SKINDRED

THE RAGGA-METAL PIONEERS GET SET TO KILL THE POWER AT BLOODSTOCK

Bloodstock is another crazy fit of a show for you. Do you make a point of playing festivals people wouldn’t expect Skindred to be at? BENJI WEBBE (VOCALS): “No, not at all, we just play where they book us, ha ha ha! It’s quite simple: you pay us and we come, no matter where it is. We play Bloodstock one night, and the next day we play a festival called Boom Town, there’s not many bands that could do that. I guess people just dig what we do. The heaviness is there, people have bought a ticket, and they wanna have a good time. They know they’re gonna get a good time with Skindred.” What is your favourite thing about touring today? “Getting the cheque at the end. Ha ha! No, that is one of them, but I just like being in a band, really. With Skindred, we’ve been going, like, 15 years now, we’ve had the same line-up and that says a lot. Either we’re really stupid or we love what we do! I’m the oldest fella in the band and I’ve seen these guys go from young kids to men with children of their own and houses and all.”

It must make things easier in a lot of ways

“It’s just great to know that we’re a great team. When I’m onstage and look around, I’m looking at probably the best drummer in the world as far as I’m concerned, and the best bass player and best guitarist, so I’m honoured every night to be playing with those guys.”

What is the strangest show that you’ve ever played?

“It was in Sweden, we played a black metal festival. I got onstage and the crowd was looking at us like we had two heads, and I said, ‘Come on guys, you can’t get much more black metal than this!’ Ha ha! It’s funny, because we’ve played that festival for the past seven years in a row now, and people love it. If people see you up onstage, they can see what is fake and what is real. If they can see you’re enjoying yourself and that with or without them you’re gonna have a good time, they seem to jump onboard.”