As the lead singer of rock band Skunk Anansie, Skin has a presence and personal style just as powerful as her voice. Raised in Brixton, Deborah Anne Dyer (as she was known before her stage name) formed the band – alongside fellow members Ace, Cass and Mark – in 1994, releasing seminal albums and timeless tracks, such as Weak and Charlie Big Potato.
The first female Black artist to headline at Glastonbury (back in 1999), Skin went on to forge a solo career, but the pull of the band remained strong and they reformed in 2009. Last year, their seventh studio album The Painful Truth was released.
‘If we didn’t do something fresh and forward thinking, we couldn’t really be a band any more. We’d just be doing Skunk karaoke,’ says Skin of the pressure on this latest musical offering, which muses on the stresses of the modern world in characteristically confrontational fashion. Skunk Anansie will be touring the UK and Europe this summer. skunkanansie.com
The first record I bought was a 10-inch by Nina Simone that had four songs on it. I didn’t hear it for months because the record player was in the front room and always locked. One night, my mum forgot to lock it and I sneaked in and played it, which was dreamy. Years later, when hanging with the actual Nina Simone in South Africa, I told her this story and she replied, ‘Black people with their perfect front parlours waiting for the Queen to come to tea’, before we both cracked up and ordered more drinks!
My all-time favourite piece of music is Lover, You Should’ve Come Over by Jeff Buckley. It’s one of the few songs that stops me in my tracks. It’s like my heart has been grabbed, and I can’t move till the music lets it go or I’ll die. To me, this song is otherworldly.
The book that influenced me the most is Money, Lies and God by Katherine Stewart. It’s her third brilliantly researched book and details exactly what the Maga Republicans are up to, linking them with white supremacists around the world and Reform in the UK. If only the Democrats had read it!
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My go-to film is the original Oldboy by Park Chan-wook (not the American remake). It still gives me chills.
My favourite painting is The Two Fridas (1939) by Frida Kahlo. Painted after her much needed divorce from the artist Diego Rivera, it’s a self-portrait of her in traditional Mexican and modern Western attire. She’s holding hands with herself in the image; I guess I identify with wanting to please everyone but, at the same time, wanting to be myself. At some point, we all question who we are.
The best hotel in the world is, of course, Claridge’s in London. There’s nowhere better.
My first memory of interior design was my Grandad’s nightclub in the basement of 30 Effra Road in Brixton. In the 1970s, he moved back to Jamaica and recreated the same space, but it was on the first floor of the house he built in Mandeville. I remember how different it was, even though it was the same furniture arranged in the same way in a similar-sized space. It struck me how light changes everything. I remember being fascinated by that.
My favourite place in the world is Ibiza. I’ve had a home there for nearly 20 years and have never fallen out of love with it. It’s quite spiritual if you’re open to it, and one of the few places that I never want to leave.
If I could bring back one trend, it would be the style of 1990s Alexander McQueen catwalks – so much edge, with really great tailoring and a lot of taking the piss.
The greatest meal I ever had was in Jamaica when I was 10 years old. My country Grandma cooked everything outside in a dutch pot on top of a wood fire, with all the food grown by her and her neighbours. It was delicious.
This year, I’m looking forward to improving my DIY skills and working in my home studio. It’s a place that makes me very happy.
