In 1979, Andrew St. George, Richard Rudolph, Tony Blaise and Mark Valdez formed a band called The Start in St. George's Toronto basement and released one album—“Hey You”—on Capital records. Before that, St. George was trying not to fall off a chair in his dining room while a bunch of three-chord Stray Kat punks yowled in his basement. Hmmm. I think I should backtrack a bit.

“I’m Proud” (a demo) reflects the purest beginnings of the Stray Katz—a cathartic embrace of early punk attitude. The song just happened. The Katz were doing a sound check before a battle of the bands contest when they noticed some more accomplished musicians snickering at them from the wings. So in typical Katz fashion, the band cranked the amps up as far as the dials would go (which was pretty freakin’ loud, considering the Katz had some face-shreddingly good guitar amps) and exploded into a completely impromptu jam that became “I’m Proud,” lyrics and all. The phrase “I’m proud,” practically hurled into the stage wings, is the equivalent of “f—k you,” meaning “I’m Proud” likely caught on for a time because it was for anyone who ever felt the urge to shout “f—k you!” at the world. The Katz performed the song the same evening at the show and, despite the song’s simple, guttural sound, people liked its defiance. So the Katz decided to make a demo at the home studio of Andrew St. George.

It was a “studio” in the loosest sense. The recording room was the basement—small, dingy and pretty smelly. The engineering booth was a four-track mixer balanced on a small table in St. George’s dining room. Audio cables reached the basement through holes he’d drilled through the floor, and the headphone hookups involved empty pudding cups. (I swear.) There was no talk-back system. Communication between the basement and dining room involved yelling up and down the stairs. While the Katz set up their equipment, St. George passed the time with a bottle of whisky kept discreetly beneath the mixer, meaning by the time tape rolled (yes, audio tape) on this long-lost demo, the engineer could barely stay upright in his chair, let alone see or work the mixer dials.

If “I’m Proud” has any redeeming, noteworthy qualities, it’s practically a live recording. There was no layering of bed tracks. Everything was played all at once. And there was no layering or doubling of vocals. All was performed (leads and backups) around a single microphone suspended from the basement ceiling, and no effects were applied. As well, the band members had barely become teens and had pretty much just learned to play their instruments. So it’s raw, and kind of nasty, and definitely engineered badly, but it’s also true, and it’s a demo, and is the first appearance of a character named Billy that Xris would include in future songs (most notably in the Katz original “Billy, Where’d You Buy the Dope?”).