producer, writer, booking agent, metal dignitary, animator, drummer, dj, scenester-scum, cookie baker, you've probably slept on my floor.

I grew up on a goat farm. My brother is a Klingon. I use my Rush ticket as a bookmark in my Harry Potter book.

Laina Dawes is the author of What Are You Doing Here? A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal (Bazillion Points Books, 2012). A music and cultural critic and concert photographer, her writings and photography can be found in both print and online publications such as the Deciblog.com, The Wire, Noisecreep.com, Bitch magazine, NPR, the Toronto Star, Exclaim! Metal Underground.com, Hellbound.ca, CBC Radio, and Metal Edge magazine. She also runs the blog Writing is Fighting and is a contributing editor for Blogher.com’s Race & Ethnicity section. She currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

Drummer Caryn Havlik has been playing for about 20 years, and contributes to Tom Tom Magazine as often as possible, most recently as guest co-editor of the “Metal” issue. She is one third of the metal band, Mortals, and teaches drums to folks aged 5-65 through the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, as well as private lessons. She has worked for New York Public Radio's New Sounds with John Schaefer for 11 years, and considers herself lucky to be doing what she wanted to do since she was 8 (Radio and Drums.) When not breathing music, she is also a softball player, biker, and kid and adult-inspirer. She also holds a B.A. in Japanese Language and Literature and hopes to open a black metal bakery in a college town near you.