its mark in the music world.  "I don’t want to pin my hopes on too much with this band, I guess I just want to have lots of fun and make new friends all around the world. I want to feel real more than anything, I want to exist and for people to exist with me every night at our shows. More than anything I want to prove everyone wrong that doubted me and stick a middle finger up to all those that are watching my every move waiting for me to fall. Before i go to bed every night I hope to be happy with who I am, I never want to have to sleep with a girl I don’t know anymore."