With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

Mayhem Virgins – Bruno Skibbild March 3, 2022

Filed under: Mayhem Virgins — justwilliam1959 @ 2:22 pm
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This is the fifteenth in our Mayhem Virgins series and it features Bruno Skibbild a Singer/Songwriter, Author, and Social Worker. He was also the winner of the Best Country Song Award at Clouzine Fall 2020. A country song, you’re thinking this guy is American right? Well, think again the rather talented and diverse Bruno was born and raised in a small town in Denmark called Snejbjerg, which is roughly in the centre of the country. Mr. Skibbild got his first guitar from his sister when he was in 7th grade and he still plays it. As a teenager, Bruno played in a local band, M87 and this is where he began writing his own songs. After completing his Masters in American History Bruno taught at all levels of education from elementary school to high school. At the same time he moved away a little from his music to bring up his children, twins no less. Then in 2017, he got his music muse back and travelled around Denmark with Neal Ashley Conrad performing songs from The Boss in “The Springsteen Show”. As a teenager, his first music loves were Springsteen and Kiss. Nowadays he takes some of that influence and would probably describe himself as a country-rock artist.

In 2019 Bruno Skibbild finally recorded and released his first single, a song he wrote when he was just 16, it is called “A World Tomorrow”. It’s a great tune with a really 70s soft rock vibe and exceptionally good considering how young he was when he wrote it. By then Bruno was in his mid-forties and didn’t take anywhere near as long with his second single “Long Walk” which came out in 2020. This tune chugs along nicely with riffs reminiscent of Keith Richards on the more country-style Stones songs. Bruno was much more prolific in 2021 releasing four singles; “We Pray For It Everyday”, “Dead To Me”, “When The Past Is Done” and “She Would Never Give In”. There is a vein of darkness flowing through these four tracks and maybe that was driven by some of the awful turmoil going on in Bruno’s life at the time. I particularly love “Dead To Me” which I can imagine Nick Cave singing. His next release was full of rightful anger and questionable justice after social services wrongly removed his children from his care. Bruno said this of the track “I wanted to tell the story about a personal family nightmare that me and my children experienced in 2007. I was wrongfully accused of the abuse of my children and the County took them into custody without any further investigations than the original accusation. It took me 8 months to get my children released from the institution where they were kept isolated. Now being an artist, music helps me push away the trauma through singing it out.” Given the anger and sadness in the lyrics, it is quite an upbeat tune, which perhaps reflects the positive outcome of his children being returned to him. Bruno recently released another single “Gonna Jump Like An Evil” which sounds like Dire Straits recording with a South American Salsa band with jazz aspirations. Without a doubt, this is my favourite Bruno Skibbild song to date. He records his music at Oak Mountain Black Swamp Studio in Copenhagen. Click here to check out all these tunes on Spotify

A quick shout to those of you who have faithfully followed the Mayhem Virgins series, you know it is for artists that have never featured on these pages before. However, technically, Bruno got a mention in a recent Mayhem’s Top 20 Artists post, but in my defence I had mostly drafted this post by then!

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The Mayhem Monthly Top 20 Artist Chart – January 23rd, 2022 February 24, 2022


Greetings dear readers how is 2022 shaping up for you. I am a little late with this post, so there will be a February top 20 on the way soon and some news as to how these Top 20 posts will change going forward. Many of you know that I am a keen user of a site called Obscurify. It claims to tell you how obscure your listening on Spotify is. Compared to the rest of the UK I still remain over 97% more obscure than other users in the UK. It also lists my most obscure artists, (the top two of which have been there since I began doing these posts) which currently are;

Woke Up Dead (One of the two bands that have been ever-present in my obscure list and an excellent band to boot!)

Promethium (This metal bunch continue to fly the flag for great British rock and like Woke Up Dead have been ever-present in this obscure team)

Penfriend – (Not Laura Kidd’s first time in this list and a welcome return)

Cabinet Of Millionaires – (the art of political protest is still strong!)

Folk The System – (folky protest and frankly great songs)

So who were the top artists for January 23rd? Check the full lists below, in a first for this chart there are more female artists than male artists for the first time (11 versus 9). In fact the Top 4 are all women, including a first number one for Gwen McCrae, what a voice! The Dame hangs in at number five. My reggae taste is represented by Dr. Alimantado (7), Dillinger (8) and Marcia Griffiths (17). My favourite 90s band Gene sit at number 18. There a a few classic artists (Kiki Dee, Kate Bush, Judie Tzuke and Joni Mitchell to name a few). This was before Joni removed her music from Spotify of course. Confession time, I really, really fancied Judie Tzuke when I was in my teens! There is a great showing for new artists too, some are more new to me, including The Anchoress, Helen Love, Bruno Skibbild and Yard Act. Look out for an upcoming Bruno Skibbild post soon. Give Obscurify a spin and let me know what your chart looks like and how obscure your tastes are 🙂

1 Gwen McCrae
2 Kate Bush
3 Tori Amos
4 Millie Jackson
5 David Bowie
6 Kiki Dee
7 Dr. Alimantado
8 Dillinger
9 The Anchoress
10 Joni Mitchell
11 Tavares
12 Helen Love
13 Beverly Craven
14 Yard Act
15 Shabazz Palaces
16 Norman Connors
17 Marcia Griffiths
18 Gene
19 Judie Tzuke
20 Bruno Skibbild

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