No Half‑Stepping: Skindred Bring Their A‑Game Back to Australia This September

Australia, prepare to set your fazers to stun this September, with Welsh ragga metal legends SKINDRED primed to return to our shores for their biggest ever Australian headline tour! Opening proceedings on Tuesday 1 September in Perth, SKINDRED will head through Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, and close out on Sunday 6 September in Brisbane.

Wielding a formidable (and deserved) reputation as one of the best live bands on the planet, SKINDRED have been stupefying audiences with their heart-thumping blend of reggae, punk, hip hop, nu metal, rock and electronica since forming in the late 90s. Hailing from Newport in Wales, SKINDRED’s innovation and hybrid agility saw the group explode out of the underground and into enduring infamy, now with eight studio albums to date, multiple award wins, countless performances and millions of fans spanning the globe, all under the ardent gaze of frontman Benji Webbe.

Releasing their debut album Babylon in 2002, SKINDRED have consistently unleashed new music throughout their career, and 2026 is no exception with the hotly-anticipated release of their ninth studio album You Got This due out on April 17. Featuring the newly slimmed-down trio of Webbe, Mikey Demus and Arya Goggin working alongside GRAMMY-winning producer Jay Ruston (Diana Ross, Meat Loaf, Mr Bungle), You Got This picks up where the band’s acclaimed 2023 album Smile left off, with vibrant dancehall hues fused with hooks, earworms and hard-hitting slammers all lying in wait on album #9; and it’s a collection of songs that are also set to inevitably stun in a live setting. Benji Webbe talks to Hi Fi Way about the album and tour.

So good that Skindred are coming back to Australia this September. You must be getting pretty excited?
Yeah, man, I mean, September’s a ways away, but yeah, I’m sure looking forward to reaching back to Australia. We do love Oz fans, we do love some Oz shows. Really, really good and it’s the first time we’re actually playing some headline shows as well, because normally we just come out there and get a snippet, just jump up and do a little showcase at festivals or something, but it’d be really good to actually get in a club, set our world up, and invite the Aussie people to Skindred universe. It’s going to be great. The good thing about Australia, since my other band, Dub War, we played on a TV show called Recovery in Australia a long time ago and I always thought that, even back then, it was something I felt quite warm to the Australian vibe. It’s like something that, when we go there, we always feel like we get a warm welcome, which is really good.

How do Australian fans compare to anywhere else, from your experience?
You know what? I think what it is, well, Skindred’s got a vibe that turns people into a Skindred crowd, no matter where we are, whether it’s Australia, New York, or Los Angeles. I just feel like when we play a show, people who come there, they know they’re coming for a good time, they know the vibe’s going to be uplifting, it’s going to be powerful and positive, that’s what this show’s about, that’s what this band’s about. Positive energy creates positive people, and I think that that’s what we do when we play in a venue, no matter where it is. So, I’m pretty buzzed to be there.

When the Newport helicopter’s fired up, do you think Australian fans bring something quite different to that?
I don’t think they will. I think the most important part is if they just bring an empty cup, we’re going to fill it up, that’s all I’m saying. That’s why I think when you go to a show, just bring the vibe, you know? The Newport Helicopter’s something that people really, really dig, and it’s funny to watch, how much people dig it, and how much people talk about it. It’s really nice that we are the originators, we are the emancipators for that original Newport Helicopter. We made that up, and it’s brilliant, because it’s ours, and it’s something special that other people tried to do it, but they just can’t fucking do it, man. They can’t pull it off, bro, I’m sorry.

It must be even more exciting by the time you get to Australia, the new album would have been out for a while?
We got those new songs down pat. I’m pretty excited about the new record. It’s like I’m getting a lot of love from people who I’ve known for years, and people who are coming back and saying how much this album is just so free, and it’s crazy, because the way I look at it, it’s like, when you’ve been in the band for twenty eight years, there’s just so much love in the band. As the musicians who are writing the songs, it’s just so much love, still, and so much passion, so it’s really good that the new albu, is getting so well received in that manner.

Do you think this album really challenged the band in a lot of ways?
I’ll be honest with you, man, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know if you’re in a relationship, any fucking relationship is challenging after twenty eight years, do you know what I mean? You really got to pull something out of the bag. I think that what runs clear with us, we’re very different people in every way, and what runs clear with us is the passion for the music, the songs and the energy in the band. I think that’s what draws us close and keeps us tight.

Is that part of the secret to longevity as well?
I think love is a secret, bro. When you love something, you’re not going to let it go that easy, are you? I mean, Skindrid has had many ups and downs, but never ins and outs because I don’t think an in and out is never going to solve anything. Like I said, what I love, I look behind me, and I see the drummer, I see a guy who I’m passionately in love with, and I love, because he delivers every day, and it’s the same when I look at a guitarist. It’s like, it’s just incredible that I can have that much love for that much, for that long. I’m very blessed, and I feel that, and I know it as well. I’m very thankful.

With the singles that you’ve already put out so far, there’s such an incredible energy. Was the energy like that in the studio?
Oh, it’s funny, because you never know that… we just do what we do. I mean, everybody does what they do, whatever your talent is, whatever your gifting is. So, when we’re in a studio, we’re just making a song. It’s not like, oh, this is high energy, this is what we do. It’s the way we deliver and I’m a bit of a hype man. I keep the vibes popping in the studio. The guy’s got to basically tie me down really, because I do go crazy, like, we won’t get no work done, because I’m fucking around constantly and I mean, not as in being stupid, but, like, try this, try this, let’s do this, let’s push this path, let’s push that and in the end, they got to say, yo, calm down, dude, we’re going to fucking do it. So, I think that energy definitely comes across on the songs. A lot of the songs that are recorded, are they pretty much just one take.

I actually do enjoy that, it’s not like one take nowadays. What you would do in a studio situation is sing the song six or seven or eight times from beginning to end. Even though it’s your song, it’s the producer’s vision. So what I would do, I’d sing the song, every one of these songs on the album, I’d sing them from the beginning to end, about six times, then they’d do what they call is a comp. The producer will listen through, and he’ll find the best lines, or the way you said something, or your attack on this line is different, and he’ll comp it together, and that’s when it comes together. So I do sing the song in its entirety, but it still gets comped anyway.

Do you think that the Skindred sound changes much between albums?
Mate, still the fucking team. It’s still ragga, it’s still punk rock, it’s still heavy metal, that’s what we’ve done from day one. We are the bastard sons of The Clash. You know, we’re the bastard sons of The Police, that’s what we wanted to be like, and The Beat, you know, these kind of bands that mixed genres in the very early stage of music, back in the 70s and 80s. That’s what we decided to be. That’s what we wanted to be. A band that brings people together of all colours, all races, all sexes, didn’t give a fuck. We just wanted to bring people together in one room and everybody rocking to the same song, but being very different in their ways and I think we achieved that on every record.

Having so many good songs with the new album, that must make it pretty hard to come up with a set list for a tour?
I’m from the days when you used to put a piece of paper on your merchandise desk, and if anyone’s interested, they used to write their name on there, and you’d send them a letter in a couple of days, you know, I’m from that era, you know, and that’s what it was. Nowadays the good thing about touring now is that, due to the internet, you can just look and see what song streams best and you draw your setlist from what songs are streaming best, because there’s no use doing fucking something from Killing the Power that’s just never been played before, and expecting people to dig it, so you might as well find the ones that people are liking the most, which is streaming the most, and building your set around your most popular streamed songs. So, it’s not that difficult anymore, it’s pretty cool, actually.

When you finished the new album, when you put the headphones on and you listen to it start to end like a fan, what were your thoughts?
I thought it was a great journey. Every song on that album is taken from true life events, everything from the opening song, which is You Got This, to the end song, which is Give Thanks, are all taken from true events. I think like William Shakespeare said, “to thine own self be true,” and I think this is the truth of Skindred in 2026. This is total God’s honest truth, and I think you can’t do no more than your best, and we did put our best foot forward. It wasn’t easy in the studio, and it’s never fucking easy. Sometimes the producer has got to be a referee. It can be real fucking challenging being around these human beings! But I think when I sit down and listen to that album as a body of work, I think it’s probably the best body of work we’ve ever created as a band.

Do you feel any pressure with each new release?
The last album got us into the UK top 20, and the one before that did too. Then we hit number two, and everyone kept saying, “You should’ve got number one.” Sure, I’d love that, but I don’t want that pressure in my head. You can get lost in that noise. I don’t want the whole “you got to get number one” thing getting in the way of what I love doing. So I’m really trying to focus on enjoying where I’m at while I’m on the way to wherever I’m going. And if I never get there, at least I had a good time.

Is the rest of the year about touring relentlessly and pushing the album?
Pushing the album and trying to have fun, that’s really it. Life’s too short, and if you’re not enjoying yourself, don’t fucking do it. That’s my philosophy. I’m going to push this album anywhere I can; I’ll hype it to four strangers in an elevator if I have to. That’s just who I am. I’m in this band, and I’m still putting stickers on club walls twenty years later, that’s passion. It’s great that people dig what we do, but first and foremost, I do it for me, and the boys do it for themselves too.

Do you find that you still enjoy the touring side of things even more now than you did at the beginning?
I think I enjoy playing full stop. I said the other day, we could be in a festival with eighty thousand people, or we could be in a little club in Carlisle with twenty five people, and I’d have a fucking great time. I think what I do is the vocal gymnastics and the madness that I do, my antics and all that, I think it’s priceless. I’m very blessed to be able to do that, and I look at it like, this is not a job. There’s a philosophy that says, a man who does something that he loves and gets paid for it, he’ll never do a day’s work in his life, and I feel like that. What I get paid for, in all honesty, because I think with music, it’s priceless. The voice is priceless, the energy’s priceless. What I get paid for, really, because I do that for free. I get paid to fucking travel, because that’s the hard part. Sitting in the airport, hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, it’s always hurry up and fucking wait, you know what I mean? And you get there, and it’s like, yeah, so I would say, the singing part, they couldn’t afford for me to do that, I’m having too much of a good time, but the traveling, I get paid for that, man, because that’s a bastard.

With that sort of mindset, does that make it easier to keep that intensity from one show to the next, given how much you actually do enjoy it?
Yeah, like I said, I’m at the age where I could drop dead any day, so every show feels like my last. I give it everything, and I’ve been doing that for twenty‑odd years. This isn’t something you can half‑step, you either do it properly or don’t bother. Sometimes you deal with promoters who aren’t doing their job, and I think, what am I supposed to do, go onstage and sing like shit? I couldn’t, because I love what I do. So I give it my all every time. Playing with Skindred is where I’m in my element.

What is it that you’ve missed about not having toured Australia in a little while?
Well, Hungry Jack’s is always a treat. I know it’s terrible, and a lot of Australians say, what the fuck? But, honestly, for me, when I finish a show, and I come off stage, and the promoter’s got us a box of Hungry Jack’s, it’s a pretty good day. I know it sounds pathetic, and it’s a beautiful country and all that, but fast food is something that you got to pick wisely, and around the world, it’s really bad. So I’m looking forward to putting my feet up, and having myself Hungry Jack’s after the show for sure.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Skindred on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…