Stereoboard Talk To Skindred Ahead Of Their Top-Rated Performance At Download 2011 (Interview)
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Written by Heather McDaid
With their fourth and latest record ‘Union Black’ released earlier this year, Skindred have had time to gauge the fantastic response prior to their return to the UK festival circuit. Having taken Sonisphere by storm in 2010, the Welsh foursome rocked up to Donington to not only dominate the mainstage, but treat fans of ragga-metal to a smaller acoustic set. Prior to this, Benji and Ayra took a little time to chat. You’ll learn a lot about what Skindred stand for, and you’ll also learn never to tell Benji you’re scared of spiders.
“DYNAMITE!” laughed Benji when describing Skindred’s upcoming acoustic set. “It’s going to be fun. I mean, do you take it seriously and go ‘Oh, this song’s about the woman I love’? Come on, man. You’ve just gotta rock and enjoy yourself.”
On top of these festival appearances and a headlining tour of their own earlier this year, the band travelled the UK in support of Rob Zombie who also played Download the past weekend. “He’s just a genius,” remarks Benji. “There’s nothing he does that makes people go ‘No’.”
“We got to hang out with him every night, which was cool,” adds Ayra. “Sometimes we had to just say, ‘Look, Rob. We don’t want to hang out with you anymore’,” jokes Benji. “No, but seriously, he is a very cool dude.”
“We had a great tour,” continues Ayra. “What I think was good was that we got to play those bigger venues and it was literally all Rob Zombie fans, no one was really there for Skindred. We seemed to have a really good reaction from Zombie fans.”
Having initially dropped some new tracks live with Rob Zombie, the band have now had a few months to witness the success of ‘Union Black’ amidst fans. “You know, we first judged the response to our new songs when we played them opening on the Zombie tour,” says Benji. “We’d play them and see the kids go crazy. We would sing the chorus to some songs and they’d be singing the words back immediately and loving it. We’ve had a great response though; great response.”
“I try to be varying,” he continues, touching on the band’s lyrics. “As a band, we try not to be just one way – we want to be diverse in our lyrics. A lot of our lyrics are about pushing people and telling them to keep going, hoping they make it to the other side and keep trying again. A lot of our songs are about that. You’ve got to love the underdog and try push it forward. I repeat myself on every record but I always do it in a different way. We’ve always got songs about dancing and rocking. We’ve always got songs about pushing people forward.”
“We try and unite the people,” adds Ayra. “If it excites us, then it’ll turn out to be something awesome and eclectic anyway. We all listen to different stuff, so it’s going to be something a bit cookie and different to our last music since we constantly listen to new and different things.”
The band have always been honest about having a high bar set on their live performance, believing – and rightly so – that if a fan pays to see them, they deserve the best the band can give. Has there ever been a point where the band felt disappointed in their own performance? “Normally – for me anyway – I feel disappointed in a crowd,” replies Benji, thoughtfully. “I think I go out there and I am giving it more and more and the guys are doing the same and the crowd are sometimes like ‘Why do you want me to do that?’”
“I think that if we turned up to a venue and felt that we couldn’t put on the best show, which is literally us playing and sounding good up front, I’d feel bad for the fans that have paid to see us because they’re not getting the show that they deserve and the show we usually do. That’s never really happened though,” comments Ayra, adding, “Touch some sort of wood.”
“I think that if we can just get people to enjoy themselves, especially if it’s when they’re listening to our music,” says Ayra, discussing what the band hope to provoke. “I’d like people to think about positive things, have fun and actually enjoy what they’re listening to. I hope that when people come to our shows they enjoy themselves and forget about any worries that they might have and just let loose. It makes it more fun for us if we look out and see a lot of people smiling. They’re actually enjoying themselves.”
“I hope to inspire people to just live together and love music and to keep pushing forward and make it a better world,” Benji adds. “I write the sort of lyrics that I hope make people want to live, not die.”
The band also touch upon their favourite bands. Being ragga-metal, there’s not many other bands for comparison. Ayra mentions Led Zeppelin and Queen, whereas Benji talks of The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy, adding “Anyone who mixes up music, I find good. We’re quite extreme with it though.”
Courtesy of a spider atop my glasses at the start of the interview, which isn’t great for an arachnophobic, this became a recurring topic throughout. “What would you do if you saw a spider smoking a cigarette?” asked Benji, who genuinely throws his head back laughing at the response of “As long as it’s not near me it can do what it wants.”
“Would you like to be locked in a room where all the spiders were on your face? And your arms are tied down? And they were crawling inside your nose, would you like that? And your ears, would you like that?” he continues.
“I wouldn’t want a spider up my nose,” says Ayra, somewhat to my defence.
It transpires that the perfect place for a spider on Ayra would be his elbow so it couldn’t bite him and for me, personally, my hand so I could flick it off, which all came to be highly amusing to Benji. The next time I crossed paths with Benji was the next day after someone told me a spider was under my chair. I looked up to the person, who I had never seen before, to find Benji standing behind him sniggering like a child. The lesson: don’t let Benji know you are scared of bugs.
Following on from this Skindred went on to be one of the bands of the weekend, teaming their unique music and humour to dominate Donington at both of their sets. Had you missed them this weekend, it’s a high recommendation to snap up tickets next time they’re coming to a place near you.
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“DYNAMITE!” laughed Benji when describing Skindred’s upcoming acoustic set. “It’s going to be fun. I mean, do you take it seriously and go ‘Oh, this song’s about the woman I love’? Come on, man. You’ve just gotta rock and enjoy yourself.” 
