Skim - No Turning Back
by Sue Barrett
For every tear/
I shed my fears/
And there’s no turning back from here
(Skim & Hojung Choi — 'Introducing...')
 Skim was raised in Queens, New York and re-located to Los Angeles in 2002. She performs “hip hop mellow live gangsta soul korean rhythm folk blues” — having performed at the Asian Hip Hop Summit in Seattle, Peace Out East in New York City and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Skim is currently the featured resident artist for the LA Rezidents Project and is also an artist educator with the non-profit organization, Assemblies in Motion (serving at-risk youth). Skim’s debut album, For Every Tear, was released in 2006.
When, and how, did you become a performer?
Music has always been a part of my life since I was little — within my family, within church. Church is many things — there are many things that I could say about church — but one of the things is that it is a regular space where music is played or listened to. I’m a bit obsessive — so when my mom first got me a guitar when I was 12 or 13, I didn’t sleep for a few days!
Getting into music professionally wasn’t necessarily intentional. At the time, for work, I was doing assistant film editing. I started writing a screen play and when I had done the first draft of it, I found out about an informal writing workshop here in LA that brought together a good group of Asian-American artists and teachers. At the end of the workshop, they do a reading with everybody involved. I’d never got on the mic before that — that was the first time — so I was asking one of the dudes at the workshop all kinda details about what you do when you get up there! I read a piece from a scene that I’d been working on in the workshop and the people who were watching me and hearing me were really supportive. Being able to do that, being received like that, it kinda got to me how I’d never felt that way before, never been listened to like that. Basically I didn’t have a place in any other part of my life where I could just express myself. I felt that I needed to perform more. One thing led to another and I’ve been performing professionally for almost three years. As for the screen play — it’s not done yet!
It was around that time that I met a woman [Leila Steinberg], who I still work very closely with, who had started a non-profit called AIM (Assemblies in Motion). She was running weekly workshops in LA — it wasn’t a space that was like a showcase or a show format — it was more a space where artists could get up, talk, have conversations. The basis of the work of the non-profit is taking the workshops into spaces with youth and utilizing art and music to have the most direct and genuine conversations we can about a range of issues, from life skills development, to racism and homophobia, to anger management, to personal trauma. We build relationships with youth who are in the system, in correctional facilities, high schools, etc., in order to inspire solutions to all our problems and heal from all our pain. The reality is that the communities most targeted and criminalized by this system are youth of color, minority youth, black and brown youth, immigrant youth. To me, that was the background I was coming from before I started writing and so it all made sense in this crazy way.
How do you go about writing/arranging your music? And does your music vary from show to show?
My writing changes with each song. In writing a song, sometimes I feel I pull pieces that I already have and build up from that. Sometimes I feel like there is story that I need to write about. And then other times, working with different producers who are actually making the instrumental, I just kinda vibe off what the music feels like.
Because I’m obsessive, my mind doesn’t stop! But I have to let these things out. A lot of times the songs are about the experiences I have in my life, the things that go on around me, ones I love, ones I have yet to meet.
Every performance is different. I get restless quickly — so one of the challenges has been performing the same material, over and over again. What I need to do, what helps me, is being as present as I can in the moment and so I will obsess over my material up to the minute I step on stage. I love to have different flavors in my shows. I like to try different ideas out. Ideally, I’d like to have a band. I’ve been playing more live with other musicians and instrumentalists and I’ve been incorporating the Korean folk drums also.
Why do you write about lesbian lives?
I write about lesbian lives because I write about immigrant lives and I write about family lives and I feel that lesbian lives are a part of life, definitely a part of my life. My intention doesn’t come from wanting to speak about it. My intention comes from needing to speak. I’m from this space — I’m identified with a group of people, a community of people that have been time after time after time after time cut down, shut down.
When, and how, did you become aware of performers singing about lesbian lives?
When I started being more involved in [performance] spaces and shows, from time to time some of the people in those spaces were addressing lesbian lives. Then I came across a festival in LA called Fusion [LGBT people of color film festival). And they had an after party event where people were performing. Fusion was this whole space of art, music and gay women, lesbian women, queer women of color. And it was just like, “WOW!”.
How important is it for performers to sing about lesbian lives?
I think it’s really important. I think it’s a necessity. I think that every artist has a responsibility to really speak honestly about the things that are going on, whether it’s just going on in their lives or things that are going on in this world. As we learn more and more about what is going on in this world, we also learn from past things in history, and then where we are headed. It is a necessity that we talk about these things because we are in our generation part of this struggle. There is still discrimination against people. I think the biggest lessons or experiences for me from doing this stuff is that you’re travelling in really vulnerable spaces. When you put yourself out there, you’re baring yourself to whoever is watching and listening. We all need to express our truths.
What seems to make people more receptive or less receptive to songs about lesbians?
I think that it’s about their own issues, their own minds and hearts and where they’re at. But it’s also definitely related to how somebody presents something, how you talk to somebody. If the song is a conversation that that artist is having with somebody, then it’s just like any conversation that you have person to person — how you communicate affects the situation. I think it goes both ways.
As a performer, have you experienced homophobia and racism?
Oh, yeah! Absolutely. I’ve performed in a wide range of places. I’ve moved through spaces that would be considered straight, or maybe non-defined, where there’s not like a gay presence or lesbian presence there for sure. I’m not killed yet — but, yes, definitely, I’ve experienced homophobia and racism — not just from being lesbian, but being a stud and being very apparently non-conforming gender-wise. I’ve faced it all — from the looks, to the hushed whispering, to the straight-out laughing — and that can be coming from my race, my gender, whatever.
What are some of the issues faced by performers, particularly performers who don’t hear their voices represented in mainstream culture?
There is a whole range of issues. Some of the issues, on the very surface level, are access and visibility — whether it’s to venues or media outlets, or promotion, or support, or financial support. As performers, we need to learn how to connect our resources, build links with each other, build networks. I’m not in anyway part of any kinda mainstream – so I’ve got to really deal with how am I going to function, build relationships with people who are doing this in the world and are not part of the big, monster mainstream assembly line.
What advice do you have for emerging performers?
It all boils down to some basic things like really paying attention to your own growth and your own processes, being in touch with your own experiences and through that being able to relate to others. As a musician, you really need to try to be the best musician you can be. You just expect that it’s going to be hard. You don’t expect that any part of this is going to be easy. As an economic tip, I believe artists and songwriters need to really start owning our own independent status, independent businesses and companies.
What have you been doing over the past year? And what’s coming up in the next year?
One of the things that has started in the last year is the LA Rezidents Project — this Sunday is the third show. I’m the resident featured artist for a period of time. There is also a guest feature of the night and DJs who are there all night. It’s a space intended for people to come together, have a good time, chill out for a bit. There’s a bar and restaurant there. For me as an artist, I’m finally having the opportunity to have a regular space where I can pull together different artists or musicians who I’ve been wanting to collaborate with.
In this last year, I’ve also been performing more in different cities — and building relationships with people in Chicago, Seattle, New York. And with AIM, we went to the UK, twice.
Over the coming year, I’ll be definitely pushing for a Skim tour. In the meantime, I’m finding the opportunity to open for other artists’ tours.
And I’m also gearing up to start recording again — I’ve got a couple of projects. One of them, which will come out first, is my mix tape — which will be a chance for me to collaborate with artists that I can’t get into the studio (like Bob Marley). I want to pick some of their songs that have influenced me and add my vocals as if I am doing it with them, singing with them. And then I want to do my second album!
Discography
For Every Tear (2006)
More Info
www.myspace.com/skimmusic
Read the article and other interviews (Gretchen Phillips (Girls in the Nose; Two Nice Girls), Ripley Caine, Nedra Johnson, Bernie Bankrupt (Lesbians on Ecstasy), Ferron, God-des (God-des and She) and June Millington).
SUE BARRETT is an Australian music writer, with a special interest in women in music. She witnessed "the incident" at a Cris Williamson/Tret Fure/Judy Small concert that prompted Judy to write a coda for the song, 'Lesbian Chic'.
c. 2007
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