Knowing what you want

Interview and Photographs by Rick Perez

Skin Mag’s first of the four night residency at The Echo

Los Angeles, California, United States

Whats your story? How did you come together?

Davis: Shane and I have been friends our whole lives; our parents were in mom’s club together. I forced him to sing for Skin Mag. Noah joined because he and I worked together, Jack and I were friends, and Devin and I are brothers.

Jack: This was something we wanted to make.

Shane: I would like to point out that Davis REALLY forced me into this. I was a closeted musician throughout high school. Most people didn’t even realize I was even interested in music.

What was the reasoning behind that?

Shane: All my friends at the time were in a different band…

Jack: Shane just didn’t want to be the lead singer. We told him he should be the frontman and he said, “NO!”

Shane: A week before our first show I was getting night sweats and I realized that it would be a lot more embarrassing if I didn’t show up so I just went for it.

How do you feel now?

Shane: I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable. I still get night sweats but only the night before, not a whole week. The first show I feel like I blacked out I don’t even remember it. Since then, I think we’ve all gelled more and it feels more natural.

Since you got together in 2017, what have been some highs and some lows?

Davis: One time we played at the Echo to like 2 people

Jack: We got hit up like 5 hours before the show to play, apparently the opener dropped out last minute. We played terribly. It was also a high because it was a high school dream to play The Echo. The next show at the Echo was almost sold out. That was definitely a high.

Shane: My first high with the band was just realizing that it (the band) could work. It all came together and we still pretty much do everything ourselves.

Jack: The only external thing was having someone else mix the album. All the engineering, recording, marketing, art, promotion, it’s all us.

that’s a lot!

Jack: You might as well put in all the work now so when you actually have the money or the support of a proper management system you know what you want.

Instead of the management telling you what to do.

Jack: Or giving someone free reign and not seeing your vision the correct way. If we ever get to that point, it would be nice to have someone do it for us but also know exactly what we want. I think that’s key with every art: knowing exactly what you want.

Damn.

Jack: I think that’s the endless pursuit. I’m not saying we know everything but we can come close.

Totally. It takes time to get into your groove and to know who you are as an artist.

Shane: I think as long as you as making purposeful decision making, whether it’s the right decision or wrong decision, it’s going to resonate with someone. You have to have reasons behind what you are doing.

Jack: Every bit of new music we record we figure out what we are doing a little bit more. Because of that, I think our new record sounds more like what we want. Not saying that it’s ‘there’, but I think it’s closer.

On that note, how have you grown since ‘Mourning Sickness’? Why is your next album, ‘In Static’, more along the lines of what you want?

Noah: The biggest piece is upping the production quality. In the past, we have had grass roots recording methods and now we have stepped it up.

Jack: A lot of the songs are old songs. They were unused because we didn’t know how to record them. Our latest single, ‘Calm Me Down’, was actually recorded for ‘Mourning Sickness’ but decided to drop it from the EP. We loved the song, but the state that it was in wasn’t exactly right. Noah made the executive decision to drop it. I’m glad we did because the new version is way better.

Davis: It’s pretty much a different song.

It kind of goes along with knowing what you want. You knew what you wanted from the song and that wasn’t it.

Jack: It was a big part of maturing together as a band. All of us knew that song wasn’t going to work.

Shane: Some people might think that working in a group makes you sacrifice your individuality. We all make decisions pretty equally. I feel like we are all in the mindset of making decisions for what Skin Mag is. That’s the entity instead of any one of us individually.

Why did you pick ‘Calm Me Down’ as your first single? Why does it represent your next album?

Davis: I really liked it. I basically was like ‘This is the one we are releasing first.’ Thematically, it went along with what I wanted for a music video.

Shane: You (Davis) had ideas visually and conceptually around that song really early.

Jack: It was also the first song that we recorded and we had been sitting on it since ‘Mourning Sickness’.

Noah: I agree, thematically and tone wise it’s the best representation.

What are you looking forward to during this residency!?

Jack: We are playing with some really great bands. Each night is going to be very different. I think we are going to be really good at playing with each other.

Shane: Yeah, we are going to be playing like 6 shows this month. And Davis has been working really hard to organize this residency so I’m really excited to see his vision come into fruition.

Jack: We are excited to work with ‘RAICES’ during this residency as well. They are an organization based in El Paso, Texas that provide legal help and education to undocumented people. A portion of the bar sales will go to them and we’re really excited about that!