It’s Only Rock’n’Roll But They Like It – Six Quick Questions With Glam Skanks

Glam Skanks - photo credit Suzanne Allison Photography — Glam Skanks – photo credit Suzanne Allison Photography

We introduced you to Glam Skanks earlier this week, with the release of the video for their latest song, ‘Bad Bitch’. Now on tour across the UK with Adam Ant as part of his ‘Adam Ant – Anthems The Singles’ tour, the band took time out to answer Six Quick Questions for us.

EP: You’re supporting Adam Ant on his UK tour this month and also just finished a North American tour with him. How did that come about?

GS: We share the same PR with Adam and when our publicist Lee Runchey showed Adam our videos he liked our music and asked us to open for him. We are truly honored, as Adam could have had any band he wanted, but he picked us!

EP: Adam’s not the only legendary artist you’ve played with – Veronica in particular, you’ve grown up with all this around you as the daughter of Bruce Witkin, from Hollywood Vampires, plus your mum is a rock photographer! Who have you met and played with, and what’s the real advantage of growing up in Hollywood?

Veronica Volume: My favourite moment will always be when I met Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith and got to play ‘Walk This Way’ with them! Steven was putting his arm around me and having me sing into the mic with him. It was a rock and roll dream come true!

GS: We opened a show for the Hollywood Vampires last year and that was amazing! After we got off stage Alice Cooper asked us if it was ok that he borrowed our makeup. When we laughed at the question he told us he was serious! One of the advantages of growing up in Hollywood is that we’re already there. It’s a lot easier when you don’t have to worry about saving money and moving out and meeting the right people. We’ve been involved in the music scene in some way our entire lives and always will be.

EP: Tell us Millie, why you didn’t want to join the band? And what made you join?

M: It’s not that I didn’t want to join the band, I wasn’t sure if I had the time to commit to another band, I was also brand new to Los Angeles and didn’t really know what I was getting myself into in general. After a night out with the girls I got to know them a bit and their passion and drive for music matched mine so much I couldn’t say no.

EP: What does it mean to Glam Skanks to be women in such a male-dominated world as rock music? What does it mean to be a skank, and how did you come up with the name?

GS: One of our biggest goals as a band is to inspire other young girls to go out and do whatever they want whether it’s playing music or getting into any industry that’s mostly male dominated. It’s not easy to be a woman or girl in this industry and we hope that we can change that! For us being a skank means not caring about what people think or say about you! Skank can be used so negatively towards women and we want to take it back! We came up with our name after we had booked a gig and needed something to give the bookers. We had been going over names with a friend of ours and after a series of ridiculous rhymes came up with Glam Skanks. We thought the name perfectly fit what our sound and style was all about.

EP: Talk us through ‘Glitter City’.

GS: Our debut album ‘Glitter City’ is a combination of everything we love from glam to rock and punk. ‘Glitter City’ is wherever you want to be. Anybody can visit Glitter City. It’s all about fun, glitter, glam, rock and roll. We have several different concepts and rhythms throughout the record and want to share our stories. We find that people always pick one song from the album that is “their song”, the one that they totally relate to.

EP: What question do you wish someone would ask you in an interview, but nobody ever does?

GS: We would love to be asked more questions about our creative process and definitely more technical questions. We love to talk about the gear we use and what inspires our songwriting!

Tickets and further information regarding ‘Adam Ant – Anthems The Singles’ is available from Adam’s official website.

UK tour:

Tuesday, 9/5, Manchester, Bridgewater Hall

Wednesday, 10/5, Manchester, Bridgewater Hall (Second show added)

Friday, 12/5, Birmingham, Symphony Hall

Saturday, 13/5, Birmingham, Symphony Hall (Second show added)

Sunday, 14/5, Bristol, Hippodrome

Tuesday, 16/5, Plymouth, Pavilions

Wednesday, 17/5, London, Royal Albert Hall

Thursday, 18/5, Brighton, Centre

Saturday, 20/5, Bournemouth, Int. Centre

Sunday, 21/5, Leicester, De Montfort Hall