Though the band was only active from 2015-2018, I Hate Sex’s debut EP Circle Thinking acquired cult classic status among screamo fans on and offline, cementing them as one of the first female-fronted screamo bands to reach ears beyond Canadian shores.

Circle Thinking reached the peak of its popularity on databases like RateYourMusic and music forums like 4chan’s /mu/ board, becoming near-ubiquitous on the Topster charts of hardcore enthusiasts all over the world.

Today marks the ten-year anniversary of Circle Thinking. To commemorate the occasion, I spoke to the band’s vocalist, Nicole Boychuk, about the record’s rise in popularity in the decade since its release.

LM: I’ve heard in the past that you currently work in film with a feminist film festival, is that correct?

NB: Kind of. So, I work in communications for the [Edmonton] municipal government for my day job, and then, as part of volunteer work, I’m the Vice President of Edmonton’s only independent cinema, Metro Cinema. I also curate a film series with them called Not Your Final Girl.

LM: What kind of musical scene did I Hate Sex arise out of? 

NB: We grew out of the Edmonton Hardcore/heavy scene, because there wasn’t a ton of bands for each genre. A punk band would play with a screamo band, a noise band would open for a post-punk band and then there’d be a screamo act or a punk act. It was very much just like a heavy music scene, which was cool ‘cause you got to meet a lot of people and play with a bunch of bands you wouldn’t normally.

When I Hate Sex became a band and we started playing shows, there were a couple of screamo bands in Western Canada. There was this really cool festival that, like, really inspired me. It was called Ghost Throats, and I had originally attended it once and was just blown away at the DIY of it all, and how cool the bands were. It was so different from the screamo and punk shows that I was going to previously.

LM: When I think of DIY festivals for screamo that exist today, they’re much more screamo-centric. I’m thinking of festivals like [Toronto screamo festival] New Friends Fest.

NB: I’d say, if we’re speaking screamo, it’s grown quite exponentially. There’s targeted festivals now for screamo and screamo-adjacent acts where before, I Hate Sex had to tour Europe to get that kind of experience. I remember always thinking it was just a very niche internet thing, and now it feels like a real-life, tangible thing, and I think it’s really incredible.

We’re seeing a lot of new bands come out of that, but also a lot of older bands come back and start playing shows again like Saetia, Jerome’s Dream, I Hate Myself, Page 99, IWROTEHAIKUS. I’m really excited for bands like that who get to have their day now, because I don’t know if they got to play to a crowd of 1,000 people when they were releasing music.

Like, just seeing over the last ten years, how much I Hate Sex listenership has grown. It’s just truly expanding, growing, and attracting a new audience and people that wouldn’t normally be into heavy music.

LM: I did notice that there was a huge expansion of I Hate Sex’s fanbase through forums like RateYourMusic and it’s very interesting to see bands that no longer exist gain that virality after disbanding. I’d love to know about your experience with that.

NB: I think a lot of it, in I Hate Sex’s case, has been meme culture. When we were a band, we really leaned into that, mostly because we were just making music and we weren’t super serious about it becoming popular or anything like that. That’s also what led to us gaining a larger listenership over the last ten years, through avenues like 100 Gecs putting out a music video where they’re wearing our shirts, or just, like, seeing memes on r/mu [sic].

I get messages where people are like, “Oh my God, I used to listen to your band in high school,” and I’m like, “Oh that’s crazy.” I think I Hate Sex has a bit of nostalgia for a lot of people.

LM: So, regarding this niche internet popularity that Circle Thinking has developed over time, I’d be interested to hear your experience of what the average IHS fan was like in 2015 versus nowadays.

NB: I feel like it’s been very similar the entire time. It’s just been your stereotypical person who likes screamo music online. It’s been really cool to see a lot of queer people engaging more with the music, which has only grown more as the album has gotten older. Ultimately, I wrote the album for women and queer people, so it’s nice to see that my target demographic is listening to it.

I don’t know, it’s a wide range of people, and because the internet is so fast, it’s always going to be like that. I’ve had young kids, like 12 years old, reach out to me and say “this is really great” from Japan, from America, from everywhere to 45 year-old men in Vietnam making TikToks to I Hate Sex. There’s a lot of different people from all over the world that enjoy it and I think the internet has allowed that to happen, which is really great.

LM: Do you have any final thoughts approaching this ten year anniversary? How is it feeling for you?

NB: Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy that it’s been ten years. It’s been a really fun part of my life. It’s really great to like, be able to reflect on it and have a lot of fun, a ton of positive memories and experiences that I’ve only been able to have because of the band.

This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.