Tatiana Shmayluk of Jinjer revealed the metal vocalist she aspired to sound like when she began her career — and surprisingly, it’s not a woman.

In an interview with Metal Hammer, Shmayluk expressed her frustration regarding Jinjer being labeled as a “female-fronted band,” especially since their sound differs significantly from many groups they are compared to.

“We are still getting compared to artists that have nothing to do with us. And not always good or talented artists, and I feel very, very offended by that,” Shmayluk stated.

“Because some people, they cannot sing, they don’t hit the notes! Then I get people saying, ‘Oh, she’s doing better than you, she does it better than you, she has this personality, she has…’ Oh my god! Leave me alone! That kind of stuff really annoys me.”

The vocalist shared that when she first started making music, her goal was to emulate Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, rather than any female vocalist. She noted that she often faces comparisons to former Arch Enemy singers Angela Gossow and Alissa White-Gluz.

“I never wanted to sound like [Gossow]. Some people told me, ‘Why don’t you color your hair? Why don’t you dye your hair blue like Alissa?’ But why would I? I don’t understand,” Shmayluk continued.

How Did Tatiana Shmayluk Learn to Scream?

During an episode of our How I Learned to Scream series, Shmayluk recounted the first time she heard a woman with extreme vocals — Otep Shamaya — although initially, she thought it was a man’s voice.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god I like this dude’s attitude’ and my friend was like, ‘No Tati, it’s a girl.’ I was like, ‘Are you serious?'” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah that’s what I want to do.'”

Discovering Otep led Shmayluk to explore other metal artists with extreme vocals and eventually inspired her to try them herself. The first song she practiced was Mudvayne’s “Dig,” and she admitted feeling disappointed with her initial attempts.

READ MORE: 10 Vocalists Who Sound Like Classic Movie Monsters + Villains

“You sometimes can tell that it’s a woman screaming and that’s what I didn’t want to hear about myself. I tried to imitate a more male version of screaming and growling,” she confessed.

Once she began practicing vocal techniques with her pre-Jinjer bands, she discovered her unique sound.

Check out the interview below and see which Jinjer song made our Best Metal Songs of the Last 25 Years list below that.

How Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk Learned to Scream