Skunk Anansie – Any Last Requests?

With Guitars takes you back to 1996, Skunk Anansie and the album ‘Stoosh’. Our man back then, Chris Todd thought it time for a more challenging interview, but beware… It bites back! Lead singer Skin, your time starts now…

1996 has to go down as a black year for guitar groups, every other style did fine, hip hop gave us Fugees, XHibit, Ghost Face Killa, techno brought along Underworlds 2nd Toughest, Percy X, Man With No Name. Trip h… Down Tem… Leftf… Whatever it’s called,; the year carried on rather nicely with Wall Of Sound and Concrete excelling and James Lavelle’s Mo Wax went up its own arse.

But what about guitars, indie, rawk, what about it? Pusherman, 60ft Dolls, Mansun, Boo Radleys, Olivia Tremor Control, I salute yer, Cast, Kula, O.C.S., Sleeper I slap ya, Oasis went into money grabbing arsehole box sets, videos, books, howz about some f**king music eh? Oh, and don’t forget the knobhead who signed Nowaysis to EMI which is an atrocity. And then there’s Skunk Anansie who live to see another year, certainly deserving of more respect and attention following up their debut LP ‘Sunburst & Paranoid’ with ‘Stoosh’ which mixed yearning ballads ‘Infidelity’, ‘Hedonism’ with furious anger -“Yes it’s f : king political” with typical Skunk fodder like the ace ‘All I Want’ and the rather tired ‘Twisted’. It must be a lonely business being in a rock band with political leanings, humour, passion, it’s hardly fashionable, who wants to hear all that while Bis exist? So I ask Skin if Skunk Anansie exist because they saw a hole in the market and are they feeling lonely in that hole?
“We exist in these ‘lonely’ times simply because we seem to strike a chord with a lot of people. What derives us as a band is also the crux to what many other people are unhappy/happy about”.
“I think our music is very un-arrogant” she continues. “We express ourselves in normal range because that is what we are. We’ve never seen ourselves as a fashionable band worrying about latest trends. We’re a classic band striving to be original and unique so hopefully we’ll be around for a very long time”.
Their songs are a-splatter with f**ks, bitches and niggers, does Skin think she has the right to use these words?
“The last thing I’d ever be is my own censor, I give myself free reign to use any words I like, politically correct or not.” They’re not though, so why use them?
“When I use the word nigger it’s always been sarcastic rather than a description of what I am as that’s the way I wanted to use it, but I feel free and right to use that or any other word like faggot, whore, bitch when and how I like”. Why?
“Because it’s free expression, there’s so many things we can and can’t do so why limit ourselves in a way that various constitutions would be delighted about”. “Anyway, nigger used in a certain context can be hilarious or deeply offensive but which way the penny drops is totally up to perspective!”
“OUR LIVES HAVE COMPLETELY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN BUT IT’S SOME OF THE PEOPLE AROUND US THAT HAVE CHANGED, NOT US”.
So why do you seem to deliberately go out to antagonise, you seem to feel the need to point out your race and sexuality, do you?
“I don’t go out to be antagonistic, people exaggerate a certain Skin persona and most of the time people
completely miss the humour or decide to ignore it because of a preconceived image they have of me”.
‘I actually rarely point out my race or sexuality, journalists always point it out for me and I’m f**king sick and
tired of fielding questions about it. There’s much much more to Skunk Anansie than my personal attributes. And
I find it really boring how journalists put it into the first line of every Skunk interview! Aren’t you?”
Er… Yeah, shitbags (ouch!)

Skunk Anansie seem to have calmed down and changed for the better. How does Skin think they’ve progressed over the last two years?
“Easy, more melody. Better songs. Broader influences. Nicer clothes. Better drummer. Better artwork. Developed songwriting. Trainers instead of boots! Leaner, harder, concise lyrics. Straightforward lyrics and shorter hair!!”
The emotions on the album are harder hitting than before, angrier, more political and much sadder. Did Skin go through some bad times between albums?
“Yes, personally we did. We’ve done a lot of travelling in places where we are unknown and we got ourselves in some scary situations. We have a different perspective of the world and through travelling you realise how crap Britain is on one level, but on another it’s fantastic and London is probably one of the coolest places on the planet”.
Hmm obviously haven’t spent much time in the North then.
“Our lives have completely turned upside down but it’s some of the people around us that have changed, not us”
One of their best points is that they bring a bit of glamour to political pop whereas before we had pig ugly gits ‘ «e Billy Bragg, Rage Against The Machine etc., what does Skin think about that?
“There’s nothing wrong with a bit of glamour! You don’t need to look like shit to prove how credible you are or look rough so that people believe you, you don’t need to look crap to have an opinion, we just are what we are and like everyone else on the planet we like looking cool. And Zack from Rage is NOT pig ugly, I’d shag him!” So finally to prove you have a sense of humour, tell me your favourite joke… “”Mark the drummer”. Er. right…

For the latest on Skunk Anansie, please goto

http://www.skunkanansie.net/
http://www.myspace.com/skunkanansiemusic

Related Interviews and Features

Skink Anansie Paranoid And Sunburnt interview
https://www.withguitars.com/skunk-anansie-young-gifted-and-paranoid/

Skin and Ace Track By track Guide to ‘Paranoid & Sunburnt’ – https://www.withguitars.com/slunk-anansies-track-by-track-guide-to-paranoid-and-sunburnt/