Skint & Demoralised

Skint & Demoralised is a UK lyrics-based, Northern Soul-influenced pop act, fronted by 20-year-old spoken word artist/lyricist Matt Abbott from Wakefield, West Yorkshire and produced by the mysterious MiNI dOG from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. They are signed to Mercury Records.

History

Skint & Demoralised began when Wakefield teenager Matt Abbott started doing stand-up performance poetry in late 2006. This was mainly in the West Yorkshire area, and included support slots for Reverend and the Makers, Last Gang and The Research. He also performed for Love Music Hate Racism and his unusual style soon earned him a name locally.

Abbott temporarily ceased to perform poetry for a while when he was contacted on MySpace by MiNI dOG, with whom he consequently formed a songwriting partnership. MiNI dOG began to turn Abbott's poetry into songs by chopping them apart and laying them over backing tracks before the two had even met. However, after meeting, the pair developed a strong songwriting partnership, with Abbott writing lyrics and MiNI dOG writing the music and producing the demos. His poetry soon evolved into a more lyrical style, although the spoken word delivery and also the style in which they are written remains very true to his poetic beginning.

After uploading demos onto MySpace, free download sites and also posting CDs out to DJs, the band were played and interviewed on various radio shows including Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music, Shamir Masri's 'Raw Talent' on BBC Radio Sheffield^[1] and on Yorkshire Radio. The band also received airplay on BBC Radio 1 from Colin Murray and Huw Stephens and played a Maida Vale live session for Steve Lamacq on 3 March 2008.

One of the most note-able features of the band's initial success was the sheer volume of free downloads from their site. Demo recordings were uploaded as soon as they were finished and from June 2007 to March 2008 they had over 8600 downloads in total.

Having originally planned to release a limited edition single on Stiff Records, the band signed to Mercury Records on the 18th March (part of the Universal Music Group).

Live performances

In July 2007, Abbott and MiNI dOG compiled a live band of musicians from their local area. In total, they played 11 gigs before they signed, including a support slot for Reverend and the Makers at their sell-out Christmas show at The Leadmill for their fifth gig. Their gigs were all in either Wakefield or Sheffield.

The act didn't return to the stage until November 2008 when they played three gigs to promote their debut single, including shows in Leeds, Preston and finally a single launch at Escobar in Wakefield. They also performed at the Mencap Little Noise Sessions at the Union Chapel in Islington with Razorlight, Florence and the Machine and Esser.

Their first headline Tour was in February 2009 and included dates in Sheffield, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, Birmingham, Brighton, London, Leeds and finally Southampton. One particular feature of the live set included Matt Abbott's spoken word poems. During this Tour, he would perform the anti-racism poem "BNP: Nazis on the Doorstep" without a microphone and usually climbed on top of a nearby monitor or fixture to do so, thus raising him a few feet above the crowd.

He has supported and performed with Love Music Hate Racism since he very first began and has often spoken of his support for the organisation in interviews as well as in Blogs.

In March 2009 he supported one of his main idols - John Cooper Clarke - at The Duchess in York as part of a string of Spring dates before the next single campaign, including many headline shows across the North of England.

The band performed at several new music festivals such Camden Crawl in London and The Great Escape in Brighton as well as being confirmed for major festivals such as Glastonbury Festival, Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London, Latitude Festival in Suffolk, Leeds and Reading Festival and Bestival on the Isle of Wight.

They were due to tour in Autumn 2009, but on 18 August 2009, Matt Abbott announced via his Facebook page that he would be re-naming the group as 'Matt Skint' and would be postponing the tour and associated releases of single and album until 2010.

Debut Album

Skint & Demoralised began recording their debut album Love, And Other Catastrophes... in June 2008 with legendary Funk/Soul session band The Dap-Kings at The Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, New York. The Dap-Kings are most known in the UK for their work on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album and Mark Ronson's Version.

The second half of the session was at RAK Studios in St John's Wood, London and the album's producer was MiNI dOG. MiNI dOG also mixed eight of the tracks, with the other four being mixed by Jeremy Wheatley.

The album is due for release in January 2010.

The first release from the album was the track "The Thrill of Thirty Seconds" on 17 November 2008 from London indie label Another Music = Another Kitchen and was limited to 500 7" vinyls. All 500 of the signed copies sold out on pre-order.

The band's second single was the track "This Song Is Definitely Not About You" and was released on Mercury Records on 2 March 2009. This was a non-chart eligible release which is available on CD and 7" as well as a digital download.

The band's third single is the track "Red Lipstick" which was a digital-only release on 13 July, entering the Official UK Singles Chart at Number 100. Promotion around the single included a day-time national television appearance on popular chat show Loose Women and a full-page spread in The Sunday Times' Culture magazine.

Critical acclaim

Skint & Demoralised enjoyed critical acclaim from a very early stage in their career, and in particular it was the praise of BBC Radio 1/BBC Radio 2/BBC 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq that led to them gaining attention from several major labels. They received national airplay from Lamacq as well as his fellow BBC Radio 1 DJs Huw Stephens and Colin Murray before they were signed and performed a live session for Lamacq at the Maida Vale Studios in March 2008.

Their first national acclaim in the press came in August 2008 as a "Next Big Thing" from Q Magazine; an accolade soon followed by Clash Magazine,^[2] The Independent,^[3] The Scottish Sun and The Sunday Times' Culture magazine^[4] before the end of 2008, as well as several online journals.

The Guardian also named them as their 'New Band of the Day' on 12 January 2009.^[5]

The infamous "3am Girls" in the Daily Mirror are also early supporters of the band,^[6] and when they released their first single they enjoyed many national radio plays on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, Xfm and Absolute Radio as well as being on the B-List at BBC 6 Music. DJs such as Sara Cox, Zane Lowe, Colin Murray, Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq, Nick Grimshaw, Annie Mac, Dermot O'Leary, Janice Long, Dan Wheadon, Simon Richards, Luke Carpenter and Chris Moyles have already expressed their support for the act.

Discography

Albums

• Love, And Other Catastrophes (2010)

Singles

• "The Thrill of Thirty Seconds" (2008)
• "This Song Is Definitely Not About You" (2009)
• "Red Lipstick" (2009) UK #100

References

External links

• Skint & Demoralised official site
• Skint & Demoralised at MySpace
• BBC Interview
• Xfm
• BBC Article