The Skints are a reggae-punk band from East London who are currently on their first headline tour to promote their debut album Live.Breate.Build.Believe. It was released on November 9th through Sonic Boom Six's record label Rebel Alliance Recordings and brings in a diverse mix of ska, reggae punk with politically inspired honest lyrics.
Jamie: Hi my name’s Jamie, I’m from The Skints and I play drums and I sing.
Josh: I’m Josh I play guitar and sing.
John: I’m john, I play bass.
Josh: And that’s Marcia and she plays the organ, the flute and she sings and she plays the melodica.
Did you have to give up anything to be in the band at all?
Josh- A couple of us were gunna go to Uni or whatever and obviously work is very hard when you’re in a band so work doesn’t really happen so yeah obviously you give up having a regular income at home and stuff but its kinda like the best job in the world you don’t make money out of
Do you feel like you’re getting a bit more recognition and respect now?
Josh- I think sort of through the really hard work and touring we’ve done this year I think it’s really sort of paid off. I’d definitely like to think there’s more people aware of our band and you know the fact that this is our first headline tour and having people coming out is really cool for us.
In a way do you not think it’s about time people are getting to know you cuz you gigged in London for ages for free so in a way do you think it’s about time?
Josh- Well I mean you know there’s so many bands in the world let alone this country that are sort of trying to do their thing so to be seen amongst that as a band that people will actually bother to part with their nights out, part with their money and to be a part of is something really cool and obviously it’s still very humbling to have people who wanna buy our record and come to a shows and things like that
And your album has just come out, so how does it feel for that to finally be out for everyone?
John- Brilliant
It’s an amazing feeling to finally have something that you can access now and just going down to a shop
Josh- You know all of us love music and we all have an extensive music collection and like I’ve always from when I was really young id go and buy a new punk record and feel like this is wicked and to actually be able to hold your album and listen to it, well I don’t really listen to my own album (laughs) but you know to have an album amongst us is a very very cool feeling
How was it making the album then cuz it didn’t take you very long did it?
John- No it took us about 5 days we did it at Pete Miles studio in Devon
Josh- We did like 5 days of recording it and went back and did a day cuz we had a month where we were on tours and stuff and so we sat on it and listened back and we went and did a day mixing which was really cool but yeah you know we sort of we were quite ready it’s not like we had to do any creating or anything we had the album ready to go and we sort of worked out fingers to the bone for 5 days straight and we were really happy for that to come out
Is there any story behind the title at all?
Josh- Live breathe build believe it’s a lyric on one of the songs called 'ya know' and it pretty much means like you said earlier that this band has pretty much given up everything to do this you know we built this thing and we believe in it and every single day it’s like you know you go and tour and you’re just your band in your van and it pretty much encompasses your life but in a very positive way.
And you bought it out with sonic boom six’s record label, how did that come about?
Josh- We did like a few support shows with sonic boom six and we sorta got like quite matey with them and they sort of got us onto a couple of shows and it was around February when the random hand album came out with rebel alliance we played the release gig with them up in Leeds and barney was like ‘oh you know are you lot looking to do an album this year?’ and we said yeah definitely and he said okay can we put it out and I thought like ‘what do you mean put it out?’ it was the most crazy thing cuz sonic boom six are like UK punk wise you know and pretty much are running it when we were first starting out so for like a while later for them to ask us to be on their label!
What do you think to illegal downloading? Being a fairly small band does it affect you?
Josh- It’s like a wheel it’s never gunna stop rolling like the argument of the download thing I think for a band like us people that buy our album a) you’ve got everything there you’ve got like the artwork and the CD and everything and you got the CD but at the same time we like people to think that they are really helping us out cuz they are they’re helping us eat, put fuel in our van and to get to the next show, pretty much but as far as downloading goes I aint gunna lie I’ve downloaded albums before and I’ve bought albums before I would rather if someone downloads our album and gives it to their mates and a load of people come down to see us off the strength of that, I think that’s better than just like one person buying it and never coming out so there’s up and downs you know I personally think if people can afford it like buy our album that’s amazing but you know you don’t necessarily gotta have money to have music that you wanna listen to
Now I’m just gunna read out some lyrics from your album and I just want you to talk about them: I can count on both hands the bands that I think are worth a damn’ what made you write that?
Josh- Its probably more than both hands to be honest I was having a bit of an angry day when I wrote that song just like I think British music I think it’s definitely still in recession but for a while the UK punk scene you know it might be a bit of a controversial statement but it kinda died on its arse as far as quality goes, for me anyway and it just got to a point, there was obviously like 2-3 bands that were really cool and we were supposed to be playing shows in the scene and wasn’t really feeling a lot of the bands, don’t get me wrong there are some brilliant bands, more than both hands can count, it’s more of a metaphor but yeah just sort of like losing faith in something that you are musically a part of is a bit depressing.
So it’s your first headline tour as well, how is that as opposed to just being a support band, how’s it going?
Josh- I think you know, first night it was absolutely terrifying I mean obviously we’ve done quite a few headline gigs but not nearly as many as we’ve done supports, but as the headline tour you sort of forget, it sort of becomes more it’s more like one channelled, it sounds kinda selfish but it becomes a bit more about you, like when you’re a support band you’re effectively tagging the other band, which is really cool cuz like we’ve toured with bands like The Slackers, and The Aggrolites and Sonic Boom Six and we’ve been doing that for years and they just know their trade so well and we’ve been lucky enough to be able to learn things from that so doing a headline tour it’s a) a fear of like oh my god are people actually gunna come out and b) it’s like a fear of oh my god we’ve gotta like play for an hour and are supposed to be the best band at the end of the night and whatever so its kinda like exciting but scary at the same time as well.
Do you feel a bit under pressure at all?
Josh- Not so much pressure, I think like when we first got told that we were going to be doing a headline tour with the album, like 6/7 months ago, I personally didn’t think we were ready but I think you know we’ve worked really hard this year
Due to some of your lyrics do you think it’s fair for people to call you a political band?
Josh- I'd never call us a political band. I mean everything technically if you wanna get all anal about it is political but I wouldn’t say we were a political band you know all our lyrics are a personal thoughts and feelings and if that’s taken as politics then fair enough but it’s not intentional like right were gunna go out and smash the system, even though lyrically one of might be saying that, I mean it’s not really like we’re here to blow up parliament or anything. I wouldn’t call us a political band but we are very politically minded
Marcia- So it will come out in the music a little bit
So off the top of your head what bands are you all listening to at the minute?
Josh- To be brutally honest I haven’t been listening to too much stuff of this genre I’ve been listening to quite a bit of grime and dub step recently, but I’m really looking forward to the new jimmy the squirrel album which I’m sure most Nottingham people are aware of their abilities and I’m really looking forward to hearing some new mouthwash and new clay pigeon as well
And just to finish off have you got anything to say to your fans that have been supporting you at all?
Josh- Thank you very much fans that have been supporting us at all(laughs) we really appreciate people coming to our shows and buying our record so let’s just keep partying like its 1999!
No comments:
Post a Comment