photos by Jim Louvau
Interview by John Wisniewski for MK ULTRA Magazine
Skold is the solo vehicle for Tim Skold, the versatile Swedish musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Having worked with KMFDM and Motionless In White either side of a lengthy hit-making tenure with Marilyn Manson in the ‘00s, he has recently been involved in the duo projects Not My God and Love Ghost x Skold.
Skold’s eighth solo album, ‘Caught In The Throes’, is out today (10th October) on Metropolis Records. Its fourteen songs include the recent singles ‘All Humans Must Be Destroyed’, ‘Pop The Smoke’ and ‘All The $ In The World’, songs that wryly comment about the growth of AI, how to disappear completely and the illusion that money buys happiness.
Well known for his contributions to genres that include industrial rock, metal and electro-industrial, Skold started out in the late 1980s with the hard rock band Shotgun Messiah, before launching his solo career in 1996 with a self-titled album on RCA Records. It featured the songs ‘Chaos’ and ‘Hail Mary’, both of which were subsequently utilised in movies and video games.
His talent attracted the attention of industrial music pioneers KMFDM, leading to his involvement in their albums ‘Symbols’ (1997), ‘Adios’ (1999) and ‘Attak’ (2002), plus a later return for ‘Blitz’ (2009). He also co-founded MDFMK with KMFDM mainman Sascha Konietzko, releasing a self-titled album in 2000.
Skold joined Marilyn Manson in 2002, producing, writing and performing on their chart-topping album ‘The Golden Age of Grotesque’ (2003) and ‘Eat Me, Drink Me’ (2007), as well as the singles ‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Personal Jesus’.
Leaving Manson in 2008, Skold continued his solo career with albums like ‘Anomie’ (2011), ‘The Undoing’ (2016), ‘Never Is Now’ (2019) and ‘Dies Irae’ (2021), each of which showcased his evolving sound and production skills. He also produced and co-wrote for the albums ‘Infamous’ (2012) and ‘Reincarnate’ (2014) by the US metal band Motionless In White, both of which achieved significant chart success.
Other recent collaborations have included three albums as Not My God with Nero Bellum of Psyclon Nine (2020-23), a 2024 record entitled ‘Love Ghost x Skold’ with alt-rock band Love Ghost that blended emo-tinged nu-metal with contemporary hip-hop and alt-rock influences, plus 2025 work with Ye.
John Wisniewski : When did you begin playing music, Tim?
Tim Skold: 1979 when I was 13, I got pretty serious about it right away.
JW: Could you name some artists who influenced you in your early days?
TS: Sex Pistols, Ramones, Judas Priest, Queen
JW: What were your early days like before Shotgun Messiah? Was there an electronic music scene or dance/industrial scene in Sweden back then?
TS: I don’t really know, I was into punk and metal.
JW: How did Shotgun Messiah form and what was the idea for how the music should sound?
TS: Harry Cody and I started Shotgun Messiah in 1986 with the goal of getting us out of Sweden. We very intentionally tried to have an international sound and a look that would get as much attention as possible.
JW: What was the experience like releasing a solo album? Some of the music you composed for your first solo album were used in movies. How did this come about?
TS: I got very lucky with getting a solo deal with RCA Records and it was a fantastic experience. The music got placed in film and games by the publisher BMG.
JW: How did you come to work with KMFDM?
TS: I met Sascha K in 1995 while working on my first solo record in Seattle. A couple years later when I became available he asked me to contribute to the record they were working at the time. My contribution was the song Anarchy and the album is known as “Symbols”.
JW: What was the experience like collaborating with Marilyn Manson?
TS: I worked with Marilyn Manson longer than any other “collaboration”, that should answer that question to some degree. We made a lot of great music together and played countless shows all over the world. I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to have done all that.
JW: What are you working on now?
TS: I just released a new solo album titled “Caught in the Throes” on Metropolis Records.
JW: Any future plans and projects, Tim?
TS: There’s a few things I’m considering but all that is way too early to talk about.