L7's Donita Sparks says she doesn't mind if the all-girl band are seen as punk, metal or grunge – just as long as people still want to hear them do their thing.
The Los Angeles group formed in 1985 and were eventually swept up in the grunge movement of the 1990s, despite never quite sounding much like the other bands in that scene.
L7 include obvious metal and punk influences in their music, but whatever people want to call them is just fine with Sparks.
She tells Heavy: "I think we've always been an island. I think we've been grouped in those different things.
"And I think it's really cool that we're invited to participate in all of those tribes, but we've always been kind of an outlier, oddball kind of band.
"Some people said we were Riot grrrls. We weren't. We never called ourselves grunge, but now I don't care if they call us either a metal band or punk or anything. Whatever."
Whatever the fans or music press labelled them, L7 were always welcomed by other artists in those genres Sparks says.
"Metal bands and hard rock bands have always been pretty much kind to us and supportive of us," she adds.
"We're an anomaly. For a chick band, it's rare. Back then we were embraced by that crowd. Now we're embraced. It's cool."
L7 released their seminal album Bricks Are Heavy in 1992. Produced by Butch Vig, the band's second album featured three UK Top 40 singles – Pretend We're Dead, Everglade and Monster – and peaked at number 24 in the UK albums chart on May 2, 1992.
