My first memory is getting told off at school. I was small. My dad was in the air force and I went to school on the base. We once had to draw a giant, as a class. Everyone went out to play, but I stayed behind and painted the giant’s feet green. I got told off, but I just knew they had to be green.
I’m from Brixton, proper Brixton, not trendy Brixton or gentrified Brixton. I love Brixton, even though a lot of my community is being kicked out. But I always wanted to get out of there, too. I wanted to see and do other things.
I get bored if things aren’t hard. I think it’s more interesting, spiritually, to keep moving forward. Getting married and having kids and a normal job was expected of me. I always knew I never wanted that.
I was raised Christian, but I think Christianity is embarrassing and I think it’s going in a bad direction, towards the right wing. The way it views queer people and views abortion is absolutely despicable. How dare they say what God wants, what God is? I’m spiritual. But right now, I’d describe myself as spiritually confused.
I get itchy feet. We stopped moving around and settled in Brixton when I was six. But that early experience of moving a lot has stayed with me ever since If I’m not travelling, I feel like I’m stagnating, like something is wrong or I’m plateauing. Thankfully, I joined a band. You’re never in one place for long in a band.
I always knew I could sing. I think a lot of singers suffer from impostor syndrome, even very successful ones – they often don’t know what the fucking fuss is about. But I knew I could sing before I’d sung a note. I just always remember thinking I was a singer, and a different kind of singer, because how I talk is different. I don’t mean to sound arrogant. I think everyone can sing. They just can’t sing as well as I do!
Talent is only half the battle. You can be talented and achieve nothing. It’s the work you put in that reaps the rewards. The world is filled with very talented people who didn’t put the work in and didn’t get their dues.
I’m proud of my OBE. It did cross my mind what people would think about me accepting it, but I didn’t care really. It didn’t come from the royal family. Nobody in that family has listened to Little Baby Swastikkka. It was an award that came from a committee of people who recognised what I’d contributed to my country.
Some people think a Black person shouldn’t accept an award like that. Why? Very few white people have turned it down, because they see it as their right. This is my country. It’s my right, too.
Headlining Glastonbury was enormous – andit’s easy to forget what a big band we were at that point. That was a moment in my life where I absolutely knew we deserved to be there. But we knew it pissed a lot of the music establishment off. We knew some people couldn’t understand why we were there. We weren’t accepted by a lot of the music press because we were a band with two Black people. We weren’t a rock band, we were something… else. Has that changed for Black artists? I don’t know.
Skunk Anansie are working on their as yet untitled seventh studio album