If you’re going to Manchester Punk Festival this year, and wondering where to go to get your daily recommended allowance of ska, then look no further than our second featured band, Dakka Skanks.
Formed in 2016, Brighton-based Dakka Skanks are fronted by soulful, future-legend Clara Byrne. They’ve performed with ska legends like Madness, Neville Staple, and The Skatalites, and will be playing on the third day of MPF.
Read on to see what she had to say!
For anyone not familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?
Good question! We, as a band, love all styles of music and you can hear everyone’s influences in their playing. But we all love reggae music, so we keep that off-beat skank over our sound always.
You could describe our sound as Hard Reggae, we have Rocky sounds, Punky sounds and Dubby sounds in there. We delve into all types of Caribbean music starting from Ska to Steppas!
If you had to recommend one of your songs to a new listener, which one would it be?
If you asked everyone in the band, we’d all say something different, but for myself, I’d say ‘The Game’. However, that one’s not recorded yet! So a recorded track which is available on all streaming sites I would recommend is ‘Thirteen’.
What can we expect from your set at MPF?
We have different sets for different events, playing what people want depending on the vibe of the event, we’ll definitely be playing our our punkier set for MPF though!
I would say expect a show, we will be playing ‘Thirteen’, so if you didn’t get a chance to listen you will hear it there, also expect some new tracks!
Are there any bands you’re particularly excited to see over the weekend?
So many good bands to watch but particularly excited to see Grade 2, Bar Stool Preachers, Random Hand and, our friends, Popes of Chillitown.
What else are you up to this year any tours/festivals/releases you want to tell us about?
We are off again to Germany and The Netherlands a couple more times more times in April and June which we are excited about, also a bunch of summer festivals which will be announced soon! September we’re going on a UK tour with the great Slackers from NYC. Check out our website for upcoming dates! Look forward to seeing you all soon.
Thank you so much to Clara for answering these questions. Dakka Skanks will be playing at The Union on the Sunday of MPF, at 16:40.
You can find Dakka Skanks on Facebook // Instagram // Bandcamp
Manchester Punk Festival takes place 29-31 March 2024 – full details and tickets here
