Universal Space Shifter Archives

10 Questions For The Manic Noise Maestro Of Belgium’s Cacophonous Mindfuckers… SKISKA SKOOPER

Posted on April 12, 2018 by JL

Discover up & coming bands in 10 questions…

Belgian’s rowdy high-voltage powerhouse SKISKA SKOOPER just launched their deranged
debut album, titled UNIVERSAL SPACE SHIFTER. Only 4 songs, including an apocalyptic
46-minutes escapade, titled ‘Introvert Party‘ as the brain-cracking closer. Either you have nasty anticommerce balls or you just hate making a boring career in music, or both of course, in order to release such an otherworldly & demonic record. Their raw racket is certainly not as shocking and alien as Lou Reed‘s Metal Music Machine but I’m sure this wicked three-piece had the same psychotic mindset as the late King Of New York when creating their anarchist pandemonium. Only, compared to Reed‘s arty farty cock-up, you
can actually listen and even lose yourself completely in Skiska Skooper‘s fucked-up, sonic disorder. Hallelujah, I really dig this mind-crashing shit! Next to Skiska Skooper‘s digital chaos Sonic Youth sound like harmonious pussies. Let’s try to find out some more about these noiseniks and talk to manic frontman Mathias. But first, to start the acquaintance properly, we will watch/hear the group’s hair-raising steamroller ‘Pink Harlot‘ right here…

Hello Mathias, welcome at Turn Up The Volume!

1/ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
“We wanted to make a tribute to Siska Schoeters (note: a Belgian radio DJ) by using her name, but our violinist is quite spastic, so when trying to type in the name on Facebook,
it all went horribly wrong.”

2/ I read on your Facebook: “SKISKA SKOOPER is the musical
equivalent to a kick in the face.“ Should we be scared?
“Yes.”

3/ Your brand new debut album is titled ‘UNIVERSAL SPACE SHIFTER’.
Who or what is that shifter?
“A shifter is the mechanism under the stage in an arena that makes everything spin around. That way all the people get a chance to look at us from our good side.”

4/ What’s the LP’s front sleeve image about?
“We tried to combine all the topics from the songs in a single image.
Failing that, we just picked the last drawing in our friendship booklet.”

5/ What the hell is going on? on last track, the 40+ minutes
‘INTROVERT PARTY’ jam?
“We tried to create the absolute radio hit. Guess we failed.”

6/ Which movie would you pick to visualize your music
on a big screen when playing a concert?
“‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, because everything
can be a love story with a bit of imagination.”

Introvert party massacre…

7/ Your number one artist/band to do a world tour with?
“Aqua. That way when we start playing our cover of ‘Barbie Girl‘,
she can get on stage with us and sing along.”

8/ Any special rituals before going on stage for a show?
“I always drip gasoline over my guitar, so, at the highlight of the set,
when I ask people to put up their lighters, the show really gets lit.”

9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front
door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together?
“John Lennon. When he opens the door, I’ll just shout “Here’s Johnny!”
and run away screaming, leaving him standing in awe.”

10/ Future plans for SKIKSA SKOOPER?
“We are about to release our greatest hits vol. 9 next month. If you’d like to pre-order it, you can always send us 5 cents and a yellow popsicle and we’ll put it in the mail for you.”

Thank you, Mathias, for the horror-ific chat.
May the road rise with SKISKA SKOOPER!

Leatherface… unmasked