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Name: Heather Hayes

Age: 18 (don't hold that against me)

Loocation: Ogden, Utah, but originally from Logan.

Ska story: My first experience with ska was a little local band in Idaho. They were called The Brass Holes, and my friend was their trumpet player until he got his teeth knocked out in a freak car/bike collision. Anyways...I never got into the genre. Then I moved to Utah my senior year. I ended up being friends with this girl, Ashley, who was into ska. She is a fanatic about it. She started asking me if I knew anything about it, and I told her I didn't really. She invited me over one day, and schooled me for about 5 hours straight on the history, roots, awesome bands, etc. So, even though I had a late start getting into it, I never had to go through that awkward stage where you think RBF is ska.

Anyways, Ashley taught me a lot about ska. She introduced me to awesome bands like Toots and the Maytals, and The English Beat. The first ska records I picked up were The Toasters and The Slackers. I loved the stuff. I guess I didn't realize how much though, until she told me about this local band, Swill, that I HAD to see. We went to a Swill show one weekend. The energy was amazing. There were gobs and gobs of people there. I became addicted to ska. It was my drug. Still is. I'm forever in her debt.

My Claim to Fame: AShley told me they (her and some guys from Swill) were driving down to Provo to go to a semi-big ska show and they wanted me to go. So I did. The bands that night were (first to last) The Upstarts (Salt Lake), Mass Hysteria (Boston), 2 1/2 White Guys (Provo), and The Debonaires (California). While The Debonaires were the headlining band, we all fell in love with 2 1/2 White Guys. And since they were local, we started going to more of their shows. Then, one weekend, they played a show in Logan, my hometown. Of course we went, and through a freak encounter, I ended up talking to 2 1/2's bass player. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but apparently he thought I was awesome, so he got my number from a friend of mine, and called me a week or so later to ask me out (I about had a heart attack). Anyways, we've been dating for 4 months now. He multiplied the music Ashley had introduced me to...by about 10 times. He's a lot older than me, and has had a lot of experience being in a ska band.

So...ska is my life. I'm introduced to a lot of things just by going on little mini tours with the band. They've also opened for a lot of cool bands that have come to Utah.

My Fav Ska Artists: Laurel Aitken, Bad Manners, The English Beat, Desmond Dekker, The Toasters, The Slackers, Mass Hysteria, Insatiable, Radical Milhouse, Swill, The Upstarts, and of course 2 1/2 White Guys. (the last few are local)