- 2 days ago
Iconic Skunk Anansie frontwoman Skin takes us through the five song that have defined the band's career so far, and the stories behind them.
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MusicTranscript
00:00I think that when you get older, I think that you don't lose your fire, you just become
00:04more directional with it and more succinct at describing it.
00:09So whereas in the early days, you know, we just get like, ah, now we're like, ah, ah,
00:16ah.
00:22Hi, my name is Skin from Skunkinancy and these are my five definitive Skunkinancy tracks.
00:29Week was one of those songs that was like, kind of like, um, undulating for a good eight
00:37years because it stems from the experience I had, ah, when I was a teenager, um, I had
00:43a violent boyfriend.
00:46And I think that, you know, sometimes when you're away from a topic that you can actually
00:50talk about it with a bit more kind of honesty and authenticity because when you're in it,
00:54it's harder to kind of, um, find the words to describe it.
01:00So I remember we were doing the first album and we were working with Sylvia Massey, the
01:04great Sylvia Massey for the first album.
01:07And she was kind of like, yeah, I think we need another track.
01:10We need something that's a bit more, um, mellow or something like that.
01:14I remember being at home and I was learning to play the guitar, you know, just playing chords.
01:19And I was, I played those three chords and those words kind of came into my head.
01:23Weak as I am.
01:24No tears for you.
01:26I remember thinking, oh, something there.
01:28I'll take it to the band.
01:29And I think I wrote a couple of verses and a chorus.
01:34And then I kind of was thinking, hey, this is kind of like a nice B-side, you know,
01:38it's kind of something that's more like a nice B-side and more chilled.
01:43And, uh, I took it into the, into the band and I kind of played it and they were like,
01:47oh, we love it.
01:48We love it.
01:48And we just straight away finished it.
01:50We wrote a quote, uh, middle eight and just finished the track.
01:54It's one of the things that just came together really quickly.
01:55But lyrically, the lyrics came up really fast.
01:59Cause as I say, you know, I think it, for the first time I thought about that time and
02:03that incident and that period of my life and how life changing it was.
02:07And it was about, I remember, um, I'd kind of like escaped out of the house cause you
02:13know, this guy had kind of, this ex-boyfriend kind of put me in this room in his house and
02:18I kind of escaped and I ran down the road and he caught me, you know, he drove up in
02:23his
02:23car.
02:23I went to a bus stop cause I was like, I'm in North London.
02:26How do I get to South London to Brixton?
02:28And I was waiting up for some night bus somewhere and he caught me and threw me in the car.
02:32And I remember driving back to the house thinking, man, I'm going to get this shit
02:35being at me now.
02:37And, uh, he kind of put me in the room and I sat on the bed thinking, okay.
02:43And he just started crying and started being so apologetic.
02:47I'm so sorry.
02:47I didn't mean to do that.
02:48Cause I guess he thought, well, I can't, if I kill her, I'm going to have to let her go.
02:52I'm going to have to take her back home.
02:54And I just remember sitting on there on the bed, in the bed going like, you know, weak
02:58as I am, I feel really, but I haven't got any tears for you.
03:00I'm the one that should be crying.
03:02Why are you crying?
03:03You know, you hit me.
03:05And that's where the whole song came out of that.
03:08So it's, it's a song for me has a very emotional connection.
03:12And it's also the kind of one of the first songs I wrote on my own.
03:15The second album Stush had hedonism on it.
03:19And that's the, that's when we went to a completely different level.
03:22You know, we were popular and we were doing well.
03:26And then the hedonism came out and MTV just rinsed it.
03:30So yeah, that made us popular on a, and like a whole, I mean, MTV, it's hard to explain
03:36how big MTV was at the time.
03:38I think the kids now don't really have an idea.
03:41It was as big as social media, I guess.
03:43And so if you were on heavy rotation on MTV, which we were with that song, then that was
03:50like huge.
03:51You know, it was all the radio stations would play you and all that kind of stuff.
03:55And then comes the third album, the difficult third album.
03:59The second album was really not that difficult.
04:02It was difficult to record, but not that difficult because it was just riding a wave.
04:05And there was a bit of a gap between the second and the third.
04:09And, you know, we want to come back with something different.
04:11We didn't want to just come back with the first album or second album again.
04:15And for me, Charlie Big Potato was this track that still kind of sends shivers down my spine.
04:22It came together quite easily.
04:24And it came together from this riff that Ace came up with.
04:29You know what?
04:30For years, that little group told this big lie about how he was standing in the reception
04:33and had a fax machine doing it.
04:36And it's only recently I was like, yeah, I just made that up.
04:41I was like, you little shit.
04:43But I believed him all this time.
04:45Actually, that's where the riff...
04:46So I don't know where the riff came up from.
04:49But it was that riff.
04:50And then I just started singing something completely opposite on top of it.
04:56Do you know, this is one of those songs that it works because everybody in the band did something completely
05:01different than their instrument would normally do.
05:04So Ace goes...
05:08And Cass goes...
05:11Like a different bass line.
05:13He didn't just go with the riff.
05:14He wandered around it.
05:16He took the same timing, rhythm, and then he wandered his bass line around it.
05:19And it's beautiful because it's so musical rather than having just the riff and then everybody just playing along with
05:25that riff.
05:26And then Mark kind of did this kind of staccato thing and then just opened it out.
05:31You know, it's like playing different things around it.
05:34And then I, instead of just singing some, you know...
05:39I just kind of went...
05:41It's this lovely kind of floaty...
05:45It's almost ethereal thing on top.
05:49Because we're always kind of looking at ways to do things differently rather than just do what a normal rock
05:54band would do.
05:55Because we all have very different backgrounds and different energies to us.
05:59And so that's why I love that song so much because it's like four different things going on at the
06:06same time.
06:06I really love Without You because it's one of those songs that, in many ways on the album, it kind
06:12of almost...
06:13It disappeared because there's so many other tracks that people liked more.
06:17But live, there's something about that track that comes together.
06:21And it really is such a great song to play live.
06:25And it's like a live favourite.
06:27So even on an album, it's almost like a B-side on an album.
06:31It doesn't really jump out at you.
06:32But there's like a bit of sparkle just that comes together with that song.
06:37It's like, I would say, one of my top three songs to play live.
06:42And it's part of the set where I get to kind of chill out and just play a bit of
06:45guitar.
06:47The vocal is very mournful.
06:49It's very like, wake me up!
06:52You know, it's kind of dumb stuff going on.
06:56But with a vocal that's like an octave above, so it really jumps out at you.
07:00But what's Metallica's biggest track? Do you know what I mean?
07:03I think that a lot of very big rock bands, they are very attached to their vulnerabilities.
07:11It's like the best rappers, the ones that are attached to their vulnerabilities.
07:14And that comes out in a song every now and then.
07:17And so you get these huge rock bands that will just write a delicate track.
07:20Piggy brings a smile to my face.
07:23It's before the single came out, the new single.
07:26Piggy was one of those, like, we just knew this song was just like a live favourite.
07:32It's just a song where you can just go mad.
07:35It's just really heavy.
07:37And it's just about all these greedy people you just have to deal with nowadays, you know.
07:42People are just so intent on sucking up as much money and as much power as possible.
07:49And so that's really what that song is about.
07:51And I just get to scream my ass off on that song and I just love it.
07:55It's just full on in your face.
07:57And it was a time we were in between management at the time.
08:00Our manager just retired. It was just our first tour post-Covid.
08:03And I think we were on the first band to go out and tour post-Covid.
08:08And so we did the video ourselves back in backstage one day and did the t-shirts.
08:14Just did everything ourselves between us as a band.
08:18And I just like that kind of...
08:20It was nice to go back to that DIY Skunker Nancy because that's how we started.
08:24You know, we used to do our t-shirts, our posters, our gigs.
08:27We just did everything ourselves.
08:28And so that was a moment where we just kind of came together as a band and did that song.
08:33And did the video.
08:35Mark recorded it.
08:36Mark Hedder did it.
08:37And put it all together.
08:38It's just a fat ass riff.
08:40And just like...
08:42I just...
08:42I think that when you get older, I think that you don't lose your fire.
08:46You just become more directional with it.
08:49And more succinct at describing it.
08:52So, whereas in the early days, you know, we just get like...
08:56Now we're like...
09:00You know, it's like you work out where you're going to put your aggression.
09:05And, you know, so they would have maximum effect.
09:08And that's what I think happens.
09:10You know, you don't weed out.
09:11You don't get softer.
09:12You don't get mellower.
09:13You just get better at it.
09:14And you get more succinct with where that...
09:18You're going to stick that knife in.
09:20So, I'm not just going to stab you wherever you are.
09:22I'm just going to put it here.
09:23And then you're dead.
09:24It came out of like...
09:26I kind of like...
09:27I'm always...
09:27If I have an idea, I just record it into my phone and write...
09:31Put something in and notes back next to it.
09:33And so it just came from this rant.
09:35And I think that as artists, as skunking artists, we really have to think about what we want to do
09:40post-Covid.
09:41You know, we lost our manager who retired.
09:43And there was a point where we had to say, well, do we carry on or not?
09:47You know, I don't think bands have to carry on.
09:49I think it's quite happy.
09:51It's quite good when they feel that they've got nothing more to say as a band.
09:55Then just stop.
09:56And so I think we had that conversation.
10:00And when we put that song together, we go to this place in Devon.
10:04And when we put that song together, that was...
10:08That kind of showed us that we had the ability to still be great.
10:12You know?
10:13Because I really believe that this is a great song.
10:16And then when Dave Sittek from TV and the Radio, when he got hold of it, he took it to
10:20new heights.
10:21Because it sounded great when we recorded it and wrote it.
10:24And then Dave took it and made it fresh and modern.
10:28Which we will be eternally grateful to him for.
10:31And you know, that was the first song in this recording studio that we were like...
10:34This is it.
10:35This is the sound of New Skunk Enense.
10:38This is what we're going to sound like.
10:40And this is the direction we want to go in.
10:42So that in some ways became the landing...
10:46The point that we had to get to and better.
10:49Because we wrote a bunch of songs and they were here, here, here.
10:51And we wrote that that was like here.
10:54Okay, that's where we are now.
10:56And everything we do in the studio from now on has to be at this level.
11:00So it really became the foundation for the record.
11:03You know?
11:04And also, you know, it's just something I feel like a lot of us feel.
11:08That's how we feel.
11:09You know?
11:09It's like, what does it mean to be an artist now in this social media world?
11:14And in this kind of world where there's a lot of toxic negativity.
11:18And in this world where everything that you're about is just henpecked and stripped down and destroyed.
11:26And that seems to be the modern way that an artist puts something out and everyone just destroys it.
11:34And so there's like, you know, it's cheeky.
11:37You know?
11:39There's a couple of very cheeky lines.
11:41Mine being, an artist is an artist till death do us depart us.
11:46And, you know, I didn't hang around to be my own echo.
11:50You know?
11:50I didn't hang around to just keep repeating myself.
11:52You know, there's a lot of, like, nice single lines in there.
11:55My favourite is a tongue twister.
11:57I put a deliberate tongue twister in there.
11:59An artist is an artist when they want to be an artist.
12:02Because the narcissist and artist is beautiful.
12:05That's the middle eight.
12:06And there's just a lot of words that kind of sum up how I feel and have abandoned or we
12:10feel.
12:11And a lot of artists feel about what it means to do what they want to do.
12:15What it means to be creative.
12:16You know?
12:17And how it's, we are the creators.
12:19And sometimes you guys just need to fuck up and enjoy or not enjoy.
12:23But you don't also need to come and destroy the artist and try and take something away from the artist.
12:28And you don't need to put out your first ignorant thought and write that down as a comment.
12:33You know?
12:33Think about it.
12:34What do I want to say about this if I want to say anything?
12:37And most of the time I think people should just shut the fuck up.
12:40You ain't got nothing to say.
12:41You haven't done any research.
12:43You don't know about this band.
12:45You don't know about the art world or about the interior design world or architecture.
12:50You don't know about these things with any depth at all.
12:53So to say something's terrible or to say something's awful.
12:56It's like just, you know, stop with the first ignorant thought and just think about it.
13:02And I think half the time people would just say, you know what?
13:04I've got, I'm just going to move on.
13:06Keep scrolling.
13:07And so that's, that's the kind of the base of that song.
13:12And I feel very strongly that social media has just become, most of the time, there's a lot of good
13:18in it.
13:19But a lot of the time it's just been a very difficult way for us to express themselves.
13:24Because I just get so much pushback from people who have no knowledge and no experience and no research and
13:29no nothing.
13:30And you have to listen to this.
13:32It's like, if I was in a room with you, I wouldn't have to listen to you.
13:35I would just destroy you.
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