UNITED KINGDOM: Releasing her second almost two years after going solo, Skin is back with, 'Alone in My Room', and ready to take on the world

Having disappeared off the music radar for almost two years, Skin, ex Skunk Anansie lead singer Deborah Anne Dyer has launched 'Alone in My Room.' 'Fake Chemical State' is Skin's second solo album and it is as defiant as the first one. For Skin, the second album is about moving on saying, "I think it's not so much knowing what people love to hear from me, it's more to do with knowing exactly what I want to do," Skin said. "You know, I have my band now, we have a sound, and all we need to do for the second album is record it. While on the first album it was much more ... we had to start from absolute scratch. I think it's just coming from a place of confidence, the second album, which in the first album just didn't happen." As for the album title, Skin does not give any answer. "A Fake Chemical State what does it mean?", she asks. Referring partly to the 'normality' of drugs in every day life, be it headache pills, Prozac or Ecstasy, the album title is open to interpretation. "A Fake Chemical State of a personality, of the emotion or the character. Or is it the state of England or the state of America or a state in America or you know... there is a lot of different impressions on that. And I think it's a good album title, to have people discuss in the current times. Although I have to say, with all the craziness around, drugs, whatever kind of drugs, I already had my album title." Skin has ever been afraid of being different. In the mid- '90s when black women were channelled into soul and dance music, she dived headlong into heavy rock. She was the frontwoman of Skunk Anansie, one of the biggest UK rock bands of the '90s, selling over 4 million in Europe. Now as a solo artist, Skin has signed a deal with the V2 record label and Skin has made the decision to launch her single "Alone in My Room" as a download only, a full six month ahead of the launch of her album "I think the thing about doing an album on the website is basically to train people to go to the website. That's where things are ... that's where music is gonna be sold in the future. We are in a real transitional period right now, eventually in the next three, four years all music will be sold on the net. And it's training people to come to my website, to see what's going on, it's a very lively and energetic website. And also I think doing that gives the artist control over the music." Whether the decision to launch their single on the internet proves to be a successful on for the artist, Skin is actively promoting her new album and is playing in 16 small clubs in the UK in a return to her roots. "I think it's also when you do something well, when you enjoy doing it, when you have a passion for it, you do it forever. Luckily the thing I do best is the thing onstage, you know, being a singer, a performer."

ITN Source | November 23, 2005

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