Takedown Festival 2023: Skindred Set Fazers as they prepare to headline Total Rock stage and release new album, Smile | Interview

The Welsh ragga-metal legends headlined the first event when it was held in Southampton back in 2012.

Now after an eight year hiatus the festival is back – and has moved down the M27, where it is taking over Portsmouth Guildhall on April 8.

Stars and up-and-coming acts from the rock and metal scene, including Sleep Token, Loathe, Jamie Lenman, InMe, Dendera, Seething Akira and many more, will be playing across five stages on the day.

For Skindred, it marks their first show of the year as they gear up to release their eighth album, Smile, this summer. It’s five years since they released their last album, Big Tings.

The Guide caught up with Skindred’s fast-talking frontman Benji Webbe, who explains the gap: ‘The Covid knocked us for six – I think we'd have been on our ninth studio album by now, but the Covid thing took a lump out of us, and we had to recover from that, but by god – five years! I'm very glad that Smile is definitely bringing the magic. We've dropped two songs so far and people are loving them.’

The songs, Gimme That Boom and Set Fazers are straight out of the traps, take no prisoners, rockers.

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‘We're getting a lot of love for them. People say to me, “you've put out your best tunes first”, well, we ain't dropped the best yet!

‘There's more on that album than people realise. We're definitely going to give people something worth waiting five years for. When you drop an album, people say you want to go with your best foot forward – no, we just went with the immediate rock-anthem bangers, but there's some great songs and it's a great journey.

‘The album in it's entirety is a really good journey. Vinyl's come back in a big way, which is great, so when you put the needle on that record it takes you on a journey right to the very end.’

The album’s opening song is called Our Religion which Benji describes with a gurgling laugh as a ‘relentlessly horrible heavy metal, evil song!’

He continues: ‘Skindred have been around for the last 20-odd years and we've been doing things our way and not following what people expect bands to do. Listen, when I buy AC/DC I want AC/DC, but it if you buy a Skindred album,’ he adopts an iffy American accent, ‘“it's like a box of chocolates,” just like Forrest Gump – you never know what you're going to get, y'know?

‘I'm really excited about it. We're in a good place right now. We're just going to come down to Takedown and slaughter you all!’ he laughs. ‘We come in peace and leave you in pieces, baby!’

The title Smile suggests something optimistic – is it an optimistic album?

‘We could have called it "We're flipping annoyed"’, he actually says something far ruder, but this is a family publication, ‘but we prefer to say "Smile" because we need more of that on this planet. It's definitely got that optimism, that positivity, that belief, that encouragement. People say to me, what's this album about? The same as all of the others, man! I'm always going to be encouraging people and lifting people up – I'm always going to be backing the underdog, that's what I do, that's what music is for.

‘If someone saw the words of Skindred's lyrics without hearing the music, I'd want them to be inspired – like parables from The Bible!’

Since the last Skindred album, Benji has put out an album and been on the road with Dub War – the precursors to Skindred. The band had initially split in 1999 and Westgate Under Fire was their first album in 26 years.

‘That was another Covid thing! Because I was back in Newport, and those guys are in Newport, I got a chance to hang around with them.’

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Original drummer Martyn Ford was unable to join the band due to ‘life commitments,’ so they asked friend Mikee Gregory to take on six of the album’s tracks. And Benji had an idea for the remaining songs: ‘I knew I had a lot of drumming friends stuck in the house doing nothing (during lockdown). Singers and guitarists were all doing acoustic stuff online, but drummers were sat there going: “What about me? What am I going to do?!”’ he laughs. ‘So I reached out to a few friends of mine who I know are not just drummers, but also fans of Dub War – like Mike Bordin of Faith No More, Roy Mayorga from Stone Sour, Tanner Wayne... As soon as I contacted them, they were like, send me the tracks, and they got on with it and sent them back.

‘It was great, because when I'd tell the drummer from one band that so-and-so was playing they'd be like, I've got to step up! They all found the magic and pushed through.’

Dub War recently completed a nine-date UK tour and as Benji says: ‘We had nothing but love. I still believe, due to the lyrical content, and in hairy times like this with the crazy things going on, those lyrics are just as relevant when they were written more than 25 years ago.

‘It was great to go out there with Dub War and catch up with some old friends. Due to Dub War, people got to see where Skindred came from – I look at Dub War as the blueprint for what Skindred became later on.’

In one of those weird quirks of modern life, Skindred’s debut single Nobody, from 2005, went viral earlier this year on social media platform TikTok after a street dancer put a routine to it.

‘It's been incredible. I can't believe the number of people saying: “What is this?” We played a Dub War show in Blackpool and these teenage girls turned up and they wanted to do the dance with me – it's crazy.

‘It's nice that Skindred is not just coming back with a new record, we're reaching a new generation.’

Benji sees it as good way to spread the band’s multi-hyphenate message of tolerance.

‘One thing about Skindred is the mixed heritage nature of the music – and that's what I'm getting more and more – more people from multicultural backgrounds going: “This is for me”, and it's so good, because you're bringing people together, and that's the whole point of this music is about – bringing people together.

‘When I first saw The Specials as a child on the TV and I saw Terry Hall and Neville Staples stood together, that's what this music has got to be about, bringing the world together. Bringing them together to rock together, no matter what your colour or your creed or your nationality or your sexuality.

'Nobody being revisited is so exciting.’

​Is he seeing more people of colour coming into rock and metal – often areas which are overwhelmingly white?

‘Look at the Nova Twins!’ he says referring to the black female duo who have been embraced by the metal world. ‘Rock music is never going to stay the same – Sabbath are great, but they were of a time.‘I listen to the Nova Twins’ music and watch their videos, and think: “Wow, this is so powerful!” They've taken the urban element and added to the guitars – you can feel it in the music. And it's not just them, there's a lot more bands, like Minas from Cardiff – check him out, he's really banging some different stuff. Rock music is not just for purists. Music moves with the times, and that's exactly what rock music is doing, and I'm really excited by what I'm seeing and getting from people who've never heard Skindred before, people who tell me they've only just discovered us.’

​On returning for Takedown’s comeback, Benji is naturally up for it.

‘Bring your dancing shoes because we're coming and we're not messing about!’ he hollers down the phone. ‘It's been a while and people deserve a great rock'n'roll show and we've got the power to do that.

‘I look at myself like a hypeman – this is going to be an event. If you haven't got a ticket yet, you need to get one!

‘I feel like a racehorse raring to go.’

If you’ve never seen Skindred live before, ‘the Newport helicopter’ has become an unmissable element of audience participation in their shows.

‘A lot of people are just coming for that now!’ Benji laughs, such is its reputation. ‘We're singing the songs and they're shouting for it. Calm down, you wait your turn – it's coming!’

Takedown Festival is at Portsmouth Guildhall from 1pm until late on Saturday, April 8. Tickets £66. Go to takedownfestival.com.

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