Songwriter, ferocious frontwoman of Skunk Anansie, and “clit rock” icon Skin opens up about carving out her own sonic aesthetic and her disinterest in playing by music industry rules. She also touches on race and sexuality and the importance of owning your uniqueness
Words Tracy Kawalik Photography Shenell Kennedy Creative director Joseph Kocharian Styling Sacha Dance
London is silent apart from elongated loops of sombre chapel bells chiming outside the window. It’s 5am and many are only just waking up to a new dawn. Thundering drums are pounding poetically in my head after I witnessed the entire dress rehearsal for what will be one of the most attended funerals in history on my way home. Her Majesty has left the proverbial building. The queen is gone.
Inside my flat, my screen illuminates as a call comes in from across town. Flanked by DJ decks, a complex array of fancy studio kit, and wearing her trademark, thick-rimmed square glasses and shaven head, Skin, the first Black lady of the Britrock movement, is very much alive.
With a 1979 photo of Grace Jones crawling across the roof of her New York apartment as her backdrop, Skin’s smile radiates enthusiasm as she waxes lyrical about the legions of Black bands and artists coming up on the rock scene as she talks about her new, 10-part feature The Skin Show on Absolute Radio. She finished presenting the first episode just hours before our call.
It’s hard to downplay being starstruck by Skin, winner of The Icon Award, supported by Virgin Atlantic. Over the past two decades, Skin has clocked up solo accolades that range from being awarded an OBE for services to music in 2021 and hosting her own podcast Skin Tings to becoming the first Chancellor at Leeds Arts University and being acclaimed by Sky Arts as one of the 50 most influential artists of the past half-century. Most recently, she also added ‘mother’ to her list of titles.
Deborah Anne Dyer aka Skin found fame as the feisty frontwoman of Skunk Anansie, a band which, despite an eight-year hiatus (they formed in 1994, split in 2001 and reunited in 2009) released six albums that sold more than four million copies worldwide. Career highlights have included delivering a blistering performance alongside Björk for the debut of ‘Army of Me’ on Top of the Pops in 1995, and touring with the likes of David Bowie (several times), U2 and Lenny Kravitz. Another high point was closing the 20th century as the first Black female to headline Glastonbury when Skunk Anansie played the Pyramid stage.
Reflecting on this moment, she say
