Artist Interviews

Q&A: Young Knives

By | Published on Thursday 19 May 2011

Young Knives

Hailing from the market town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, the members of eccentric tweed-rock trio Young Knives, who are known separately as Oliver Askew and brothers Henry and Thomas ‘The House Of Lords’ Dartnall, first began to garner music industry buzz in 2002 with mini-album ‘The Young Knives… Are Dead’. The band released their first LP proper, ‘Voices Of Animals And Men’, in 2006 via Transgressive Records, which was produced by Andy Gill of Gang Of Four, earning them a Mercury Prize nomination and a slew of top 40 hit singles.

With second album ‘Superabundance’ emerging in early 2008, Young Knives played live dates across the UK, putting on a string of intimate shows that included a triumphant homecoming performance in Ashby-de-la-Zouch town centre. They then took a short break after the release of one-take track ‘Turn Tail’ before resurfacing last year with a demo version of ‘Love My Name’. A revised edition became the first single to be taken from brand new album ‘Ornaments From The Silver Arcade’, which came out last month by way of Gadzook.

Currently in the midst of an illustrious UK tour, we approached The House Of Lords ahead of a show this evening at Birmingham’s Academy venue, and proceeded to pose our Same Six Questions for his consideration.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
We all met at school and were into similar things. Henry and Oliver were in a band together called Kerbed that played sort of grunge-influenced stuff. I joined them later on bass in another band and we have been doing it ever since.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
A lot of different style things. We really like the rhythm track on Beyonce’s ‘Put A Ring On It’ and ‘Love My Name’ was an attempt to try to have a rhythm part like that. Also, while we were recording it we listened to a lot of Grace Jones records and Public Image, too. And recording in LA definitely gave it a much more relaxed feel. You can’t help but play smoother when it’s sunny.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It differs for different songs. Sometimes we will jam it out together while really stoned, sometimes Henry might write a chorus or a lyric, or sometimes it might just start with a drum beat. Then we play it for a few months and keep changing it, and then we do a demo recording. Sometimes we then might start copping up the recording or singing different melodies over it. As I said, it’s always different.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
We all really like Adam And The Ants, but also some more recent things like TV On The Radio, who are really inspiring because they manage to reference old music but still sound new and different. I like the way Dave Sitek puts stuff together. He reminds me of Brian Eno’s ‘studio production as a writing tool’ sort of approach. The results are always really different and vibey.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
“Listen to this and don’t read anything about the band that made it or look at any pictures of them or anything”. That goes for all music really. The more you know about musicians and where they’re from and which other bands they’ve played with and which magazine they’re in and the more literal associations you can make with the music, the less I think you actually tend to hear it for what it is. Hearing new things and knowing nothing about them is pure music listening.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
To play it to some people that like it, and sell it to some people, and get to play some places and hear some new bands and keep on writing music for as long as we’re all alive.

MORE>> www.theyoungknives.com



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