Giuseppe Sbrana – SKINFLINT

Giuseppe Sbrana – SKINFLINT@ Culture Room – November 2, 2024

By: Lori Smerilson Carson

Traditions are of upmost importance for passing along history and lessons for future generations to learn and prosper from. SKINFLINT has done just that with their seventh album BALOI which was just released two weeks ago. They formed in 2006 in Gaborone, Botswana, and then released their debut album Massive Destruction in 2009. These extraordinary musicians have been going strong worldwide, and are now touring the U.S. with SOULFLY. Florida fans have the opportunity to catch this show on November 2nd at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale, and on November 3rd at Jack Rabbits in Jacksonville.

Catching up with Lead Vocalist/Guitarist Giuseppe Sbrana in the middle of their tour as they entered Florida, he revealed some details about the album and tour that he and bandmates Bassist Kebonye Nkoloso, and Drummer Cosmos Modisaemang recorded and are performing, as well as a bit about his past, and what fans can look forward to.

SFL Music Magazine: You’re on tour with SOULFLY. How did this come together?
Giuseppe Sbrana: We know the guys from SOULFLY well because we’ve played with them before a couple of times. I think this is the first time we toured with SOULFLY. So, we have a good chemistry with the guys. They’re like family to us, so they invited us for this tour also, and obviously we accepted. We can’t say no to SOULFLY as they’ve really helped us in the U.S. They’ve really exposed us to so many new fans and helped the band grow in the U.S., especially in the north. Yeah, that’s how it came about, and we are very excited. It’s been a wonderful tour so far. The energy is great and the atmosphere’s great, and I think that people are going to come to us very nicely. So, we are happy.

SFL Music Magazine: Is there anything in particular people can look forward to with the new show?
Sbrana: I think they can look forward to the fact that we will be playing more songs from our latest album called BALOI which Is a continuation of our style. I think the tour will be a bit more aggressive. The setlist is more aggressive than what we usually play, but at the same time, it’s still very much SKINFLINT with a lot of old school metal influences. A lot of Motörhead influences in the rhythms, and also some of the African mythology that we do in the lyrics. So, there will be more stories to tell, but expect a more aggressive set list and much more intensity onstage because we have more experience now.

SFL Music Magazine: What did inspire the new album BALOI?
Sbrana: BALOI was inspired mostly by the older tradition of our stories growing up in Africa in Botswana. In particular, Baloi in Setswana, it means weakness. We covered several aspects of African witches and healers and spirituality in BALOI, but there’s many stories that inspire us. Like there’s a hill called Lentswe La Baratani which translates to Lovers’ Hill. In Botswana, it’s a story about two lovers who went up the hill and they got lost because their tribes forbidden them to get married. So, some people say that the spirits of the two lovers want to heal. Then we have Kishi on the front cover which is half hyena, half man. So, we have a lot of these stories we want to tell, and of course about Sangoma. Sangoma’s like African witch craft and healers. That’s what the inspiration for the album is, the environment we grew up in. A lot of the stories have not been covered by Western media. So, that was very important for us, all of us from SKINFLINT, to tell these stories in our music because we feel that Africa is so rich in myth and mythology and history, but so much of it has been undiscovered. So, that’s the inspiration.

SFL Music Magazine: I saw the video for “Sangoma Blood Magic” showing the healing and some symbolisms with the animal skulls and snake. What would you say inspired that?
Sbrana: Yeah. For the video of “Sangoma Blood Magic”, like I was saying, in Africa there’s Sangomas everywhere. Sangoma is one of the most popular elements of African tradition that you can hear about in terms of spirituality, whether it’s a positive side or a negative side. In terms of the video, we wanted to focus more on the darker side. That’s why it’s called “Sangoma Blood Magic”. In the video basically, it’s quite symbolic, but you can make it of what you want, but a lot of it is about capturing souls and putting them into bones, like you’re trapping the soul of people putting it into the bones. So, that’s basically the vide, and there’s also a lot of sin in it which I kind of like. Also, the actors were good friends of mine, so it was fun to shoot. Everybody had a good time on set. I think the energy was good. The chemistry was great and most importantly, I think the video is made in raw. It’s like, you can see a couple of guys playing together. It doesn’t try too hard, and I like that. That raw energy.

SFL Music Magazine: On the album there is “Sangoma (Traditional)” that is 1:42 minutes and then the last track is “Sangoma Blood Magic”. Is Traditional an intro or what was behind that?
Sbrana: The traditional one. What happened there is, that was the original skeleton. Put it this way. The skeleton of what inspired “Sangoma Blood Magic”. We wanted to show where the song actually came from. That’s like a draft you know, like an artist draft, and we wanted to put that in the album so people could hear the influences where the song came from. To us that was important because sometimes the translation from African beats, and traditional beats and rhythms, sometimes gets lost when you translate it. So, I think it’s a good reference point to see where we are coming from and the inspirations that we had in terms of our rhythms and how we come up with songs, and that’s an idea. So, we said, no, why not? Let’s just put it in the album because sometimes that’s how we compose songs. We get some African drums or Matlhoa, and we just get together and we make songs like that. They’re skeletons, and then we translate it into metal. I think it’s an interesting approach.

SFL Music Magazine: The song “Lentswe La Baratani” is 8:50 minutes. How did that come about?
Sbrana: That one was more of a straight forward approach to writing the songs because we always spoke about this hill in Botswana and we wanted to make a song about the two lovers who got lost in the hill. We just got together in the studio and we put our paths together. So, Kebonye, the bassist put a riff here. I put a riff here. The drummer put some ideas there, and the song just came together. It’s a long song, but strangely it was one of the easiest to come up. Like in one short afternoon, we got the whole song down and we recorded it. So, it just came naturally.

SFL Music Magazine: What would you say inspired you to become a musician and form SKINFLINT in 2006?
Sbrana: That’s a tough one. I come actually from a musical family. My dad played for another rock band. My late uncle was a blues guitarist. Back then in Botswana, it was very difficult to find any metal CDs or rock CDs, but we had a shop by the main mall that used to sell some CDs. My uncle had a collection of Jimi Hendrix tapes and he gave me this BAND OF GYPSYS tape to listen to. Then I watched Hendrix and he played the guitar solo in “Machine Gun”. After I saw that guitar solo, it was like I had an out of body experience. It was the most amazing guitar playing I’ve ever seen. So, I was absolutely obsessed with Jimi Hendrix. Then I was exposed to Black Sabbath PARANOID because I started as a blues guitarist and there was a lot of blues in “Paranoid”. We could relate to the metal, but it was so much heavier and it had this darker atmosphere to it, and it resonated very well with me. From that moment, I knew then that music would be the way I tell the story of my life.

SFL Music Magazine: What would you recommend to a new musician starting out, from your experiences?
Sbrana: I would recommend to other musicians that there’s no price too high to pay then the price for owning yourself. Being a musician is one of the most difficult passions you can do because in fact, most things will be against you, but you have to remember that it’s better to be happy doing what you do, than having any doubts in your mind not following what you do. So, you should always have the courage to follow your dreams, and I think this applies to all areas of life. Have that courage to be yourself. Don’t be scared to be yourself. Too many people try to be like others. Too many people try to copy trends. Forget about the trends. Try to be yourself and like I said, to be yourself is complete freedom. I think there is no price too high to pay for that. So, just go out there, follow your passion and most importantly, enjoy doing what you do, and I wish you all the best of luck.

SFL Music Magazine: That’s very nice and wonderful advice! Are there going to be any new videos coming out?
Sbrana: Yes. We would love to do a couple of videos. Maybe one more music video and record some live performances. I think the next step would be to make a whole live show. We want to record a live show back in Botswana so people can also see our scene there. So, we want to record the whole album live and have a video for that, but also, another music video. We will choose a track most likely as soon as we’re done with the tour. It’s been so hectic right now. We have hardly any time, but as soon as we’re back, we’ll have to find some time. Then we’ll start shooting.

SFL Music Magazine: You’re just in Florida. How are you enjoying it?
Sbrana: It’s interesting because we’re in the van now and we just passed a sign saying ‘Welcome to Florida.’ This is the first time I’ve seen Florida. We drove over, I’m not sure what it is, but there’s this bridge and this water all over us and it looks amazing so far. It’s nice because the weather is warm like where we come from, from Botswana, Africa. We are used to coming to the north of the U.S. like Minnesota or Vermont which was very cold. So, so far, we’re really liking it down here in the south and we’re looking forward to the show. I’m sure it’s gonna be a wonderful time. We’re gonna bring our best, and the fans should bring fire extinguishers because there’s going to be fire onstage for sure (he laughed).

SFL Music Magazine: That’s great, bring fire extinguishers! Was there anything else you want to add about the show or album?
Sbrana: I would like to send out a very big thank you to all of the fans in the U.S. and all over the world for supporting our dream. We feel as much a part of you guys as you feel a part of us. The spirit of metal brotherhood will never die. Metal is one big metal family, and we thank you all for all the support.