Sceneazine.com
haha.
David- I’m hoping we can at least be articulate and
interesting enough to maybe entice someone to check
us out. Haha.
Skinkage
By Jeri Jones
Hailing from N.C., Skinkage is a band placing
metal with purpose and will not stop until the damage is done. Having shared the stage with national acts
such as Lazarus A.D., Death Angel, Straight Line Stitch,
Mensrea, SpineShank, Kittie and Silent Civilian, its
no wonder why they are harkened as local heavy hitters. Proceeding 2009’s release of “The Devastation at
Hand”, Skinkage has managed to out do themselves in
2011 with “Away with the Tide”, turning ears, heads, and
hearts everywhere they step foot. Continuing onward
Skinkage released music videos for the tracks “The Token of America”, “Crawl” and “Led to Slaughter”. With
a solid line up of like minded and mastered old hands
of the area and material unique to the scene, Skinkage
hails no sub genres, only riding under the flag of American heavy metal. Skinkage is full steam ahead to every
venue supporting metal and every ear willing to listen
to their brand of brutality. The sky is the limit for this
band, and that undefined horizon is exactly where they
are headed. Stay tuned, as SkinKage will be releasing
their latest effort this spring entitled “Tyrants”. This will
be their heaviest release to date..
So lets introduce the band. Who are the members
and what instruments do they play?
Frankie Brown - Vocals
David Phillips- Guitar
Travis Stiwalt- Guitar
Chris Peavy - Drums
Juston Green- Bass
Let’s assume that the readers have never heard of
your band. What do you want them to get from this
interview?
Juston-Just that we exist would be a great start.
Travis-Check out our music, and come hang out
with us at a show!
Frankie- Hahaha! I agree with both of these guys,
but that we are a band that stands for something. We
have a message within our music as well. And you don’t
have to play our record backwards to hear it either.. ha-
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Who in the band came up with your name? What,
if any, reason did you guys choose it? Does it have a
meaning behind it or does it stand for something?
Juston- The conception of the bands name was a
while before my time so I can’t speak on any of that.
This is always a Frank answered question.
Frankie-Well initially we were just trying to come
up with something that sounded cool. But its really
manifested into something more than that. We are a
very politically driven band. To me its become like this
skin is just our flesh. But it doesn’t dictate who we are in
side. As Americans ya know? We need to stand for principles and take the blinders off. Just realize the things
that truly matter. I could go on and on. lol!!!!
David- The name existed long before I came into
the picture, but the overall symbolism as I’ve come to
understand it is referring to being trapped inside your
body. No matter how hard you try, you can never escape
yourself and who you are.
Frankie- Yeah that too! haha
So how long have you guys been playing in this
band? Is this everyone’s
first band they’ve played
in or have they played
others we may of heard
of?
FrankieWow!!
SkinKage was formed in
like 05! But I’m the original G! hahaha
Travis- I joined last
year, I’m sure you’ve never heard any of my old
bands, haha
David- I’ve been in
this band for about four
years now. I’ve been in
four other bands. All with
Peavy. I’ve always worked
with the same drummer.
Juston-I joined the
band in 2010, so its been
5 years for me at this
point. I’ve been in a few
bands over the past 8 or
so years.
Is there one person
who writes all the songs
or do you guys write as a
band?
Travis- We definitely
write as a band, but we tend to come up with riffs and
ideas individually, then work as a group.
Juston- More often than not, the song writing
process is collaborative. Sometimes members bring in
ideas or partial song structures, a starting point, and
other occasions a song is completely born in the practice room. We now have the pleasure of a nonstop riff
machine in the fold through Travis, which makes the
writing process even more fun.
David- We take a total round table type approach.
Anybody’s ideas are as good and valid as the other.
Frankie- Pretty much what they said. The song is
structured and recorded. Very basic recording and I
write the lyrics and vocal patterns and we just mold it
till it becomes what we envision it being.
Where do you guys usually gather songwriting
inspiration? What is you guy’s usual songwriting process?
Frankie- Inspiration is all around us. Just watch the
news. Just people watch and so on and so forth.
David-Personally, I’m usually zoning out in front
of the TV playing and just dumbly stumble onto a riff
that I end up liking. We’ll all kind of bring in our ideas
and flesh them out and try to find a way to creatively
piece them together.
Juston- Life is all the inspiration I could ever ask