BUTCHER BABIES' HEIDI SHEPHERD Says It's 'Unfortunate' Female Metal Musicians Are Not Widely Accepted

Metal Wani's editor in chief Owais "Vitek" Nabi recently conducted an interview with BUTCHER BABIES singer Heidi Shepherd. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the seemingly endless amount of online criticism levelled at BUTCHER BABIES:

"You know, I don't read any of it, because I learned very early on that someone… a small-minded person feels very comfortable and very powerful behind a keyboard, but when it comes to anyone's face, they've got nothing to say. I'm not gonna let those kinds of people define who I am, by any means, because I define who I am, and my music a nd my band defines who we are. Those people, they'll aways be there, they'll always try and knock someone else down, because they're very unhappy with their own lives. So I feel bad for them. [Laughs] You know, if I ever do happen to come across anything, I kind of view it as a little bit of a kick in the ass and a fire under my ass. If people like that think that they're gonna get us down by saying something like that, they're widely mistaken, because, if anything, it just makes us wanna be better and better. So it's a win-win situation on my part."

On female musicians not being openly embraced by the heavy metal community:

"It is an unfortunate thing. It's been an uphill battle, but it's also a double-edged sword. It's been somewhat of a hard journey because of that, but I feel very lucky, because I think if it had just been widely accepted, I may not have worked as hard for it, and I may not still be working as hard, and we may have just floated under the radar. But with the fact that we are something different… you know, two girls in a metal band — what? The fact that we are something different, maybe it turned some heads. It turns people off, without hearing the music at all, but it also turned heads that may not have turned before. So, as I said, it's a double-edged sword. And it is unfortunate that people immediately dismiss a band because there are girls in it. That's ridiculous; that's the dumbest thing ever. There's no reason why girls can't get up there and rock just as hard [as], if not harder than, the boys. And I'm so happy to say that I'm seeing a movement. From when we started to now, people are understanding that and coming around, and it's become… Every negative thing that someone has to say, or every negative person that we come across with it, there's ten people that are all for it. So it's becoming more widely accepted and more viewed as exciting than a bummer."

BUTCHER BABIES will release their sophomore album, "Take It Like A Man", on August 21 via Century Media. The CD was produced by Logan Mader, who has previously worked with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, DEVILDRIVER, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY and GOJIRA.

BUTCHER BABIES will join GWAR and BATTLECROSS across North America from August 25 to September 18.