Band History

The SKEW SISKIN moniker may be more intellectual than most, but their music has all the subtlety of a Boeing 747 landing in your back garden amongst the old man's prize rose trees.

Since the band's inception in late 1991 in Berlin, the energy has been obvious to all who've come in contact with SKEW SISKIN, which means "crazy bird" in Old English.

Jogi Rautenberg (bass): "There was radio airplay in Portugal and fan post from Leningrad [Russia]. In Germany, the music press started writing about us and radio stations played our music -- but we didn't even have a record deal because German record companies ignored us completely."

The band had barely been together long enough to build a local following, had hardly any live experience -- and, somehow, they found themselves signed to a major American record label.

Jim Voxx (guitar): "Press, radio and even TV stations tried to help us in getting a deal in Germany, without success. So we threw all our money together and flew over to the States to play gigs there. It worked. One of our demo-tapes landed on the desk of Tim Collins, back-then manager of Aerosmith. He liked what he heard and helped spread the word around. For me, going to America was more like coming back home because I had already lived in New York playing the club scene with musicians from the Patti Smith Group, ex-New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders a.s.o.. I've learned a lot from them."

For many people on both sides of the Atlantic, the band's self-titled, self-written, self-produced debut album is a validation of the deep interest that has followed the band now around the world.

Crash Klick (drums): "Right from the start, the press liked us. We have earned a reputation for being loud and raw. Other bands feel threatened by us and rightly so. Never underrate us."

Nina C. Alice was born into rock'n roll. Her parents listened to Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, and Nina took them all in. She loved the music and knew what she wanted to do. Punk rock took her imagination for a while, but rock'n roll never left her blood as she took on the super-cool, black-clad Berlin underground club scene, repeatedly belting out her firebrand vocals night after night.

Nina(vocals): "I grew up listening to David Bowie and Kiss, I also got into the Sex Pistols and Nina Hagen, whose first solo album really did it for me. I didn't understand the lyrics, but I really got their attitude."

Jim Voxx (guitar), always the music enthusiast, is a collector of old albums from flea-markets: "I love the early Kinks, the Yardbirds, the Pretty Things, the MC 5, the Cream. Those bands were great. Later on, I discovered Motörhead, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols. The Who's "Live At Leeds" is my all time favourite album. Nirvana was really good. They had the right attitude. White Zombie is a great band. When I was only 14, I played in a band supporting the Who. At that time, Keith Moon played their drums. That has changed my life. It became clear to me: that was the music I wanted to play. For me, rock'n roll is entertainment and not just looking down to your shoes. It is important not to be too trendy. When the trend is over you are f*cked. Regardless of what people think about you, me or our group -- just so long as you have your freedom of mind, freedom of speech and thought - Don't let nobody turn you off from your own thoughts and dreams."

In 1996, after touring the US (with bands like Black Sabbath and Exodus) and Europe for 2 years, SKEW SISKIN went back into the studio to record their 2nd album which became a double-CD set: "Electric Chair Music / Voices From The War".

Jogi (bass): "As we prefer writing songs in the studio, we were basically starting from ground-zero. To avoid outside influences, we decided to just lock ourselves away during 1996 in order to write songs non-stop. It wasn't easy because tour offers kept coming in from German acts like Accept and Helloween. They wanted to take us on their European tours. We would have loved to do it, but we wanted to concentrate on new recordings."

In March, 1997, ZZ Top allowed SKEW SISKIN to support them on their German tour. Help came from Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead), also: On several occasions, Lemmy flew into Berlin to write songs and record with SKEW SISKIN. One of the results is released on their current double-CD: "Electric Chair Music / Voices From The War." The song, "B 4," features a duet with Nina C. Alice and Lemmy (see photo below). Lemmy also plays bass on the track.

Nina C. Alice: "Lemmy is a big fan of our music, and it's fun to write lyrics together with him because he is accepting of my personal style and creativity. He also invited us to play a few gigs with Motörhead -- with only 24 hours notice! For us, it was a great chance to escape from the studio for a couple of days, and it gave me the right Rock'n Roll injection to record all the vocals within 3 days after that."

SKEW SISKIN's "Electric Chair Music / Voices From The War" double-CD leaves the listener with no doubt about the hard-as-nails strength of the band's vocal and musical talents. With all the time and effort that brings it to this point, the real word of mouth will undoubtedly be about SKEW SISKIN's live show. This is where it all comes together and that's what it's all about.

Nina C. Alice: "Although we've worked very hard, we didn't do anything on purpose. These things just seem to happen for us. People may be surprised that a band from Berlin is playing this kind of style - I don't care. This music is my life."

Page last edited: 20th March 1999 - This page is a product of ToneDeF Productions.