Skew Siskin - Biography
This band's profile is 'invisible', meaning that it's much less prominent on the site - either because it's incomplete, or maybe doesn't entirely fit MS format.
Biography
A female fronted German Rock band, Berlin's SKEW SISKIN possessed huge potential when, after signing to Giant Records, the debut album received glowing reviews all over Europe. The reviews were especially excited about album track 'IF THE WALLS COULD TALK' and the quite uniquely aggressive vocal display put on by Nina C. Alice. A 1993 single of 'LIVING ON THE REDLINE' featured the Jimi Hendrix track 'PURPLE HAZE' as a B side cut. This rendition would be honoured by a popular vote of the US Jimi Hendrix Foundation as an 'outstanding cover version'. Meanwhile Skew Siskin's single "IF THE WALLS COULD TALK" was played up and down in every country. The video clip to it was shown on MTV for more than 6 month in all countries and gave the band a quite popular status.
The group toured Europe with Accept, Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Black Sabbath (in USA), Saxon, as well as playing shows with Motörhead, Monster Magnet and many more in the following years to come.
1993-1995: The band kept writing songs in their very unique style and toured with Accept through Germany when Accept did their first reunion. For this tour BMG has re-released the debut album of Skew Siskin and also released the album as vinyl (with only 10 songs) (Rare Item!).
1997: The 2nd (and also 3rd) CD, 'ELECTRIC CHAIR MUSIC & VOICES FROM THE WAR', issued on the band's own MONONGO imprint. It's worth noting that band fan LEMMY of MOTÖRHEAD repute, a vocal champion of the band, guests on the track 'B4' found on the 'VOICES FROM THE WAR' EP. The band's fan base grew substantially during this period and , 'ELECTRIC CHAIR MUSIC'' and the EP 'VOICES FROM THE WAR' sold exceptionally well. The song "LIQUID BRAIN" was chosen as the single. Later on a pretty cool video clip was shot by a commercial movie company for art & comic commercials. The band was put into a room with mirrors. The clip was shown on VIVA TV often.
Nina also took time out to duet on the track 'Run' on Pothead's (Berlin based band from Seattle) 'Burning Bridges' album.
SKEW SISKIN's 1999 album 'WHAT THE HELL', saw the band gaining international popularity once more. Lemmy would get involved with the band once again, penning lyrics for two tracks ' LIFE'S A BITCH' and
'SHOOT OUT YOUR LIGHTS'.
Initially the group embarked upon a lengthy run of dates as guests to Saxon. Extended live work in Germany witnessed a headline tour in September and October 2000 with Skeletor as support act. Nina would persevere on the road though, attending some shows of the Motörhead tour, as special guest (on vocals with Lemmy) for the song 'BORN TO RAISE HELL'. (This track had actually been originally written by Lemmy for SKEW SISKIN.) Behind the scenes the band was forced to find a new label, because the label Cultural Minority collapsed. Lemmy and other industry icons such as Alice Cooper and Twiggy Ramirez from the Marilyn Manson band, helped the group through this time mentally.
During 2001 SKEW SISKIN placed Stefan Schwarzmann as their new drummer. Following a lengthy hiatus SKEW SISKIN, with a newly installed bassman , returned in September of 2002, acting as opening band for
the Anthrax / Motörhead UK dates. SKEW SISKIN also revealed a fourth album provisionally billed as 'Waste Your Youth' which was nearing completion. Armed with a new drummer , the band was confirmed on a German support tour with Motörhead in November 2003.
The SKEW SISKIN CD, backed by a promotional video of the single 'THE GODDESS, finally emerged billed as 'ALBUM OF THE YEAR through Ulftone Records. European headline dates commencing in March of 2004 had the band on an extensive run of dates throughout Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain.
Known to be a strong supporter of the band Motörhead, front man Lemmy, guested with SKEW SISKIN onstage for the first time on 5th September 2004 at the Columbia Halle in Berlin, as guest on the bass guitar on the Motörhead song 'BOOGEY MAN'. ( 'BOOGEY MAN' was covered and released by SKEW SISKIN for a Motörhead tribute.)
2005: At the beginning of 2005 Nina C. Alice and Jim Voxx had to make the decision to look for a new bass player and drummer, they spent a lot of restless nights contemplating who they might invite to join the band jotting down names, adding and crossing musicians off the list, trying to picture how the band might jell with various combinations.
Before long, Henning Menke emerged as their frontrunner for the role of the bassplayer. A lot of musicians
wanted to play with Henning and most of the time he was busy working with several other bands. Jim sent word to Henning and fortunately Henning wasn't committed to any band at that time.
Henning put in a good word for a drummer living in Berlin named Randy Black. He saw Randy perform and was taken by his powerfull drumming. "Dont make any decisions about a new drummer until you've seen him play."
Henning never performed on stage with Randy. Even so. Henning could already picture Randy as part of Skew Siskin.
Nevertheless, based on the high praise from Henning, Nina and Jim wanted to see and hear Randy perform. They sent Randy a mail and the next day he phoned them back to show his interest. All what was left, was to see, if things 'click' musically : "We've got to get together and play."
Everbody agreed to meet for a jam session at the MONONGO Studio. At this first session it was the first time everybody was in the same room and the video shows the very first song they ever played together.
A few weeks later Nina, Jim, Henning and Randy performed their first show under the flag of SKEW SISKIN at the Olympia in Paris 2005.
SKEW SISKIN released a 'BEST OF COLLECTION' in France (through Bad Reputation) called 'DEVILS DISCIPLE' with a great collection of songs giving listeners a chance to travel through time with the band and witness some classy tracks written by SKEW SISKIN in the past.
In the meantime, the label Bad Reputation released a French tribute to Motörhead and of course, SKEW SISKIN had to join. So the band added two songs to the album, which is called 'St. Valentines Massacre' by the way. The songs are: 'BOOGEYMAN' and 'B4', which is a real honour, as the man himself Lemmy Kilmister, plays bass and shares the microphone with Nina on 'B4'! So, you can say it's rather rare, that the original musician tributes himself. A lot of people thought that this was a great thing to do! Lemmy tributing himself!
However, speaking of Lemmy: He often visits Berlin to record at the 'BUNKER' aka MONONGO recording Studio with Jim. They record another solo album for Lemmy and Jim is producing. SKEW SISKIN also plays a few tracks with Lemmy on the album (release date: not known).
In the beginning of 2006 SKEW SISKIN went back into the studio to start recording a new CD with Henning Menke on bass, and drummer Randy Black.
At the end of the year 2006 Skew Siskin played a few shows in France, Belgium and Holland. The show in Paris / Zenith, together with Motörhead, was a huge success and SKEW SISKIN got the offer to go on the road for one of the largest touring possible, as support for Motörhead in Mai/June 2007 through France!
Shortly before the tour SKEW SISKIN finished the mixing of the recordings for their new albumcalled PEACE BREAKER !
The tour through France was a major success for SKEW SISKIN!
SKEW SISKIN has signed up a deal with a new distributor for France called UNDERCLASS in June 2007, who is going to release the album PEACE BREAKER on July, 7th 2007 and with Soulfood distribution for Germany. The german release will be Sept. 14. 2007.
(Source: http://www.skewsiskin.net)
The group toured Europe with Accept, Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Black Sabbath (in USA), Saxon, as well as playing shows with Motörhead, Monster Magnet and many more in the following years to come.
1993-1995: The band kept writing songs in their very unique style and toured with Accept through Germany when Accept did their first reunion. For this tour BMG has re-released the debut album of Skew Siskin and also released the album as vinyl (with only 10 songs) (Rare Item!).
1997: The 2nd (and also 3rd) CD, 'ELECTRIC CHAIR MUSIC & VOICES FROM THE WAR', issued on the band's own MONONGO imprint. It's worth noting that band fan LEMMY of MOTÖRHEAD repute, a vocal champion of the band, guests on the track 'B4' found on the 'VOICES FROM THE WAR' EP. The band's fan base grew substantially during this period and , 'ELECTRIC CHAIR MUSIC'' and the EP 'VOICES FROM THE WAR' sold exceptionally well. The song "LIQUID BRAIN" was chosen as the single. Later on a pretty cool video clip was shot by a commercial movie company for art & comic commercials. The band was put into a room with mirrors. The clip was shown on VIVA TV often.
Nina also took time out to duet on the track 'Run' on Pothead's (Berlin based band from Seattle) 'Burning Bridges' album.
SKEW SISKIN's 1999 album 'WHAT THE HELL', saw the band gaining international popularity once more. Lemmy would get involved with the band once again, penning lyrics for two tracks ' LIFE'S A BITCH' and
'SHOOT OUT YOUR LIGHTS'.
Initially the group embarked upon a lengthy run of dates as guests to Saxon. Extended live work in Germany witnessed a headline tour in September and October 2000 with Skeletor as support act. Nina would persevere on the road though, attending some shows of the Motörhead tour, as special guest (on vocals with Lemmy) for the song 'BORN TO RAISE HELL'. (This track had actually been originally written by Lemmy for SKEW SISKIN.) Behind the scenes the band was forced to find a new label, because the label Cultural Minority collapsed. Lemmy and other industry icons such as Alice Cooper and Twiggy Ramirez from the Marilyn Manson band, helped the group through this time mentally.
During 2001 SKEW SISKIN placed Stefan Schwarzmann as their new drummer. Following a lengthy hiatus SKEW SISKIN, with a newly installed bassman , returned in September of 2002, acting as opening band for
the Anthrax / Motörhead UK dates. SKEW SISKIN also revealed a fourth album provisionally billed as 'Waste Your Youth' which was nearing completion. Armed with a new drummer , the band was confirmed on a German support tour with Motörhead in November 2003.
The SKEW SISKIN CD, backed by a promotional video of the single 'THE GODDESS, finally emerged billed as 'ALBUM OF THE YEAR through Ulftone Records. European headline dates commencing in March of 2004 had the band on an extensive run of dates throughout Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain.
Known to be a strong supporter of the band Motörhead, front man Lemmy, guested with SKEW SISKIN onstage for the first time on 5th September 2004 at the Columbia Halle in Berlin, as guest on the bass guitar on the Motörhead song 'BOOGEY MAN'. ( 'BOOGEY MAN' was covered and released by SKEW SISKIN for a Motörhead tribute.)
2005: At the beginning of 2005 Nina C. Alice and Jim Voxx had to make the decision to look for a new bass player and drummer, they spent a lot of restless nights contemplating who they might invite to join the band jotting down names, adding and crossing musicians off the list, trying to picture how the band might jell with various combinations.
Before long, Henning Menke emerged as their frontrunner for the role of the bassplayer. A lot of musicians
wanted to play with Henning and most of the time he was busy working with several other bands. Jim sent word to Henning and fortunately Henning wasn't committed to any band at that time.
Henning put in a good word for a drummer living in Berlin named Randy Black. He saw Randy perform and was taken by his powerfull drumming. "Dont make any decisions about a new drummer until you've seen him play."
Henning never performed on stage with Randy. Even so. Henning could already picture Randy as part of Skew Siskin.
Nevertheless, based on the high praise from Henning, Nina and Jim wanted to see and hear Randy perform. They sent Randy a mail and the next day he phoned them back to show his interest. All what was left, was to see, if things 'click' musically : "We've got to get together and play."
Everbody agreed to meet for a jam session at the MONONGO Studio. At this first session it was the first time everybody was in the same room and the video shows the very first song they ever played together.
A few weeks later Nina, Jim, Henning and Randy performed their first show under the flag of SKEW SISKIN at the Olympia in Paris 2005.
SKEW SISKIN released a 'BEST OF COLLECTION' in France (through Bad Reputation) called 'DEVILS DISCIPLE' with a great collection of songs giving listeners a chance to travel through time with the band and witness some classy tracks written by SKEW SISKIN in the past.
In the meantime, the label Bad Reputation released a French tribute to Motörhead and of course, SKEW SISKIN had to join. So the band added two songs to the album, which is called 'St. Valentines Massacre' by the way. The songs are: 'BOOGEYMAN' and 'B4', which is a real honour, as the man himself Lemmy Kilmister, plays bass and shares the microphone with Nina on 'B4'! So, you can say it's rather rare, that the original musician tributes himself. A lot of people thought that this was a great thing to do! Lemmy tributing himself!
However, speaking of Lemmy: He often visits Berlin to record at the 'BUNKER' aka MONONGO recording Studio with Jim. They record another solo album for Lemmy and Jim is producing. SKEW SISKIN also plays a few tracks with Lemmy on the album (release date: not known).
In the beginning of 2006 SKEW SISKIN went back into the studio to start recording a new CD with Henning Menke on bass, and drummer Randy Black.
At the end of the year 2006 Skew Siskin played a few shows in France, Belgium and Holland. The show in Paris / Zenith, together with Motörhead, was a huge success and SKEW SISKIN got the offer to go on the road for one of the largest touring possible, as support for Motörhead in Mai/June 2007 through France!
Shortly before the tour SKEW SISKIN finished the mixing of the recordings for their new albumcalled PEACE BREAKER !
The tour through France was a major success for SKEW SISKIN!
SKEW SISKIN has signed up a deal with a new distributor for France called UNDERCLASS in June 2007, who is going to release the album PEACE BREAKER on July, 7th 2007 and with Soulfood distribution for Germany. The german release will be Sept. 14. 2007.
(Source: http://www.skewsiskin.net)