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Great LezBritain: Interview with Skin of Skunk Anansie

“Great LezBritian” is a fortnightly stroll through the very best of British lesbo-centric entertainment and culture. Plus there will be some jolly good interviews with the top ladies who are waving the flag for gay UK.

In the mid 1990s, the UK music scene was taken over by Britpop, a movement awash with big-haired, skinny fellas singing about quaint British things like beer, pigeons and living in the country. One band that arrived during the Britpop era but didn’t quite fit into its cigarette shaped box was Skunk Anansie. Their music grabbed you by the scruff of the neck and then slowly licked you into submission whilst enlightening your mind with such fine lines as, “Yes it’s f—ing political.”

While this musical era, like most, was male-dominated, a few notable female fronted bands did manage to make waves in the charts, including Louise Wener’s Sleeper and Sonya Madan’s Echobelly and, of course, the wonderful Elastica. But in our opinion, Skunk Anansie frontwoman Skin rocked harder than any of her peers, male or female. Apart from having an incredible pair of lungs, Skin also stood out because she was black, bisexual, openly feminist, bald and beautiful. She also deserves kudos for coining the phrase “clit-rock” to describe Skunk Anansie’s music.

The band’s three albums, Paranoid and Sunburnt (1995), Stoosh (1996) and Post Orgasmic Chill (1999) were hugely successful selling millions of copies and giving the musical landscape interesting and controversial songs like “Selling Jesus,” “Charlie big potato” and “Hedonism” while Oasis were still telling people just to “roll with it.” Britpop imploded as the 90s rolled towards the decade-end and Skunk Anansie split soon after Post Orgasmic Chill, much to our sorrow.

Ten years later, Skunk Anansie has decided that now is the time to once again shake up the music scene. So we caught up with Skin after an awe-inspiring performance on the main stage at Scotland’s T in the Park festival. We ask her about plans for the band’s new album, Wonderlustre, how it is being back in the fold, and what she thinks of the current state of women in music.

AfterEllen.com: Hello, Skin. How has your year been thus far? Skin: Well, it’s been a bit of a mad one. Firstly we wrote an album, then went straight into recording the album and then we went straight on tour. So I feel like we haven’t really stopped since January.

AE: I read that Skunk Anasie’s reformation happened last year but people have only just been hearing about it now? Skin: It happened the year before but we did it under the radar with a greatest hits record. Now we have our new album, Wonderlustre, coming out in September, and hopefully with it, we will shake off the old comeback tag and just be seen as a new band. AE: What sound can we expect from Wonderlustre? Skin: It is a collection of very melodic, very interesting songs that came out of the band just sitting in a room jamming together for months on end. It’s quite sporadic but it’s the band’s album and a very different sound. It is nothing like Post Orgasmic Chill. It is the sound we would be making if we were a fresh new band. I love it and everyone who has heard it is raving about it. I hope people listen to it with open ears because it isn’t like the old Skunk Anansie.

AE: Was it a conscious decision to move away from the old Skunk Anansie sound? Skin: We couldn’t make a Post Orgasmic Chill today even if we wanted to because that was ten years ago. Like everyone does, we have grown and changed. Plus it would be really boring and uninspiring for us and for our audience to try.

AE: What inspired the band’s reformation? Skin: Well, we’ve been meaning to do it for the last few years but the timing wasn’t right. We couldn’t get four members together at the same time. Then the record company was going to do it anyway (with the greatest hits) but we said, “You’re not going to do it without us.” So that was the catalyst and we just had so much fun making the new songs that we wanted to continue. AE: I have read that you described your sound as “black feminist rage.” Is that still the perspective you are coming from? Skin: I never described it as that, other people did. And it was just a lazy journalist viewpoint because that’s too limiting. There is lots going on in our music, it’s very passionate, we have mellow stuff and at times a really rock and heavy sound, but the running theme is the chemistry of the band and that comes out in our performances.

AE: When you first arrived, you were mostly amongst white indie boys so you naturally stood out. Was that a positive or negative place to be? Skin: Well, we were very much the outsiders, we were never fully on board with the Britpop phenomenon. And I think that as we continue, we are still outsiders and I think that is a good place to be. That’s where we are comfortable because we like being unique.

AE: You coined the term “clitpop” I take it that was that as a reaction to Britpop? Skin: I did it to take the piss out of Britpop because, at the time, we couldn’t get any of the same television or radio shows as the Britpop bands were getting and I thought the term was quite clever really! It was quite funny, and people still try and call us “clitpop” but I tell them that scene is over.

AE: What do you think of the current scene of women in music? Skin: I think there are lots of interesting women doing some really interesting things. The scene is varied, which is nice because at the beginning of the 21st century there was some really bad over-sexualised girlie pop. That’s fine, but you need balance and it seems we now have a heavy splattering of interesting women like Florence and the Machine and Beth Ditto from the Gossip.

AE: Is there a pressure attached to being the only black, openly bisexual woman in British music? Skin: People tried to make me feel pressured but I never have. I am an individual and if you want to feel inspired by what I do, that is a really good thing. Yes I happen to be female and black and bisexual and these are things that are part of me, but they don’t tell the whole picture, it’s too limiting to put people in boxes like that.

AE: We recently put you in a box because we included you in an article we wrote celebrating the UK’s top 10 lesbian and bisexual women. How do you feel about that? Skin: I wasn’t number 10, was I?

AE: It wasn’t ranked so you were both 10 and 1 … Skin: Oh good! You can get carried away with the flattery you receive. I like to inspire women to get up and play guitar and it’s nice that people can look at me and say “She’s doing it so why can’t I?” But it’s very important that people make their own paths, because it is much more interesting for them to be themselves. So please don’t copy me, it probably wouldn’t suit you!

Skunk Anansie’s new album, Wonderlustre is out on September 13 worldwide. For more information, check out the official website at www.skunkanansie.net.

“Great LezBritain” authors Sarah, a Londoner, and Lee, a Glaswegian, met in a gay discotheque one bleak mid winter, eight years ago and have been shacked up together ever since. When not watching Tipping The Velvet, they find time to write, run a PR company, DJ at their own club nights and love a bit of jam on toast. Follow them on Twitter at greatlezbritain.

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