Name: Skinny Pelembe
Nationality: British
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Skinny Pelembe's Hardly The Same Snake is out via Partisan.
Recommendations: Carolina In The Pines, by Harley Allen; Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

If you enjoyed this Skinny Pelembe  interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I like to imagine I'm playing guitar in the band, while the songs playing. My favourite for that is “Another Girl, Another Planet” by The Only Ones, I imagine I'm John Perry, or Peter Perret, while it’s playing. Ha.



What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

McDonald’s sponsored a project when I was around 8.

They were bringing together loads of kids from smaller places in the UK, like Doncaster, to tell our town’s story, through music and dance. A really cool flamenco player called Ricky Martinez turned us into a band, it was amazing. We had a tour bus and played at the Millenium Dome (the 02 now). Probably my biggest gig yet. I hope I didn’t peak at 8 years old!

I guess I'm still pretty naïve, but that’s okay. I like to see people’s journeys - it’s art in real time.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Music at that age was a passport to meeting other likeminded people, almost like a secret club hidden in plain sight.

I’d be in bands at 15, playing in clubs and pubs, getting a taste of that particular kind of freedom you only get by being in a band, meeting other people who embody that sort of personal freedom.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

To me, they’re all just that, tools. I’m not a very good guitarist, but I think I'm a pretty inventive one. I’d like to think I've got my own style, and I'd like to think that counts whether I'm playing guitar, piano, or making drumbeats out of the sound of my brother sneezing, or roman soldiers marching in films.

I love accomplished stuff like Rene Aubry, but at the same time, someone kicking a dustbin while their dog’s howling just might strike a chord that’s just as emotional.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

When I made “Should You Go” back in 2017, I felt like I managed to communicate something I wanted to say, and I didn’t have to use any words. That’s such a freeing feeling.



And when I can get the words too, man it’s like flying. When you get that turn of phrase that says five hundred words, in just five, it’s exhilarating.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

Yeah, well who could argue with Paul Simon?!?

Everyone has their own personal sound, whether you’ve found it or not. It’s your fingerprint. I guess that’s why there’s only one Paul Simon ...

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

All the percussion on “Not Your Friend, Not Your Enemy” is all just the sound of switches and plugs being turned on and off. If a light switch can be “evocative” then anything can be!



I guess the most moving sounds are those associated with memories. A lawnmower in the morning always takes me back to a fond place in my mind.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

As much as I try to use a really wide pallet of sounds, nothing hits you in the gut like a 2 and a half minute, garage rock guitar song. “Teenage Kicks”, “Fell In Love With A Girl”, “You Really Got Me”. It just shakes something inside me and has done since I was a child.



Aside from that, nylon string guitar always puts a frog in my throat.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

None. Each time you write, it’s a photograph through the particular lens that is You, on that day. Why use the same lens every time you take a picture.

Chances are you’ll be writing in the same place most of the time, why limit yourself any further?

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I wrote “Same Eye Colour” by spending a day going round The National Gallery in London, particularly the Baroque stuff, and writing down the first phrase that came to mind looking at each piece, then cutting up all those phrases and trying to make some sort of sense of them.



When I hear that song I just see “Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula” by Claude. I’d never seen it before, but it just really stuck with me and obviously had some impression on the song,

“...old folk dither, young love meets at the bank of the river.” / “Worn out wind sail seeks keen rudder”.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Not really, I already get tied up and stressed out enough trying to have consistent rules or themes going through an album, why bring homework into the equation!? Maybe going forward I will.

I do have a scientist friend who put forward a really interesting proposal to me a while ago, maybe I should chase that up ...

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Personally, I think so, yeah. But not if you try to force it.

I think going back to older songs, or playing songs live after they’ve been written, you have these little epiphanies on stage, “oh yeah, obviously this is clearly about my first love, or her dog, etc etc, how did I not notice?”

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I’ve never taken 2 years to make a cup of coffee and had crushing panic attacks in the process.

I’m pretty good at the mundane. Music is a bit harder.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

“Salento”, by Rene Aubry. I cry every time. I know what it means, but I could never verbalise it if I tried.



“Camarillo Brillo” by Zappa, too. But I've no idea why that one gets me!



If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

More working class kids being given the time, space and opportunity to work, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the pretentious posh fucks out there.