We are a band. This is how it goes down.

Originally, H was for Henkensiefken - Jamie Henkensiefken (aka Jamie Hellgate), formerly of Missoula, Montana. Renaming her solo project after a canyon on the eastern edge of the Missoula Valley, Jamie embarked on a three month basement recording odyssey in 2006. Six weeks into the process, she decided to start pulling together the necessary musicians to help her bring her new songs to the stage.

Two years later, with their eponymous debut behind them, Jamie, Marie Calderon, David Thomas and Ben Baier indelibly impressed H Is for Hellgates name into the neural networks of those inspired by the bands mix of inspirations (The Dismemberment Plan, Sleater-Kinney, The Mars Volta) and styles (Turbulent 90s post-rockwith a somber Pacific Northwest vibe [The Stranger]).

In December 2008 after a six-month hiatus, Jamie and Ben restructured the band into a power-trio, welcomed in new drummer Jon Jacobson, and released their sophomore album, Come For the Peaks, Stay For the Valleys on Jamies imprint, Scissor City Sound. The album was largely a product of year of tragedy for Jamie the loss of her father during a tour in 2007, the soon-after end of a relationship, and the untimely death the of albums engineer, Mark Mercer IV.

H Is for Hellgates dedication to perseverance is translated into their live set Jamie Hellgate has been called an, electrifying guitarist whose determined voice is dauntless among the maelstrom of meaty riffs she is prone to disperse (Seattle P.I.), a dynamo of a performer (Seattle Weekly), but H Is for Hellgates performance is a product of three people putting themselves up to the challenge of making audiences simultaneously think, rock out, and shout out a, Hooray!