Skinner

Fresh off the back of his widely-praised 'Geek Love' EP earlier this year, Irish No-wave provocateur Skinner is back once again to announce the details behind his eagerly-awaited debut album 'New Wave Vaudeville', previewed by the anthemic new single "Calling In Sick".

Skinner is the project of the Dublin-based multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer Aaron Corcoran who was inspired by the New York No wave scene in the late '70s/early '80s for this debut record. The record's lead track "Calling In Sick" perfectly exemplifies this influence as he takes cues from the genre, while also carving his own path on the scene as well.

Speaking about "Calling In Sick", he said, "The song is about calling in sick to the world. Life is tough for most people right now and there is no down time for most of us. Some days just feel like you're hurtling towards destruction and I just wanted to write a song that captures that feeling of anger and frustration of having to say enough is enough. Fuck everything I'm just going to do me for today. And I think that's fair."

'New Wave Vaudeville', the song and album title, references the New Wave Vaudeville music variety freak show that took place at the 57 Club in New York from 1978 to 1983. The club was known for its free-form art shows, a debaucherous wild riposte to creeping commerciality of modern culture of the time.

"The ethos of the album is to celebrate the weird part of who you are and be proud of it," says Aaron. "You might feel strange in society but you don't when you're listening to your favourite music, and this record is a space for the outsiders to feel comfortable."

Skinner's debut album takes inspiration from the outsiders in alternative music who populate the greatest hits of no wave, dance-punk, Latin disco and post-punk genres - Liquid Liquid, A Certain Ratio, Kid Creole And The Coconuts and James Chance And The Contortions to name a few.

"I like the idea of mixing genres that shouldn't go together," Aaron adds. "That's probably why I like no wave music. It's just total and utter free expression of music without any constraint or rules. And it's not constrained by any societal ideals like a lot of other music can be. It's pure raw human emotion and expression."

Throughout the LP, Corcoran makes use of vocal training by Dara Kiely of Dublin noise-rock Gilla Band, who taught Aaron how to scream effectively while singing without losing your voice, as heard on the tracks "Calling In Sick", "Tell My Ma" and "When You Live In A Shoe".

Percussion also plays a big part in the record, with Latin American music and disco cited as an influence on the 10 tracks on the LP.

New Wave Vaudeville was recorded and produced by Aaron Corcoran at the Meadow and engineered alongside Rian Trench. The album was mixed by Sean Corcoran, and mastered by Tj Lipple.

'New Wave Vaudeville' Tracklist:

1. New Wave Vaudeville

2. Tell My Ma

3. Sour Milk

4. Jesus Wore Drag

5. Spiralling

6. Calling In Sick

7. Geek Love

8. Do Re Mi Fa

9. When You Live In A Shoe

10. Here Comes The Rain

The DNA of no wave and post-punk acts like The B52s, James Chance and the Contortions and ESG through to alt-rock touchstones Pixies and Morphine combined with an talent for grunge-nodding self-production and pockets of elevated instrumentation is oozing from Skinners music.

Previous singles 'Dislocation', 'Sometimes My Brain is Goo', 'Slouch' and 'Headroom', have received airplay from KCRW, BBC Across the Line, RTÈ 2FM and 98FM's John Barker. Skinner was one of Hot Press' 20 acts to watch in 2020 and has had media support from The Independent, DIY Mag, Paste, Fred Perry Subculture, So Young, Nialler9, District Mag and more. He was also the poster boy for Spotify's popular An Alternative Eire playlist and has featured tracks on their All New Rock, Fresh Finds IE, Alternative Ireland, Today's Punk - A Breath Of Fresh Eire. Post Punk 2K and Hot New Bands playlists.

Skinner and his five-piece band including saxophonist have played have performed at numerous festivals such as The Great Escape, Ireland Music Week, Beyond The Pale, All Together Now, Other Voices, the Galway Fringe Festival and Watt'en Schlick-festival to name a few and recently supported Lime Garden, Dope Lemon, Algiers, Bambara, The Wedding Present and Silverbacks.