Interviews: Skunk Anansie

Back with a greatest hits record, some new material and a sold out UK tour, we felt it was about time we caught up with Skunk Anansie…

Posted Tuesday, 6 October 2009 in

Back with a greatest hits record, some new material and a sold out UK tour, we felt it was about time we caught up with Skunk Anansie…

You’re about to release your greatest hits collection, ‘Smashes And Trashes’. How nostalgic do you feel looking back at you career?
Skin (vocals): “When we did the first secret show at Water Rats [in London], that kind of knocked nostalgia out of the window, because that didn’t feel old to us. It felt like ‘Wow, this is what we do’ – like a day had passed. The best comment we actually had was from the publisher who originally signed us, he said to me, ‘You know what was great about that show? I didn’t feel nostalgic watching you. I felt like it was a new band, almost’.”
Cass (bass): “Yeah, that was probably the nicest thing someone could have said to us. It doesn’t really feel like, ‘Oooh yeah, we did this tune in 1982!’”
Skin: “Okay, we’ve got back together again before we’re too old to do it!”

How has the reaction to your reformation been so far?
Skin: “The biggest reaction has been from young people saying things like, ‘I can’t wait to see you because I didn’t get to the first time round’, which is really cool. That’s probably why all the tickets have sold out so quickly. I think the wise thing about Skunk Anansie was that we did stop at our peak. We didn’t do two shit albums and then stop, we didn’t completely lose our fans or slag each other off in the press, and we didn’t do really stupid things, like getting drunk and trashing places publicly. That’s why we’ve been able to jump back into it, because there is no resentment. We started laughing and got back into putting the boots back on. In some ways we’re still brightly fresh and clean and untarnished. All that’s to come!”

You transcended from being quite a political punk band to a bit of a stadium rock band towards the end. Do you ever regret the change?
Skin: “I don’t think we changed, I think these are just aspects of us. We’ve got that big rock, political edge, as well as the punky-funky thing. The thing is, when you turn into a big band, you’re always going to get those criticisms, but we’re still the same band.”
Mark (drums): “If we didn’t do bigger concerts, we’d just have to do millions of them and we’d never get a minute off. You can’t be underground forever.”
Skin: “We did five tours of England before we even had a single out, so for us it’s really nice to do big gigs and it’s really nice to do tiny sweaty ones as well.”

Who would you say is one of the female icons in rock music?
Skin: “There are loads now! Lady Gaga, Florence And The Machine, Bat For Lashes… Shingai [Shoniwa] from the Noisettes is amazing, she’s probably my favourite. The new album’s very radio-friendly but that’s what got them into this position. She’s an amazing front person – beautiful, plays bass and guitar, sings like Billie Holiday on crack or smack! Anyway…”

What do you think of Hayley Williams from Paramore?
Mark: “I like Paramore, but I don’t really know much about Hayley Williams. All those kind of bands, I take them with a pinch of salt. They went through a sort of similar thing with the burnout, but they’re carrying on.”
Skin: “Evanescence, or Effervescence as I call them, is one band I really didn’t like, though. That just didn’t seem like a real band to me. I think they’re cashing in on the post-pop, post-punk depression. The post-Skunk depression!”

Why does the world of rock need you back in 09?
Skin: “There was a bit of a void that didn’t really get filled by anyone else. Because you know, no one dared. Or maybe it was because they felt we were shit! Either way, there wasn’t anything dirty, nasty or punky with a female voice. No one jumped in and filled the gap. It feels like we’re reclaiming our space and filling it up again!”

The greatest hits collection ‘Smashes And Trashes’ is out on November 02 on One Little Indian.

www.skunkanansie.net