The time is nearly here… Another livestream from a Dark Place. Attendance is by invitation only. Is it a Christmas miracle? A Q&A? A virtual Meet & Greet? Earlier this year, SKYND invited fans to watch the first and second episodes on NETFLIX’s “Conversations With a Killer: John Wayne Gacy” during a virtual watch party. What does SKYND have planned for her fans from around the world today?
England. Argentina. Australia. Germany. Canada. Fans joined from around the world for the chance to have SKYND answer a few of their questions. Unlike her previous virtual watch party, today’s session was more of an open forum. Skynd was soon bombarded with rapid fire questions, the initial round being more focused on the music, and of course pleas to tour more.
Which True Crime case would be the topic of SKYND’s next song, and when can we expect a release? She’s keeping that a secret for now, but we’ll have to wait until 2023 to hear it. There are plans to release physical music at some point, both CDs and Vinyl, but definitely something special to be released 2023.
SKYND’s first North America tour is in the works, but its very expensive to tour the U.S. She’s fully prepared for any backlash or controversy that the band may find during their American debut. She was expecting big backlash from the release of her debut song, inspired by the 2013 disappearance and recovery of Elisa Lam, but the backlash never came.
Being forced to stop all touring for most of 2020 and 2021 during the COVID19 Pandemic, 2022 found the band touring across Europe and England, with Skynd’s favorite show of their headlining tour being Prague in what she called an “insane” show of support, followed by Paris, and Stockholm. SKYND will being heading back out on the road again in 2023, this time as the special guest of Ice Nine Kills.
“I’m really excited to go on tour with Ice Nine Kills next year and to meet the fans.”
While there are still some nerves about performing, she does have a pre-show ritual before stepping on stage but like much of her personal self, its a secret!
The topic soon shifted back to the subjects of SKYND’s music. While nothing is impossible in Skynd’s world, are there some cases that are off the table? The notorious Tool Box Killers would be a hard one for her to write because of her ADHD, and the shear amount of research she’d have to do to craft the lyrics. Would a song about Jeffrey Dahmer be possible? Perhaps, but she’s not sure. “Maybe that story has been told too much.”
How about a song about The Manson Family, or Charles Manson himself? Perhaps but she has another cult in mind. Could she be referring to Heaven’s Gate or the Branch Davidians?
When asked about a track inspired by Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield, she didn’t say no but she’s not sure either. “Nothing has sparked my creativity yet.”
She did say there wouldn’t be any music about other unsolved cases. “I tried to write about Black Dahlia. Its a mystery but there’s not enough information to fully translate into music.”
An Aileen Wuornos song is possible though. Of all the True Crime that Skynd has researched, its Wuornos’ case that breaks her heart the most because of all the trauma that Aileen went through as a child and young adult.
“People are not born to kill. Think of the person as a box, and the trauma as a the paper you put in the box and you’re stacking the paper into a box. Eventually if you stack too much the paper will topple.”
The topic soon shifted to the ethics of true crime in the form of media and art. Skynd has never been contacted by any of the victims or family members of the True Crime events she writes about.
“Is it bad that the media is sharing true crime? No. We need to talk about and have an open discussion about Mental Health. We cannot just close our eyes and shut out reality. True Crime as an art form has been present since like forever. Its OK to be fascinated by the beast of the human side. What brings people to do such inhumane sides. If we ban it, its not going to get better.”
Skynd writes her lyrics as though she was looking in from the outside, a witness or watcher of those crimes. “Watching from the other side of the screen. The storyteller. The observer. Watching from afar.”
Her most difficult or hardest case to research? Chris Watts or Jim Jones. “I didn’t originally know Watts tried to kill the girls (his daughters) twice. That broke me. Its a very emotional song to perform live. And Jim Jones. There’s a forty minute audio file you can find on youtube. Its horrible. You can hear the babies screaming towards the end of the tape as they’re dying in pain.”
Researching that much True Crime does take its toll on a person though. Skynd kept the answers somewhat cryptic when asked about finally releasing the songs inspired by Mary Bell, and Bianca Devins. “Bianca’s was a terrible story. Her boyfriend cut her head off, well, tried to cut her head off.”
Skynd fell down a very dark rabbit hole while researching Armin Meiwes, the Rotenburg Cannibal who rose to notoriety in 2001 for murdering and consuming a willing victim. “The Long Pig fetish… I just got to a point in the dark and had to stop researching because of the bad feelings I was having.”
A loner, and bullied as a kid, Skynd found comfort with her imaginary friends, and the entity of her namesake. The SKYND persona always lead her to her safe place as a child. What does the entity Skynd look like though? She described him as being rather tall and skinny with pale skin. This entity would not only be her safe place but also a conduit of her creativity.
When asked about the lack of guitars in their music, Skynd revealed there is an upcoming collaboration with a certain guitar player but was very vague about whom the guitarist is. She would love a collaboration with Slipknot, and recently found Bad Omens. Her dream collaborations would be with industrial icon Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, and she’d love to work with Kate Bush.
“Machine Gun Kelly is cool, I like his music. Also Opeth. Maybe Ice Nine Kills?”
She also admitted to being a huge fan of Lady Gaga, and that American Horror Story: Hotel was her favorite season.
As far as creating music, Skynd’s advice was “don’t force the creativity”. She elaborated by saying “Let it flow. If its not flowing, step back from it. Give it time. “
When asked about the potential comparisons to Marilyn Manson and his music, she admitted that Manson’s music was a huge influence to her but its hard for her to talk about Manson given the recent allegations.
Before saying good-bye, Skynd talk about her writing process. “It’s teamwork. Father plays nearly every instrument.” They need each other to craft these songs, and she doesn’t think they would be what they are without his help.
Recording new songs, shooting new videos, performing the song live, it’s all therapy for her. Hopefully 2023 will find her sharing that therapy with a wider audience.
