In Conversation With #204 - KNIVES
Bristolian noise collective KNIVES have just released their debut album 'GLITTER' via Marshall Records.
GLITTER was recorded with producer-engineer Dominic Bailey-Clay at Giant Wafer Studios in the Welsh Valleys. The album channels diverse influences from hardcore, post-punk, alt-rock, and experimental jazz into a cohesive yet unpredictable experience.
The band took an moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Knives, how are you? So your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?
We’re a big mix of feeling incredibly good and also super tired. We’re in the middle of our album tour, we’re having the best time being able to play the album in full for people. Some of the songs from the album have been in our live set for over a year, some of them we’re only just playing for the first time, it’s been really cool seeing people’s reactions to them.
It is called ‘Glitter’ – what is the meaning behind that?
We wanted the album name to be bold. As a band we’re big advocates of safety, inclusivity, and diversity, especially at our shows. ‘Glitter’ is kind of like a nod to that, everyone deserves a place in which they can truly be themselves. We’re incredibly lucky and grateful to share a space with such a wide variety of people. Lyrically, our music is about our deeper personal experiences, the majority of which are fuelled by anger at the people who don’t stand with our morals. Sometimes it can be overwhelming having to relive moments and conversations we’ve had with these people. It’s so easy to get swallowed up by hatred. Naming the album ‘Glitter’, it’s almost like a reminder to take these difficult experiences and turn them into positives. For us, the music and the live shows are that flicker of light.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
We recorded the album at Giant Wafer Studios in Llanbadarn Fynydd, which is in the middle of the Welsh countryside. Majority of the album's songs were written months before we went to record. We kind of panicked before our debut European tour in October 2023 because we didn’t have enough music to play a full hour set. Every day for about 2 weeks we were bulk writing songs until we had a bunch that were good enough to play. That tour was a big turning point for us musically, we finished the year with a headline show in Bristol and at the end of it our recording engineer/producer Dom from Nine Volt Leap, he came up to us and was like “we need to book a studio right now and record this album”. We spent just a week at the studio, working as quickly as we could. Being in the middle of nowhere, there were no distractions, apart from the occasional game of Fifa, so we were completely locked into recording. In the end we had 13 tracks, 11 of which made it on the album.
What are the key influences behind the album?
In terms of bands, Rage Against The Machine, The Armed, and Death Grips. Also our amazing friends in Ditz, Enola Gay, and Clt Drp. We’re also heavily influenced by video games. We love the way game soundtracks are incredibly atmospheric, but also have these big grand pieces that are repeated throughout the game to influence the narrative and coax an emotional reaction out of you when you play. We wanted to emulate this in our music, especially when playing live. We have this joke that we can’t write a song longer than 3 minutes, out of our entire discography there’s maybe 2 or 3 that do. It’s because we’re so focused on writing short, catchy songs that stick in your head, the way that motifs in game soundtracks do.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Scott Pilgrim! If they made another movie or tv show for the franchise, we’d love to be on the soundtrack. We’re named after the character Knives Chau so it would make the most sense. The movie was one of the first things we bonded over when we started the band and we were all super excited when Scott Pilgrim Takes Off came out.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
Our favourite lyric on the album is from the end of the first verse of The Dagger, “Just so you could see Adam and Eve fruitlessly picking apples from the trees of deceit, stick to his roots, don’t know if he’s naive, aspirations branch to different places just to fall like autumn leaves”. We love using metaphors and wordplay within our lyrics, we feel like it’s a deeper, clever way of expressing our feelings of certain experiences without being super explicit about them.
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
We’re in the middle of our album tour, which finishes with our biggest hometown headline to date at Thekla in Bristol. After that we’re spending our summer playing a bunch of festivals over the UK and Europe. We’re really looking forward to Breakout in Germany and Rock Herk in Belgium, amongst all the other’s we’re getting to play. We’re also making our debut in Slovenia which is a country we never thought we’d get the opportunity to play. In terms of music as well, there’s two songs we recorded that didn’t make it onto the album, maybe they’ll appear at some point in the near future.
