Sydney based Punk Rock (but with a hint of Hardcore) band Skinpin have recently released the Shifting Sands EP, and in the process have put to shame so many of these ‘punk bands’ we’ve grown accustom to. With a strong emphasis on the music, they steer clear of the fashion, the scene and all the bullshit that up until now has been associated with similar acts. This is simple ‘fuck on the floor and break shit’ punk that Henry Rollins preaches about. Thank god its come back, and heres to hoping that it catches on! I caught up with Rickards from Skinpin, and here is the result.
Blessed Are The Obsessed: What’s your name and what do you do in the band?
Rickards: Rickards, guitar & vocals
BATO: How long have you guys been jamming together?
R: Handshake (drummer) has only been in the band for about a year and a half where as Jorge (Bass/Vocals) and I have been jamming together for about 5 years.
BATO: You’ve recently released Shifting Sands, can you give us a bit of a rundown on that one?
R:When we decided to record, I had conversations with Jonboy (producer) about how it should sound as we wanted it to be really raw but alive and exciting, as usually raw sounding is code for ‘it sounds like dogshit’. Thankfully we made a record that stands up sonically against other records, regardless if you like what we’re doing on it.
BATO: ‘Crawl’ has just made It to #8 on the AirIt charts, how stoked are you on that?
R: Very, something really unexpected. You’d like to believe that a good song will make it through but we all know that’s not always the case.
BATO: skinpin is being praised for bring balls back into punk, what are your thoughts on these other ‘so called punk’ bands who seem to be born with out any testosterone?
R: Unfortunately the word Punk has been co-opted by marketeers and PR clones. They obviously want the most manageable drones they can have. So in the chain of dominoes that fall you have kids who unfortunately think that’s what Punk should be so they buy into it. I just hope they can take some time to notice that music like most things has a history and they can discover some great bands and move forward. That or just dissolve and not waste my time.
BATO: What else can we expect to see from skinpin in 2012?
R: I’d like to say heaps of shows with awesome bands but we’ll just try to play as much as we can and get out and about.
BATO: Are you worried about the world ending this year?
R: Haha. Absolutely not!
BATO: Finally, other than skinpin of coarse, what’s another band you’ve picked to break through this year?
R: Haha. That’d be really nice. If I had the ability to choose who’d become massively successful I’d choose the Hard Ons without whom the Australian musical landscape would be a very poor creature.
You can catch the lads at The Sando in Newtown, Jan 27. Hit up their facebook for more information.
