Currently doing a UK & Ireland tour, Skinny Living are gearing up towards the release of their debut EP later this year.
We caught up with lead singer Ryan Johnston before they make the trip to Dublin for a gig in The Academy.
You’ve been playing a string of live dates, how have they gone so far?
Our gigs have been going really well recently with most of them selling out online or on the night. Meeting new people and new bands at each gig is great! The experience is making us more creative and adding to how we play and write.
You’re coming to play Dublin this weekend, excited for that?
We can’t wait! It’s our first time playing in Ireland and we are pleased to be playing such a nice venue.
You’ve got Jay Boland supporting on that date, how did that come about?
We got speaking to Christian Tierney a few months back about doing a session on his YouTube channel and he suggested Jay to play along side us. Christian sent over a few links to Jay’s stuff and we loved it! Looking forward to hearing him live.
Tell us a bit about what people can expect from your live shows.
Our set at the moment is completely acoustic, as you would find us online, but we only have a few of our songs online so at the show you will hear a lot more of what we do. A lot more harmonies too.
I saw that you’re currently leading up to a debut EP release? Tell us a bit about that if you can.
Yeah we spent a few weeks recording the EP and we are now in the mixing and mastering stage with each of the tracks. We are going to call the EP ‘Word of Mouth’ as people spreading the word about us is how we have been moving so quickly as a band. The sound on the EP is an evolution from our normal acoustic sound but holds the acoustic structure of all our songs. We create most of our songs from an acoustic starting point but we hear all the other instruments so we want to add them all to the studio versions. We supported Jake Bugg in Leeds arena to over 11,000 people last October and we got some of our session musician friends in to play that stage with us to lift the sound up and fill the arena. It was a great experience and hearing our songs turn into what we imagine them to sound like with a full band is a blessing! Can’t wait to release something from it.
What’s the general writing process of Skinny Living then? Do you each take different roles, is it a natural progression of writing over time or do you actually assign time to sit down and get a song nailed?
I write the lyrics and Will writes the guitar parts, then Danny adds a counter melody with his guitar and Rhys adds percussion. At least that’s how things started for us. It’s changing rapidly though, we create with all different approaches now and we like to create a lot of different vibes, not just staying locked to a certain genre but maintaining our sound throughout.
What’s the hopes and aims or goals for the foreseeable future?
We just want to play as much as possible and get some more recording done. Looking forward to the rest of this year and playing at the Isle of Wight Festival in June.
Thanks for taking the time to chat to us Ryan.
Big Love from the four of us!
Skinny Living play The Academy, Dublin on February 28th. Tickets are available now from Ticketmaster.ie.