SKYND

0:08HostWelcome to Interceptor Beyond Podcast. My name is Arthur. And today we have Skind as a guest. A really cool artist. The show was awesome. It was a sold out show at Arena. I was there with Julian, the photographer. You know him. We also saw the opening band Knife Bride, who were also really good. So check them out. So yeah, we recorded it backstage at Arena in the green room. Skind was super lovely and super cool. Exactly how you imagine her. And yeah, it was great. Don't forget to follow the podcast on any platform of your choice. Leave a rating and also follow the podcast on Instagram. Also check out the Interceptor Beyond show on YouTube. We have a separate channel for that. Just Google it or just type it in in YouTube. The Interceptor Beyond show. A late night talk show with musical guests. And yeah, let's talk to Skind.

1:03SKYNDHi, I'm Skind and I translate music. I translate cases into music.

1:09HostFirst of all, I want to congratulate you on the release of the latest music video, right?

1:15SKYNDDevins, exactly.

1:16HostCan you tell a little bit about the music video, right? So the case, how was the production of the song and the music video?

1:26SKYNDSo the story behind Bianca Devins, she was a 17-year-old young girl and she got almost beheaded by her boyfriend. And he posted those pictures online and they went viral, which was kind of crazy because when you think about that, women are not allowed to show nipples, but a beheaded girl is circulating on the Internet. That's kind of fine. It's kind of weird for me. So the song, when I heard the case for the very first time, I had this kind of like e-girl vibe and I had this, damn, my neck hurts, you know, the chorus, because that's what he, that was like the comment underneath the picture, damn, my neck hurts, you know. And I had this, I had this screaming in my head and I was like, this, damn, my neck hurts. I needed that in my song. So I went to the studio with father and I just had this particular phrase in my head and he was like, yeah, maybe we should just build up from this. That was just the first idea. So we built the whole song up from this. The production was hard because it happened during Corona. So it wasn't really, we weren't really allowed to shoot videos, go to the studio. So we had to actually work on remote.

2:50HostBut wait a second, it was still like, because it came out recently and it still was, so all the stuff was made during the Corona? Yes. I will ask you a question about that later.

3:00SKYNDYeah. Yeah. I mean, I do write a lot of songs, but it, I'm not happy. If I'm not happy, I'm not releasing it. So I started writing this song in Corona or COVID time, but I finished it last year.

3:13HostAh, you finished it last year. All right.

3:16SKYNDSo I start writing songs, but if I'm not happy or father and I are not happy with the production, we just don't release it. We wait until we feel like, okay, it's, it's done.

3:25HostFirst of all, of course, this means that you have a lot of material prepared. You told me that there's, not you told me, but I did research and you say that there's a lot of material. Okay. How, okay. This is how you decide if you want to release the song or not, right? How you feel about it. How do you choose the cases?

3:45SKYNDIt depends. I mean, I, I, I investigate true crime every day and I'm interested in obviously in true crime, but the cases that spark my creativity, the first moment I read about it. That's the one I want to do, or it feels like that's the one I feel like I want to do and finish. You know, there are a lot of songs like Richard Ramirez, for example, I started this song way back and then I had to work on it because I wasn't just, I wasn't happy. And then there's like ideas or you dream about it and then it sparks your creativity and then you're like, okay, I can finish the song now. But certain cases, they're like really easy for me to translate and others, I have to put like on pause and wait until the spark comes back to actually finish the case.

4:35HostI mean, you already have, so you have four chapters, right? So it's like, and each chapter is around three songs, right? Right. So at least 12 songs, at least, right? And stuff that is not released. So have you figured out what are you more attracted to? Which kinds of cases? You already can like, already have like a, not statistical, but you know, like.

4:56SKYNDNo, because as I said, it's, it comes and goes with creativity. If it sparks my creativity, I'll release it. I write it. If not, I don't. It, it, it, there's no like a plan where I'm like, okay, I'm going to do this case or this.

5:10HostNo, no, no, not a plan. But have you seen that, that you're personally attracted to some cases that, for example, like maybe something more closer to our time or something in the back. Like if it's a female victim, if it's a serious victim, you know, like cases, you know, like, like maybe it's like, maybe it's like triggers on, on, on, on a personal level. Something like that.

5:29SKYNDYeah. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's, I mean, for example, Michelle Carter. This case was really important for me to do it because it's a really modern case. This could have happened in the nineties because smartphones weren't invented. So I felt the need to actually cover this case because social media, getting bullied, mental health, that's a topic we need to talk about. So I decide certain cases, I decide, you know, what's going on in the world right now. So I have the feeling I need to address this topic and with Michelle Carter, for example, mental health, social media, phones, texting, you know, not getting too personal, but texting each other and tell someone you have to kill yourself. It's, I feel like this is something I wanted to address and that's why I decided to cover this case and the same with Bianca Devins. It depends as well on what's going on in the world. And if I feel like it, it works out or it actually fits the time, if that makes sense.

6:30HostNo, it totally makes sense. I totally understand. With, with Bianca Devins, is it like a really official, officially like a chapter five now? It's like a part of it.

6:39?Yes. Yes.

6:40HostSo, which means that you have two more, right? Yeah. You already prepared this. So do you already know in your head when you're going to release the next one? Mm-hmm.

6:50?February. I won't tell you.

6:52HostI know you won't tell me. I know you're not going to tell me, but I had to try.

6:56SKYNDYeah, of course. Yeah.

6:58HostAll right. Because I checked why I asked this, because obviously you will release it in the near future, of course, but I saw the patterns when you were releasing the previous stuff. There's not much of a pattern. It's like, yes, yes, yes. And you release it on, on, on days that are unusual. Welcome to Skins. Yes. Welcome to. Yeah. Like Mondays, you know, like, like not Fridays, right? That's why I asked about Friday. You never know.

7:23SKYNDI'm just a fan of doing it differently.

7:25?Yeah, I know.

7:25SKYNDThan everyone else, you know. I'm not surprised.

7:28?I mean, I wanted to ask, because I also interviewed a band, Bloodsucking Somethings from Outer Space. And the main guy is into true crime. Right. And they also have songs about the famous serial killers or killers.

7:41HostAnd he told me during the interview, they had a problem, not problem, but he realized that he was nervous when the guy came out of the prison, you know, during the lifetime, because they were singing about it. So, I haven't checked all the cases, right? So, I'm not sure who's alive or not, right?

7:58SKYNDTyler Hadley is alive.

8:03SKYNDCatherine Knight is still alive. She's in prison in Australia. Richard Mears is dead. Yeah, some of them are still alive.

8:11HostSo, the question is, like, I mean, if they, for some reason, come out of the prison, which is, for some reason, it's possible. You never know. You never know. How would you feel about that? Because that guy, I can tell you, like, that guy, he was like, uh, because you never know, because he was singing about it. I mean, you're singing in a different way. You know, like, you're not trying to glorify it. Facts, right? Spread the words. Right. But they had maybe, I forgot already, something else. And he was nervous about it. Have you thought about that, actually, in general, you know?

8:42SKYNDI mean, you know, if someone comes out, I mean, that's his legacy, right? That's what he did. And if I have to be afraid, I think he belongs to prison or still needs to be in prison. No, I'm not afraid. Because at the end of the day, what I do is I cover a story that happened, and it's his legacy or her legacy. They need to be ashamed of that. They need to deal with that. I don't. And if they want to attack me, you know what?

9:11HostYou're, in a way, a musical journalist.

9:13SKYNDYeah. Why not? Yeah, you can call. Yeah, I'm a storyteller. Exactly.

9:17HostI mean, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, after, like, I mean, your research, not only, I mean, these cases are on the surface, but, of course, you did a lot of more work, right? Have you learned anything, like, by analyzing the cases, you know, like, something about yourself, something about humanity, something about people, women, men, children, anything, you know? Like, because, I mean, it's, like, it's, like, a big part of your life at the moment, you know? You go to bed with this kind of, you know? Have you found patterns or just, like, something that you never thought about?

9:47SKYNDI can't say that I never thought about, but what came or what became really clear to me is that every human being has a backpack and they're carrying it around. And we, what I learned is that people are not interested in that backpack, but I feel like this certain backpack is so important to actually tell the story in the right way. You know, I'm not glorifying those killers, but at the end of the day, they're human beings and they have a story to tell. Whatever their trigger was or why they lashed out, that's on them. But I feel like we can learn or I can learn a lot from them because at the end of the day, it's mental health and we all have to keep our mental health in check and we need to discuss it more. I think that's what came to me even more when I researched all those cases, that mental health plays the biggest role in everything.

10:45HostI agree also. Have you, is there some case that jumps to your mind constantly on your, like, after, like, maybe not something that you publish, but it's always in your head? Or maybe, exactly, maybe something that you publish that you can't, maybe it's a case that you want to release later, but still you can't forget it, you know? Jim Jones is one that I can't forget because how brainwashed or how, how one guy can brainwash 1,100 people to actually kill themselves.

11:15?That's still something that lies really heavy on me. It's like, especially the 40 minutes audio tape you can listen to still on YouTube. It, it's really haunting to know that this is still happening, you know, cults still exist, people still get brainwashed.

11:33SKYNDAnd I feel like this, it's kind of creepy that it is still going on, Scientology or Heaven's Gate or whatever, you know, all those cults. That's something that's a big question mark for me.

11:45HostIt's good that you're talking about cults because I wanted to talk about cults because I didn't know that, because when people mention true crime, I'm not into true crime, but I'm into cults, but in a way from different way, because my friends told me that they should start a cult. I'm slowly starting, preparing, slowly starting, preparing to read the books about the cult, yeah, about the cults, but I'm interested from, uh, from the, the cults, from the perspective of making the cults, right? Of course, the real one, but, but still it's the same thing. Have you noticed what, what qualities have you noticed between the leaders of cults? Who are these people? Why is it, why, I mean, I know, for example, cult people, cult leaders, okay, charismatic and stuff, they say usually some outrageous shit, right? And normal people would think like, like, like normal in quotes, like, what the fuck is he talking about? But it's like actually a filter because the cult leaders usually is preying on, uh, mentally damaged people, you know, like deprived, deprived or something like this. So this outrageous shit filters out all the normal people to find the victims, right? Have you noticed anything that in your research that's, I mean, something interesting and the patterns or something like this?

13:04SKYNDWhat I noticed with Jim Jones was that in the beginning, he, he was a good guy. Like he was the first one, you know, people of color and white people. He was the first one actually, um, getting them together. So he did something good. So people remembered that. And what I feel like is they, they tend to just hold on to this, but he was a good guy, but he was a good guy, but he was a good guy, but he was doing so much shit in the background. And that's what I noticed with Heaven's Gate, for example, as well. I mean, Marshall Applewhite knew exactly what he was doing. He was doing something good. Like he was getting all the people and he gave them a purpose and, you know, we can all get together and, you know, hold on together. We're friends and we're family. And that's what everyone's doing, you know, like get everyone together, make a big, big family, you know, Jonah's town, Jonah's, Jonah's family. I mean, it is always this feeling of like, we're one big family and we, we all belong together and you can leave whenever you want to, but you can't actually, but they, they tell you, you can, but actually you can't. So you're in this net of like, believing in something good that they did before, but they're blind to what they're currently doing. If that makes sense.

14:20?Yeah.

14:20HostI mean, and, and also it helps what, what kind of people they choose.

14:24SKYNDAnd, and, of course, I mean, nothing is forced. Nothing is forced. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

14:31HostAnd that's the most, like, Jonah's town definitely was not, in the end, some, some, I know that some families forced their children to drink the Kool-Aid.

14:39SKYNDThey had to, yeah, they, they were forced to the, they had to bring the babies and then they put the cyanide in their throat and, and then they put the children back to the, to the parents. And it was like, okay, so parents were like, okay, what am I going to, okay, I'm just going to kill myself. So actually they were forced to.

14:58?Yeah.

14:59HostWhat's the plan for Skind at the moment? So tour, big tour, and then another tour, probably.

15:05SKYNDProbably. Yeah. Next year, probably. But, uh, the next thing is releasing new music.

15:10?All right.

15:10HostThat's what we're talking about, but you're not going to tell me when, right?

15:13SKYNDI'm not going to tell you when.

15:14HostBut obviously two more singles.

15:16?Yes. Yes.

15:17SKYNDMaybe three, maybe four.

15:19HostAre you going to break the pattern of the. Maybe.

15:21SKYNDI already did break the pattern this year. I never released so much music. Yeah. Like this year.

15:27HostAll right. So some, okay. Some new stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Say hello to the Skindicates.

15:31?I will. Yeah. And to the Skindicates. Yeah.

15:35HostAnd the Discord channel. So many fans there. Yeah. Yeah.

15:39?Your part as well?

15:40HostWell, yeah, of course. I had to check it out. No, really nice people. All right. So in the end, could you please give us a Skind song that I'll put at the end of the interview? A good introduction to the Skind universe. Tyler Headley.