Winter Rocks Festival returns for its third year next month, bringing an exciting mix of international artists and local talent to Corp on Saturday 1 December. Headlining the festival are ragga-metal champs Skindred, who are back with an explosive new album, Big Tings. James Haworth chatted to the band’s drummer Arya Goggin ahead of the gig. ..

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me before the start of Skindred’s massive UK tour.
No worries, thanks for having me. We’re just making the final preparations before things kick off in Coventry next week.

Do you set aside much time for rehearsals before heading out on the road these days?
We’ll usually go into rehearsals straight after we’ve finished recording. We get an idea of the songs that we’d like to play for the next tour pretty soon. You’ve got your soundcheck to try out new things, but we’re pretty well-versed in what we’re doing now.

In those sessions straight after you recorded – could you tell which songs were going to go down well live? Ones like ‘That’s My Jam’, perhaps.
I think we could, yeah. As things progressed with Big Tings, some songs naturally came to the fore as ‘live’ songs. As much as we love to play it, I don’t think it’s a good idea to bombard fans with brand new stuff, straight out the box.

Especially with this marking Skindred’s seventh record. You’ve got to strike the balance between including the setlist mainstays and sharing the new tracks – which have had a great reception so far.
Yeah, we’ve done really well. We’ve been playing three or four off the record, which is always good. I always try and judge it on when I go to watch other bands. If a group play a few off the new album and I like the sound of it, I’ll be interested to delve deeper. But if they push six or seven new songs into their set, it’s more like: “OK, you’ve lost me now”.

Have any new bands caught your ear recently?
I think Astroid Boys’ stuff is really cool. I’m excited to have them supporting us for a few dates on this tour.

Do you as a band like to get involved in choosing your support acts?
That’s actually a big idea on this tour. Because we’re visiting thirty-two different places and playing some smaller venues, we wanted to give local bands a chance. It’s so important to support local music and venues.

Your Sheffield gig is a great example of that. You’ll be headlining the Winter Rocks Festival at Corporation, sharing the stage with some really exciting local acts.
I think it’s cool. It’s also great for people to come along and feel part of a wider community of music fans.

Any fond memories of Sheffield?
Oh, I love Sheffield, mate. It’s a great town, and I really feel like we cut our teeth there. We’ve played loads of gigs there over the years, working our way through the venues. The northern love has always been there for Skindred.

If you had the chance to curate your own dream festival, who would you have performing?
This is what I would do: it would be a Skindred-themed festival, but Queen would headline.

Haha of course, you can’t really put Queen in the support slot can you?
No, not at all. I’d also make sure that we’re on early in the afternoon and don’t clash with anyone – hopefully we’ll have Led Zeppelin, the Police (in their early-80s era)…oh, and The Clash. This is starting to shape up!