Skunk Anansie – Interview [1999]

When I arrived at the House of Blues to conduct the interview, the line to get into the show was wrapped around the outside of the Mandalay Bay Casino. The ‘tourbloke’ (tour manager), Rog, led me to the bus and told me that I could interview Skin with one of the boys. I got onto the bus and Rog left, but Skin informed me that she was terribly sorry she couldn’t do the interview; she needed to get her “shit together.” She had to put on her makeup. I got off the bus and found Rog and he took me into the dressing room to conduct the interview with Cass and Ace, the band’s bass and guitar players, respectively.

How is it to play with a great singer like Skin?

Cass: You know, it’s great, isn’t it? Because when you’ve got a band the major thing is your vocals really, isn’t it? It’s great to be in the band with a brilliant singer because you feel on top. You know? I’m like everyone else. I watch that person, and from a different angle it’s brilliant, you know? The singer is really important. If I was in a band that didn’t have a good singer I’d probably leave it and join a new one with a good singer! (laughs)

Skin is very talented. Do you think that because of the band’s image, she doesn’t get as much credibility as she should?

Cass: The better you are at something, the more credible you are, because at the end of the day a lot of people don’t see you live, they only hear you on the record. If you can’t sing very well, you’re rubbish. They’ll hear your record and say, ‘That was really shitty,’ and they might be able to see you live and say, ‘That was really great and the crowd went wild.’ If you’re not cutting it on the record, you won’t survive. That’s why, if you have good musicians and good singers, it doesn’t matter if they go, ‘Uh, they’re too good.’ You get a review or an interview and they write it up and they go, ‘Their voice was too good’. I mean, how do you get too good? It’s brilliant to have a good singer. It’s great when you’re playing because you really enjoy playing and it sounds really good.

What are some bands that have influenced you?

Cass: (to Ace) Where can we get started? (to me) How long have you got? (laughs)Everyone from like Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Zeppelin

Ace: Black Sabbath, Sex Pistols. I love punk, pop, new wave, that kind of like late 70’s/early 80’s, stuff I thought was really brilliant. But at the same time I really like heavy rock. Tool, Korn, all that stuff; that really heavy stuff, like I say Black Sabbath. Skin likes reggae, The Cure, Parliament, Funkadelic, Jimmy Hendrix, that kind of stuff.

Since you are from Britain, how hard do you think it is to break through in America? How long do you think it will take you to break through here?

Cass: It’s very hard.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Cass: It’s a good thing. When you succeed it is something to be proud of because you have to do a lot a lot of work. It is something you worked really hard for. I mean, still no one knows who we are. It is getting better, though. We went to San Francisco and we toured two weeks with Rammstein. That’s the kind of thing you need to do, tour for two years in order to break through in America.

Are there any artists overseas that people here don’t really know about?

Ace: You know what? There are a few bands that I really, really like but they’re not professional yet. One of them is Rachel Stamp. They are really, really good. They are a really great London band, a power pop rock, hard rock. That’s Rachel Stamp. Another band called Cycle Plugs is breaking through in Britain. They are very small at the moment. They are a club band. There are a good amount of club bands, and a skate band called King Paul who is starting to play out in clubs. I saw an American band that I thought was absolutely awesome. They are called Unida, with John Garcia, the singer from Kyuss. Wicked. I saw them in a club.

hat are your plans for New Year’s?

Cass: I have a new baby. Stay home with my wife. Stay in. Fuck the millennium.

How do you feel about being known as a political band?

Cass: We’re not really a political band. We are like the Clash. They were social commentators. We are not involved with politics, so we really don’t know much about it. What we do know is real life. Skin saw a swastika drawn on the wall and it looked like a little kid did it. That made her ask questions about how racism is taught and spread. When you travel around, you see a lot of things and a lot of things touch you and that’s what we’re about.

+ julie wheat