rob hinkal - vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, baritone guitar, bass.
rob has been accused of pulling harmonics out of his guitar while simultaneously raping it. Someone once told him that what he does to his guitar is illegal in three states. Maybe not a fact, but certainly a compliment.

rob is the progenitor and leader of the band, the scowly growly member of ilyAIMY. Entranced by a finger-picking goddess as a freshman at the Maryland Institute College of Art - he picked up acoustic guitar solely as a method of picking up that girl. Having started as a bass player, rob incorporated slap-bass and Primus-esque strumming techniques into an unorthodox guitar style, later augmented by the Appalachian clawhammer banjo stylings he learned from Tinsmith's reknowned banjo player, Brooke Parkhurst.

While attending MICA, a performance/music/art/communication project called i love you And I Miss You (comprised of rob, Will Schaff, Clifford Roelle, and Carin Wagner) got out of hand and bent rob's brain from visual art to music. Upon graduating in December 1997 with degrees in illustration and performance art, he worked various day jobs (a bookseller, a high school teacher, a security guard, a "public programmer" on the stage of the Maryland Science Centre, a button maker, and a button counter) and freelanced as an illustrator while developing a musical style through various bands, finally culminating in the current incarnation of ilyAIMY.

When he met Heather Lloyd in the summer of 2001, the plan (dream?) coalesced to quit the whole day-job scene, and not bother waiting for labels or management. By September 2nd, 2003 - they quit their day jobs, let the leases run out on their houses, moved into a Saturn, and out on to the open road.

rob's equipment (just cause you might need to know!)
rob was playing a Seagull Spruce-top acoustic 6 string till he pulled it in half in Illinois. Now he's happily married to his cedar-top Alvazrez.

occassionally this is run through a Digitech RPX-300, but usually not, and a Crate acoustic amplifier.

he uses Nailene nails and Radio Shack electrical tape.