Hi there! This is Mark Foggo, finally doing this interview with SkabadiP.

Well, first of all let me tell you that I’ve been amazed by the re-release of your first two albums (“Speeding my life away", 1980; “State of mind", 1983). I think they put you on the same level with bands such as Madness and the Specials. Straight to modern Ska origins!

Well, I wouldn’t say that really. Not on the same Madness level because Madness had much more success; although, if you mean that we both come from the same era, well, you’re right then. I started plying Ska oin 1979 and I did my first single – "New Shoes" - in the early eighties. Sure, we were playing Ska in the same period when the Specials, Beat, Selecter, Bad Manners were doing it.

Well, that sounds amazing to me. Lots of people think that Mark Foggo, with or without his Skasters, comes out from the second Ska wave (1989/90).

That’s not true; as you said before talking about my early albums, we started playing around 1979 and 1980. We played more than 200 shows between ’80 and ’81. We were really busy in those years.

So which were your strongest influences in those two albums which sound really different?

Well, in 1979 I used to play in the punk pub circuits in London. I was already playing punk since about 6 years and then I left for Holland. It was still 1979 and I just started to get into Ska, so, what happened was that I started playing some kind of mix between punk and Ska…… that’s how “Speeding my life away" came out. The second album, State Of Mind, was planned to be more Ska and less punk from the beginning; and that’s definitely how it sounds. More Ska!

When did you think about forming a Ska band?

How was the scene in those days?

Well, I was pretty busy at the time. Used to play around a lot, lots of shows, lots of venues. Live music was really considered at the time. There was much more live music. There’s more festivals now, but venues usually play records but less live shows.

What happened to Mark Foggo between ’83 and ’89?

That’s an interesting one! I was kinda sleeping in that period. It started in ’84, as Ska almost disappeared at that time, with my big disappointing.

I simply wasn’t working enough. I tried to put up Ska shows but no one was interested…. They said: “Ska? It’s dead now". So I started doing other things; started writing songs with a friend of mine here in Holland called Freddy Lancey and wrote commercial stuff for other people. We wrote “Susanna" for Heart Company, which is a terrible song, a commercial piece of shit. Tho, it had great success and we felt better. But right here and right now, I want to tell you something. In that period, I did another album. I did it because the people at A&M records offered me quite a lot of money and the only condition for that record was that there had to be no Ska in it. As always, they thought that Ska was over. So, I got the money and did the record. I’m not proud of that record at all so I’m not going to tell you anything about it but if I find a copies of that record around I try to destroy them. It’s very embarrassing….. so let’s just stop talking about it.

Would you tell the SkabadiP readers where do you find an inspiration for your funny weird fuzzy lyrics?

Well, actually you can’t really tell that I’m such a serious man…. Basically I love doing whatever I like and that’s what my lyrics are all about. They deal with everything makes me laugh or makes me sick. You’ll never hear me sing about politics or stuff like that, because I like living day by day, having fun. And I think that’s simply great.

One of my faves is “Couldn’t play Ska", how would you define it?

I think it’s schizophrenic! I put together different things. The title track has a bit of classic rhythm and makes me laugh; “Bumpy Airlines" came out after I once flew on a plane and found myself thinking “what a terrible plane is this", and stuff like that. My influences come out of the things I do everyday.

What’s your favourite two tone era band?

Oh, I believe The Beat. I was a big fan of them. I did travel a lot to see them and once I even went to London to see them. I had no ticket of course and the show was sold out. So I climbed on a window of the venue while they were doing sound check and told a girl that was selling tickets: “I come from Holland! I got no ticket! Would you let me in?" and she said: “No, no, no….. can’t do it. You can’t get in!". So I told her that I was a friend of the guys in the band and the girl took me to the Beat manager and he put me on the guest list. I saw the show from the backstage and it was absolutely brilliant. Yeah, The Beat is my fave two tone band.

What about your sixth album, “Haircut"? It seems that people didn’t really appreciate it.

I think your latest work “St Valentines Day Massacre" is absolutely super! A sampler of Ska inna Foggo Stylee!! Which are your favourite songs?

Foggo Stylee?? Yah Man!!!!  Well, I really love  “A very fussy pussycat", and “Car on a train", it’s a fast one. And also “Fat girl". It reminds me of a summer I spent in Spain. I was on the beach looking this girl…she was so fat and she inspired me to write a song. I also love “It’s You" which is great to play live, lots of fun; but then also “Ramona from Barcelona" is a great song. You know what? It’s just that I can’t really tell you what I like best. I love all of them. A song I hate? How could i ever hate one of my songs? I simply won’t make it! And if I would hate one of my songs, I simply wouldn’t put it on a record. I love all of them. If I had to tell you a song I’m not interested in, that would probably be “Mama don’t like it" because it is really a joke, but the Skasters were really in one of their best periods.

What kind of Ska music do you like to listen when you don’t play with the band?

I don’t really listen to a lot of Ska actually. As you probably know, I have a record store here in Holland, the Skanky’Lill Shop in Eindhoven, so I listen to almost all kinds of music. Right now I’m into rockabilly, stuff like The Meteors, but I still like listening to punk rock stuff. So I don’t happen to listen Ska all the time. Because of the shop, I generally have to listen to all the records once so that I know what I have to sell. I also think that listening to Ska music would be dangerous, because if you get too much into it, you end up that you’re too much influenced and start doing things that in some way remind you of someone else, and I want to impress because of my personal style, the Foggo Stylee, as you said. So we like our personal Foggo Stylee and we don’t want to be influenced be anyone else. You’ll never find people saying “Ah, the Mark Foggo Skasters sound like someone else". It just can’t happen and the Skasters will always be like that.

Which is the band you played with that most impressed you?

Wow! Yeah, in the early ‘90s we played twice with the Jam and I stood on the side of the stage with the band, with our eyes wide open, and they were amazing. Simply the best and funniest band I’ve ever seen. And to me it was a pleasure and honour to share the stage with them. One of the best moments in my musical career!! (laughs!).

And what’s your opinion about traditional Ska revival?

If you mean the traditional Jamaican Ska from the 60s, well I have no interest in such bands; I mean, ok, I respect Ska origins, sure I do, but those “one stroke Ska" bands are not my stuff…… I like the kind of Ska I play, I love my women, I like it hot and fast, a ha ha ha ha!!!! But still, there’s plenty of good bands playing that kind of Ska. It’s easy to find bands that remind you of Bad Manners, Madness.. I love every band who tries to do something original.

I’d like to know what you think about smoking ganjia, and if this is in some way concerned with your music.

How’s Ska music’s future?

I recently talked with some guys from the Toasters and also from Estern Standard Time and they all told me that Ska is going down in the States. But I also think that at the end, only the best will survive. Maybe there’s been too many Ska shows. I saw E.S.T., here in Holland recently. They played in front of 29 people!! That’s terrible. And they’re such a good band!! I believe that Ska music could have a great future……. Tho, at the moment it’s better to survive.

I already know the answer, but I’ll ask you anyway: will you ever do a dub song?

No. I’ve never been interested in dub music, just as I’ve never been interested in reggae music. It’s just too slow. I’m that kind of speed boy, got no time for that. It’s alright to me if you play regge at double speed.

And what about Ska-core?

And two tone?

Is there an artist that you’d like to work with?

M.: Oh well, I’d love to do something with Paul Weller (laughs) because of what I told you before (the Jam), and maybe Dave Wakelin from Marvellous but I guess it’s gonna be hard. Then, I don’t know how and when, but sooner or later I’m going to do something with Buster Bloodvessel from Bad Manners. I think it would be fun. It’s just that we ain’t got the time, but who knows, maybe one day….  I’ll tell you something about our future projects. We’re going to work on a new Skasters album. It’s going to come out in October/November; I was a bit frustrated with the whole thing, so I decided to work also on a different project. It’s better if the Skasters remain the Skasters. People love them and we’ll keep on doing things that people like. So, what I did was to put up a new band, my second band, called the Babyshakers. We play a mix of Rockabilly, Rock n roll and Ska. It’s a four piece band and it’s me singing and playing guitar, Andrè Stivenberg, the former Mr. Review key player, Anna, from the Seriuos Skankers playing double bass, and a Rockabilly drummer called Renè who also plays in a band called The Mighty Jackals. I got four people together and told them about my project. They liked the thing and we started playing. We met in a recording studio and told them I wanted a Rock n Roll feeling but with cool Ska rhythms and that’s what we’re trying to do. We already recorded 9 songs and they’re all quite good; we’ll probably going to put out a cd soon. Probably sooner than the one with the Skasters, and that’s simply because it’s easier to practise with 4 guys rather than with 7. I hope that also the SkabadiP readers are going to like it. We’ve been talking about Ska punk, Ska-core, but this is a mix of Ska and Rock n Roll. It’s very fast and very exciting (the album is already out and it’s in the riddim reviews section).

As for touring???

M.: I might be doing something in summer in northern Italy, and then again in December come back to play in a wider area, but who knows….. anyway, I wait you all, nice Ska people, and I wish you all good luck in everything and remember: if there’s something I can do for you, just ask!! Thanks and good bye.

Website: www.iaehv.nl/users/foggo