A ship carrying a promising musician is shipwrecked upon the Dessert Island. All they have with them are eight of their choice tracks, and a cheap set of disco lights. Oh and a cargo of their favourite pudding!

Skanks With Knives

Skanks with Knives may be based in Los Angeles, but their frontwoman Turbo is quick to correct the record: “I’m Australian. This is an Australian band that just so happens to be in LA. I was super unemployed and going batshit crazy. I was on Twitter way too much, getting angry. I needed to channel that anger creatively instead of starting fights with people.”

That impulse became the foundation of Skanks with Knives. The mission statement is simple and incendiary: Burn down the establishment. Dance on the rubble. Kiss your friends.

Skanks with Knives live shows radiate danger and joy — the kind of chaotic physicality that recalls punks most unhinged nights. “I feel called to it,” Turbo continues. “Dancing around, having people shout my shit back at me — it’s so much fun. And I think people are scared of looking stupid on stage. But that’s where the fun comes from.” She recalls a story about crawling off a stage mid‑set, getting stuck halfway, and simply lying there suspended between stage and floor. “People are scared of fucking up. But I fall all the time. That’s the point.”

We talked about Skanks track DFI or Die. Turbo tells how the name came from a zine she made called Destroy False Icons. “It’s a response to me being on Twitter too much,” she says. “And it’s a direct response to this super weird culture where we idolize influencers and have parasocial relationships with people online.” She describes social media as “a trap in a cage,” flattening subcultures, erasing authenticity, and making everyone behave the same. “DFI or Die is saying: fuck that. They’re not idols. They’re not gods. That shit’s not real.”

There is a clear tension between rejecting online culture and needing it to survive. “In order for people to find out about our band, we have to post on Instagram. The algorithm pushes you more if you post at certain times. It sucks.” Skanks try to get the balance right - using social media as a tool to build community, connect with other bands, and book shows, while also resisting the pressure to live online. “I’ll post something, then we get comments, and suddenly I’ve been on my phone for two hours. That sucks.” To counterbalance the digital grind, they plaster flyers around LA and seek out more organic ways of connecting. But at the same time, for a relatively new band the internet introduces their wild, raucous energy to new audiences, with fans from Mexico, Spain, Hawaii, Greenland, France, Australia — all finding them through social media. “It’s so cool seeing where people are from.”

So what's next? Turbo explains “we’ve got two songs coming out in the next two months, probably a song a month. And merch! “People keep reaching out wanting merch. I don’t want to deal with shipping shit, but I want people to get it.”

Their choices for the Dessert Island Disco:

Mudrat and Hyphen - “We Despise the Bourgeoisie”
Softplay - “Punks Dead”
Lambrini Girls - “Lads Lads Lads”
Grlwood - “Get Shot”
Amyl and the Sniffers - “Freaks to the Front”
The Specials - “Ghost Town”
JessX - “Nitro”
System of a Down - “B.Y.O.B.”

Favourite Pudding - Toffee Apples