Skindive

Skindive is an Electronic Rock band based in Dublin, Ireland. Songwriter / Producer Gerry Owens started writing the songs that would appear on the ‘Skindive’ album in 1995. When enough songs were ready to perform live, he and Skindive’s manager Dermot Geoghegan set about putting together the rest of the band. He was quickly joined by drummer Ger Farrell and bass player Alan Lee. After a long search, he found Los Angeles based singer Danielle Harrison. After an audition that was held over the phone, Harrison packed up and moved to Dublin, where the band were a regular sight on the Dublin live scene as they built up their live credentials.

Owens and manager Geoghegan were determined to attract the attention of ex Island Records boss Chris Blackwell (U2, Bob Marley, PJ Harvey, The Cranberries), who had a new label called Palm Pictures. With the help of friend and investor, Paul Delaney, they put together five US shows. Skindive played their first US show in Arlene’s Grocery in New York in 1998. Palm Pictures A&R man Eric Silver was at that show. Over the course of the next 4 shows, more and more of Palm Pictures staff appeared, until finally, the band had built up enough of a buzz to attract Chris Blackwell to their homecoming show in Dublin’s Da Club. Chris signed Skindive that night and work began on the first album soon after.

Album 1 – ‘Skindive’

The album took six months to record and was recorded in Dublin, Los Angeles and London. Owens pre-produced some of the tracks with Danny Saber (U2, Happy Mondays) in Los Angeles and co-produced the album with Alan Branch (Sinead O’Connor, Jeff Beck), Adrian Sherwood (NIN, Ministry, On-U Sound System) and Skip McDonnald (MC5). Nick Ingman (Oasis, Annie Lennox, Björk, David Bowie) arranged and conducted the 42 piece orchestra that played on the album in Windmill Lane Recording Studios, Dublin. The album was mixed by Dave ‘Rave’ Ogilvie (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson) in The Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, Canada.

‘Skindive’ was released in 2001 to critical acclaim.

Placements:

Owens mixed a special version of ‘Tranquillizer’ for the then fledgling Napster and was as a result, featured on the homepage for a full week. This attracted a lot of new fans for the band. Three songs from ‘Skindive’ were used in the Anime classic ‘Blood The Last Vampire’ and ‘No More Good Guys’ became an underground success when it featured in TV series ‘Queer as Folk’. Skindive’s music was used as part of the MTV Music Awards as well as the Grammys.

The band’s first radio single was ‘Swallow’ and the release date was set at September 14th, 2001. The tragic events that changed the world three days before the release of ‘Swallow’ also changed the course of Skindive’s trajectory. Skindive didn’t tour in the US from that point onwards. The band achieved notoriety in Germany, France and Spain, and were featured on the cover of Rock Sound Magazine and as a result, toured in Europe before returning back to Dublin to write the second album.

Morale in Skindive was at a low point at this stage and after a number of personal, financial and business blows, Skindive split up in 2003 and went their separate ways.

‘Between The Cracks’ …….The Unreleased Album

The second album was recorded in 2002/2003 but due to the band’s demise was never released. ‘Between The Cracks’ will finally be heard when it gets its release in 2019.