Skunk Anansie
Chris Andrews chews the fat with Skin, frontwoman of British rock favourites Skunk Anansie, and finds their stance to be more necessary than ever in 2019.
These are turbulent times we find ourselves in and right now the world needs anyone with a platform to step up and make themselves heard. This is exactly why Skunk Anansie have been a vital presence since emerging 25 years ago. “I do think that right now, it’s time for every artist to get off the fence,” says Skin, the owner of the voice that has made Skunk Anansie stand apart from the rest. “What is happening now has happened countless times before and it always ends in mass death. So I do think that if you are an artist or politician that has a view, you need to express it, just to make people aware that we are entering a very dangerous time.”
When we speak, we are still within 48 hours of Donald Trump’s “go home” tweets, something that has not gone unnoticed by the singer.” How can an American President say that? He said that to people born in America. What he means is black Americans or people of colour. It’s the most obviously racist thing he has said and it’s being tolerated. These types of things are happening so often now, it’s becoming “the norm” and that scares me.”
In an effort to make sure they stay heard, the band have just released their new single What You Do For Love and it’s unmistakably Skunk Anansie to these ears – something that Skin is surprised to hear. “To us it kind of feels like a different sound! We’ve never really worried about the Skunk Anansie ‘sound’, we just write songs, but I think it’s important for a band to have something that people will recognise. Oasis have their sound, Smashing Pumpkins have their sound, but really it’s something that just comes out of you.”
Undoubtedly, part of that sound is the vocal talent of Skin herself, who is quite often described as one of Britain’s most underrated vocalists. Why is that? “I’m not quite sure. I don’t feel that I’m one of the best singers, I feel like I’m one of the best performers though!” she laughs. “But to be honest I feel like the whole band is underrated – in terms of what we’ve achieved and how big the band is, but how little we are talked about in the British press. It’s like they’ve all signed a contract not to talk about Skunk Anansie.”
Let’s not forget what makes up the rest of the band and talk about the other guys for a minute. “There’s Mark on drums who’s into the Whitesnake, Bon Jovi kind of thing, but also loves Abba; Ace who into Hendrix, Zeppelin and Motörhead; and Cass who’s into Parliament and very bluesy, soulful stuff – and when you mix all this up, that’s when you get Skunk Anansie.” It’s that mix of influences that has enabled the band to tour with an eclectic mix of bands over the years including Slipknot, Lenny Kravitz and Massive Attack.
“It’s because we have all those elements in there. When we play with Slipknot, we can be heavy metal. We have heavy songs, with screaming vocals, so we can do that and not do the softer stuff.”
Skunk Anansie found themselves in the news recently, after Stormzy’s headline appearance at this year’s Glastonbury festival, where he declared himself the first black artist to headline the festival. Skunk Anansie having in fact headlined in 1999, I wasn’t about to pass up this opportunity to get Skin’s thoughts on Stormzy’s comments.
“My first reaction was ‘not again!’ because Beyoncé said she was the first black woman to headline it too. He probably didn’t check it out himself, and was probably just told that, so he made a comment on it. It’s just people not doing their research. Maxim from The Prodigy also did it in 1997, but the point is that it’s taken 20 years for somebody else to be able to say that – and in 2019, that is the real question.”
Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Wed 4 Sept. Tickets: £27.50. Info: 029 2078 1458 / www.cardiffstudents.com