Skinny Living hail from Wakefield, part of the tight-knit music community in that town.
Singer Ryan Johnston, though, grew up in Northern Ireland. Born to a Catholic mother and Protestant father, the family moved out of Belfast to let these polar opposites find a little more space to co-exist.
Landing in Bangor, the frontman found himself drawn to some harder elements – before one incident led him to reject this way of life altogether.
Finding himself in a, shall we say, tricky situation, a local hard man placed a gun in front of Ryan and said 'this is how you sort this'.
“I thought, ‘I am not that person,’” he remembers. “It was a major wake up call, but the song’s about how easy it is for any of us to go down that rabbit hole, and find ourselves in these sort of situations.”
'Only I' is a soaring salute to taking your own path, to focussing on love and art instead of violence and hate. Tune in below.
Catch Skinny Living at the following UK shows:
October
11 Brighton The Albert
12 Bristol The Louisiana
14 Belfast Voodoo
15 Dublin Whelans (Upstairs)
17 Leicester The Cookie
18 Newcastle The Cluny
19 Glasgow Broadcast
21 Manchester Soup Kitchen
22 Sheffield The Rocking Chair
24 London The Lexington
25 Ramsgate Ramsgate Music Hall
26 Hull New Adelphi
28 Leeds Stylus