Music > Interviews

Interview with Skindred

06/01/14

Read on to hear from the hugely entertaining Skindred drummer, Arya, and then scroll to the bottom for details on winning one of two pairs of tickets to the gig!

Skindred are one of those bands that just won’t die (despite what the critics say). They keep coming back, like some undead rasta-metal killer in a trashy horror movie – there’s just no keeping these guys down. And that is exactly what latest release ‘Kill The Power’ is all about. Standing up for yourself, fighting for what you believe in, and, no matter what, coming out swinging. Skindred’s drummer, Arya Goggin, tells Lenore about the themes behind the new album, running from the cops and covering Devo’s ‘Whip It’.

You're currently on tour in support of the new album ‘Kill The Power’, are you looking forward to it?Of course I am, this is what we do! You sit around in the rehearsal studio writing the record and then you’re sitting at home listening to the mixes and all that time you’re dying to get out there and play it live. We're starting off in Norwich too. I think we've started a few tours off in Norwich actually - we're looking forward to it!

Awesome! Other than Norwich (obviously) is there any other venue you're looking forward to in particular? I know you’re off to Australia after Europe…Yeah, in the UK London is always great, as I think it’s the only place in the country where we've played every single venue. Starting at the Barfly, the Borderline, the Underworld - going up the ranks. It’s quite fulfilling knowing people are coming to watch you at the bigger venues. I'm looking forward to playing The Forum; also Manchester is a great one too. This is quite a good tour actually as I think it's my birthday when we play Wolverhampton, so I’m looking forward to that. And our DJ / keyboard guy Dan, his birthday is the day after in Middlesborough, so it's going to be quite a fun party. We're releasing a record all at the same time, so it's going to be a bit of a whirlwind, the UK run.

Do you find touring harder as the band gets bigger, or is it more enjoyable and easier, the bigger you guys get?That's quite a good question actually. I think when you start out, you’re green and a bit naïve to how everything works, so you roll with the punches. You’re used to staying on people’s floors and vans and stuff. So I guess in that respect it was hard back then, but I didn't really think about it being hard, I just wanted to do it and that was the way it was. I think now it’s a lot easier. You get on a tour bus, you get better sleep, the venues are more accommodating. I think the hardest part is picking the set list – everyone argues about that!

Who makes the final decision on the set list?Me, of course! 

Really?Yeah, why are you surprised?!

Well, my friends who are in bands always make fun of their drummer and don't really listen to him.This is a completely different operation! We're all very different people and we've all got our different strengths outside the band. If you’re looking for production stuff and electronics, that’s the bass player Dan; Mike is the creative art guy and I do all the business side of things. That’s where we splinter off. We've all got different views on things, but when it comes down to touring and logistics, they all leave that down to me. They trust me with support bands and stuff. That trust we've all earned over the years. I haven't mentioned Benji because he gets involved in all of it! He likes to be involved with all of it down the line.

You’re a band with a reputation for a high-energy live show and really getting the crowd involved. Is that something that comes easily for you as a band, or do you work hard to keep that happening show after show?I think it's pretty easy to be honest. We're lucky we've got someone like Benji as a frontman, dragging everyone in. He's a born showman, a born performer. The rest of us do our thing and perform to the best of our abilities, but the live show is very much down to him. I think as the years have gone by we've added an extra member and the ethos has always been to be like a reggae soundsystem, and Benji controls that soundsystem, which is essentially us, the musicians. He will stop and start songs. We have a set list but we don’t know how it's going to really go until we get on the stage. He might call for a rewind on one song and start from a verse; it’s always changing and we have to keep on our toes and that comes with being together for so long. There’s that bit of synergy, that bit of mindreading, eye signals…  we know what we're looking for. I think in the early days it was more chaotic. It was more of a punk 'if it messes up, fuck it we're just going to do what we do' and people got on board with that. I think now it’s a bit more controlled chaos. Things still go wrong but I've got a better idea of what we're going to do and it's got better over the years. It has been easy for us because we've got a great frontman and a great band; it’s easy when you're doing something you love.

You recently performed at Hard Rock Hell. Do you prefer playing festivals or being top billing on your own line-up?We were top bill at Hard Rock Hell, which was the best of both worlds. Hard Rock Hell was a bit different for us; it was an older crowd, a classic rock audience - but we don’t discriminate, anyone can like our music, anyone’s welcome to the party! We'll go play Hard Rock Hell, then go play Reading. We're a weird band because we can do those things, play UK rock festivals then go to Germany and play a death metal festival. It’s cool because I want everyone to enjoy our music. We're not in a scene or anything, so the more people I can play to the better. I think on a club tour, with our headline set in front of fans, people who are coming specifically for us is great. At a festival we're out there to convert, I'm out there to build up numbers. I believe in the band so much that I believe we can reach more people every year. With every album I think we can reach a wider audience. It's like a challenge, I love it!

Did you see anyone there you wanted to watch as a fan yourself?I watched Black Star Riders, which is the new incarnation of Thin Lizzy. I had a couple of drinks with Scott Gorham the night before. It was really cool. I was really nervous and he said that he was really looking forward to seeing Skindred play. I asked how he knew I was in Skindred and he said, “that guy over there said you were”. And I was like “oh, ok” and I had my little moment ripped away from me! But he said he was really looking forward to it and it was cool to talk to him about music and then watch them play the next night. Arthur Brown was cool as well actually. He guested on our record actually, a spoken word piece. He's got a great voice, really entertaining. I think he's coming up for 70 now.

I was going to say that he must be getting on - my dad likes him! When I first read the title of your new album 'Kill the Power', I thought it sounded like a rally against authority, but listening to the single of the same name it's almost like Benji is singing about personal power, or the band's power as he sings 'You can't kill the power'. Is it both?It's up for interpretation; it's a very strong statement and when we were talking about it, when he was writing the lyrics, someone brought up the same point. It can be autobiographical about our band, or you, yourself too. It’s about encouragement really and self-discovery. We've been a band for a long time and people have taken cheap shots at us in the press for years about being old, etc. but then we'll win an award from that same magazine. It gets confusing! We just do what we do; we turn up and make the best music for ourselves, and hopefully the people that like us. It’s a very simple ethos for us! With the record title it was like 'you can't kill us, we'll still be around', but also it's an encouragement. If there's something in your life that makes you feel downtrodden, it’s the story of the underdog, which is what we've always felt. [Laughs] Wow, I can talk, can't I?

That's fine! The last time I interviewed a drummer he responded in three-word sentences and the interview was over in minutes, so please keep talking! The video for the single was filmed in India -why did you decide to film it there?I could give you the drummer's answer or the real answer... the album was planned for release in January, and they wanted to release the single in the run up to Christmas. It got to the end of Reading Festival and we were asking when we were going to do the video. A bunch of treatments were being sent through by British directors, but there was one we wanted to work with, so we singled him out. The date kept getting pushed back and back and we were worried we were going to miss our deadlines and the whole campaign would go tits up. We had a show booked in India at the end of our Japanese run and it was actually me who suggested we shoot a video there. So I rang my manager up and suggested it to him and he said he was already trying to sort it out for us! He said he was going to put it in motion and that's the last the band heard of it. We get on a plane and are told we're shooting the video in the next two days. We arrive in India and it's absolutely manic. This guy called Bond, who was the location scout, was driving around on his motorbike, going to the locations and sorting them out. Y'know that Blink 182 video where they've got all the money from the record company and are just handing it out? It was a bit like that. We had to give all the money to the director, because he had to pay off all the police. You need permits over there to film, and if you get caught filming, the penalty is massive, so we were really worried about it. We decided we were going to pay people off; pay taxi drivers, pay for scouts, pay for spies… so as soon as the police would come we would move off! We'd pay people to stand out and watch on walkie talkies. When you watch the video you'll see Benji walking down a street, looking over his shoulder, because he's actually thinking, ‘I've gotta go!' On one of the takes, he sped up on his lyrics because he had to hurry up and get out of there! There was a bit where they had to bundle him in the back of a car and cover him up with blankets. There was another bit where we were up on a roof and a load of people broke on to it. It was like guerrilla filming, we've never done anything like it.

It must have been a lot of fun!It was, because we didn't know what we were doing! There were no call sheets with set times. It was more like 'get in the car and we'll film what we can'. There was one point where we were on top of a roof - that all got cut from the video. We're carrying all our drums and gear through people’s houses to get on top of this block of flats. We set up, and I look over the edge and there's these huge fruit bats flying around our heads - absolutely nuts! If I'd read that in a treatment I wouldn't have done it!

You don't like bats?I don't like bats and I don't like the idea of falling off high buildings while I’m playing the drums!

Is there anywhere else you would like to film a music video? Will you film one in Australia?I think we'll film one everywhere we go now! It’s the new vibe! Do you remember back in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s when videos were at their height? If you wanted to go to cool location you had to pay top dollar to get the whole band and the crew there, and that’s why people stopped doing it, because it's so expensive. I was watching a documentary on Duran Duran and when they made the video for Rio they went out to Thailand and basically filmed all the videos for that record in Thailand in a week. I'd like to do a video in Thailand or Malaysia - that would be cool. Or maybe the Arctic!

I can only think of Rammstein who've done a rock video in the snow!30 Seconds To Mars have bloody done one! 

I don't count them as a rock band so we won't count them...Well done, me neither! 

The previous single 'Ninja' has got an 8-bit break in it, which is not something you guys have really used before. Is that something you're planning to use again?‘Ninja’ was really a reintroduction to people who liked Skindred - classic Skindred. The lyrics were tongue-in-cheek and the 8-bit thing was fun. It was like a sledgehammer, “we're back!” It’s a good, fun live song. Benji said he wanted it to be like a movie trailer. It was autobiographical with a hip-hop sensibility, like when they're talking about themselves. It was that same sort of vibe, like a Public Enemy sort of thing. Lyrically it's a bit of a red herring on the album as there's other stuff there that stands out. 'Kill The Power' stepped it up and showed off our new tricks. 

A few years ago you stepped in to play for Korn at Download when they had to cancel. Have you ever thought of playing other metal bands’ songs in the style of Skindred?That’s a cool idea. We have recorded a load of covers on the ‘Kill The Power’ session, but they're not necessarily metal covers. We've done a couple of ‘80s pop tunes and we did an old punk song. We did ‘The Safety Dance’, but that's just between you and me! We were fucking around in the studio and everyone picked a song. I think we did a Rocket From The Crypt tune, we did ‘Hotstepper’, erm… we did Devo’s 'Whip It' and Max Romeo’s 'I Chase The Devil'. None of them have come out yet, so don’t print that until January or I'll get in trouble!

You have my word! Thank you for being a drummer that talks....I get made fun of; they say I'm like Lars [Ulrich - Metallica], which I take as a compliment… sometimes! Other times I think the guy's a bit of a knob-head!

Lenore

Skindred come to the Nick Rayns LCR at the UEA on January 22nd. For tickets, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk, or enter our competition to win one of two pairs by answering this question: 

Q. What was the name of Skindred's debut album? Was it

a. Babylonb. Baby Lotionc. Bubbly Lion

Send your answer to emma@outlineonline.co.uk with the subject 'GIMME SOME SKIN-DRED' by Monday 20th January.