Interview Interrogation:- Benji Webbe & Mikey Demus of Skindred (Wales)

When Skindred was announced to perform at Bloodstock 2017 there were a number of people who took their angst onto social media, raging at a band not being 'metal' enough being booked to play, when they should be at Download. Reality check, they've done Download, they've had their song 'Nobody' on the NFS Underground 2 game soundtrack, they've been going nearly 20 years, they've played Wacken for heaven's sake. That's metal enough for us.

Despite the whinging and whining on the net, the amount of festival goers Skindred pulled was more than adequate to put the elitists in their place. The well known 'Newport Helicopter' was a fitting way to end their set, even the ShowSec crew in front of the Ronnie James Dio stage got involved:- watch their song 'Warning' with the Newport Helicopter included here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpnPeFtUGkU); credit goes to YouTuber Jamiet1994 for the video - skip to 3:51 for the legendary Newport Helicopter. 

Benji Webbe and Mikey Demus both were more than happy to spend time with GMA to talk about their origins, playing BOA for the first (and possibly not the last) time, plans ahead, the origin of the Newport Helicopter and much more... over to the Welsh Ragga Metallers.

"...bringing black people together, white people together no matter what, gay people, straight people, etc., I believe that's what we do""

So guys the 'Newport Helicopter', did you come up with it yourself? It's become a staple part of your performance hasn't it.

Benji:-

     "Yeah man one day I was on tour and we just erm... I decided to do this thing called the 'Newport Helicopter' and make everyone take their t-shirts off and swing them, it just seemed to catch on and people really dig it and if they didn't dig it, we wouldn't do it. Yeah yeah yeah, but you know what like I said if it was something that people didn't like, they wouldn't do it and people do enjoy it (goes on to say that when said topic comes up in interviews he admits it's really cool)."


Brexit is hugely topical at the moment, so as a band are you worried about what could happen?

Benji:-

     "I don't wanna know anything about that..., absolutely we're worried; it's pushing people away. Do you know how much money it's going to cost just to change the signs? Millions. Millions and millions and that's pathetic, you know I mean? I want to be part of a union, like what Mikey said we're about unity and I was quite upset when we're (The UK) in favour of leaving the E.U., I love Europe and I want to be a part of Europe you know? May the people have the power you know."

Mikey:-

     "No go on..., I mean everyone's got a different stance on it, I personally don't think it's a good idea, don't think it's a good thing, we're a band about unity and that whole thing is not about unity. I don't see the purpose or the point, not into it personally."


Skindred has been going for nearly 20 years. So over the course of your discography have you changed your music style slightly, or kept it the same?

Benji:-

     "Yeah solid. You know if something isn't broken, don't fix it. People don't know that we're a band who draw in a lot of different musical genres, a lot of different musical instrumentations and we just put it in together you know? The way I look it is like someone once said: 'by any means necessary, we'll make the people rock', and that means putting all the stuff together and that's what we'll do."


Focusing on the band name Skindred, what does it mean, was there any inspiration? What does your family think of your music?

Benji:-

     "Well it comes from... because the genres have come from different places, when we started the band we wanted something which represented the hardness and also the mellowness, so we took Skindred. 'Skin' coming from skinhead, which represents the sort of British urban kind of vibe and the 'dred' comes from the more danceable kind of thing... [so like a portmanteau? - Benji had not heard of this word so explained that it's a combination of 2 words], yeah man I like that, portmanteau, portmanteau"

     "My family has always been supportive of what I do, they love what I do, they're very happy and they know that. In all honesty in my mind what Skindred is, is me, it's outrageous, it's bold, you know it's me and my family love what I do, they don't f*cking buy the records but they're very proud of what I do and they're happy that I'm happy"

Mikey:-

     "In the same way that Skindred sort of drags in a very varied audience, it's the same with our families. Like my dad, my wife, they're not metallers you know what I mean? They'd be here clapping and waving a t-shirt around in the crowd just like the rest of those people. We did the same thing at Boomtown where it's all kinds of different people, today it's a field full of metalheads, they're going to get into it just the same. So we don't bring that 'we're this (splat), if you're not this then you're not going to like it'".


This is Skindred's first ever Bloodstock appearance, both of you how are you feeling about it?

Benji:- "Excited!"
Mikey:-

      "Can't wait, you know it's our first time here, I feel like we're at home, everyone I've spoken to is buzzing and pleased to play, we can't wait it's going to be great"


For those who have never checked you out, what song would you recommend and why?

Benji:-

     "'Nobody' is a good song. I think 'Rat Race' is another one I thought of. Stay away from the 'business card', stay away from that."

Mikey:-

     "Nobody is a good one, sums it up I think. 'Nobody' is kind of autobiographical you know? It's kind of a good business card but if you're not into that, fair enough."


What wares / equipment are you using right now? Benji what inspired you to become a vocalist?

Benji:-  "Microphone... (all laugh)"

     "Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck... I just watched cartoons as a kid and started impersonating the voices and then watching movies like 'West Side Story', 'Carousel' and then realizing I can actually... from mimicking the cartoon characters I can actually mimic the voices on 'West Side Story'. As a kid at school, our teacher would mostly sing us a song, tell us a story and I love it and I'd do all the voices. Like I said before music I was inspired by just voices, sounds, tones, etc.,"

Mikey:-

     "I'm using Orange amps, Manson guitars and a bunch of cool sh*t as well (Benji and Mikey laugh), loads of cool sh*t (Benji), been using the same stuff for quite a while"

Bloodstock has a competition called Metal 2 The Masses that unsigned bands enter, and so what advice have you got for those bands? Any advice for children getting into music?

Benji:-

     "Keep doing what you do and love what you do, that's the best thing I can offer because this business is not about promises, or because you've been playing guitar for so long that don't you're going to get paid for it. Just enjoy it man, try to enjoy it and that's what it's for - life's too short for you not to be enjoying yourself"

     "You got to love it if you want to do it, that's my advice, love the people around you and I'll honestly say this 'when I'm on stage and I've got Mike, Arya and Dan with me, you know honestly mate I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have them, I'm in awe and I feel very blessed to be on the same stage as them'. If you can feel like that with the musicians around you, that's part of the battle, I think you've got to really love the people around you, you got to love each other.... that don't mean being in other's houses everyday... but you got to love each other to do this (being in a band). We're a family, that's how it should be."

     "My son, he was at the concert last night and the beautiful thing about it when he was growing up, even though there was a lot of music around I made sure he knew who The Clash was, he knew who The Ruts were, he knew all these different punk rock bands, and I was with him the other day and we were driving along and he played me some new Kanye West stuff, but he also played me some new Metallica stuff, which is great."

Mikey:-

     "I think if you have no expectations about anything coming out of music, you can only be positively surprised and if everything goes well. I think if you have expectations around you, you're going to be potentially disappointed because it's a difficult world to survive in. We're still figuring out 15 years in, trying to improve on the last thing we did, you know staying busy and staying active."

     "I would say for me I think, it's important for kids to play instruments and be into rock n' roll, because that's something that's kind of comes and goes and kids are growing up with f*cking celebrity nonsense and reality TV, it's all bullsh*t... it wasn't really a thing when I was a kid... I bought records and read magazines. I don't know if kids still do that now, I mean I've got a young kid who I hope grows up to be into certain things that you know, you want to keep that alive. I wouldn't just want them to be into f*cking 'Frozen', 'Disney', you know what I mean? I want them to be into f*cking Metallica, Pantera., etc"


Could you enlighten us as to where the 'Nobody' music video was filmed?

Mikey:-

     "That was down near Toronto in a warehouse with a production company from New York and we pitched all kinds of ideas for the song, hit the nail on the head of everything we're about and wanted to do, and yeah they nailed and we had a great time doing it. It was in a room probably twice the size of this (the Gibson bus), there was probably about 110 people in there kicking the sh*t out of each other, with us in the middle ground"


With your 'Ragga Metal' style, was there any inspiration behind it or did it just come naturally?

Benji:-

     "Well, for me personally when I was a little boy there was a band called The Specials, and they played punk rock and reggae and, basically they were playing covers of my dad's record collection but in a punk rock way. There were black guys and white guys and they all looked like they could live on my housing estate, on my council estate in South Wales and I was like 'wow I want to be in a band like that' and I believe, I really believe that I'm going to achieve that; bringing black people together, white people together no matter what, gay people, straight people, etc., I believe that's what we do"


Of course that's one of the great things about metal, it unites people from all over the world.

Benji:- "Oh yeah it's beautiful"
Mikey:-

     "The metal community is a very loyal community as well, they embrace what we do and when they're into it it's like they're into it for life. You know what I mean, we go away for a couple years and then come back and people still turn up. It's not like a fickle kind of world where maybe pop is, indie you know, because it's not a massively fashionable... fashion-orientated world where people just love what they love"


Regarding metal elitists, what are your thoughts on them?

Benji:-

     "What's a metal elitist?" (someone who sticks to one metal genre, bashing the others), "well they're missing out aren't they."

Mikey:-

     "I like the challenge of it, because those people who are on the forums going 'Skindred are playing, ah I'm not going this year', mark my words they're going to be f*cking out there later losing their sh*t, guarantee it that they'll be saying 'ah that was brilliant', can guarantee it."


So what's next for Skindred after Bloodstock?

Benji:-

     "We're off to Australia for an Australian tour, we're all excited about it. We'll be playing a show in Japan with Alice Cooper, so yeah we've got some pretty big things coming up and then we're going to start writing a brand new record, this is like the end of a cycle of 'Volume' so 'Volume's out there with the other records and then when we get back we're going to start again. A whole new album, which we hope to get out this time next year (August 2018)"

    [Is there any New Zealand dates?]

     "No mate, I don't understand. Seriously it's been too long man, New Zealand? What's wrong with you?"

Mikey:-

     "I don't think we could this time, we'd love to go down there - not happening this time.


Have you got any greetings, thank you's, etc you wish to send out?

Mikey:-

     "We'd like to thank everyone who is here today and everyone who's been supporting us playing this festival and just our fans in general, if it wasn't for the fans we wouldn't be here sat having this conversation ('That's right' - Benji)"

Benji:-

     "It's all about de fans man!"


Skindred are currently touring in Australia.

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