Interview Time: The Young Knives

The Young Knives

Hailing from the Midlands, The Young Knives are not your average indie rockers. Gone are the skinny jeans and form-fitting T-shirts of the Razorlights, Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys of this world. In its place, are three Leicestershire guys more likely to be dressed in shirts and tweeds than anything else.

But behind the look lies a very different sort of band – a group more focused on their music and lyricism than what the rest of their peers might think of them. Their nonchalant ‘f**k you’ attitude is more laughable than offensive and once you get to know the guys, you’ll know that their blunt and at times, harsh, criticism of the industry is simply down to their dark sense of humour – especially when they’ve been on the old "Wife Beater" (aka Stella) for most of the night!

The Young Knives headlined the recent Rage Out In Winter in London’s Kings Cross – a night billed as a ‘one of a kind’ for the ‘refined reveller’ – and so it was. After getting off to a slightly slow start, the Canvas crowd began to warm up, and sets by resident Rage DJ The Varjack Sound System helped the clubbers on their way, (no doubt assisted by the copious amounts of alcohol being consumed at the complimentary bar). As the drinks flowed and the delicious selection of bowl food, courtesy of caterers The Last Supper, was served, bands like Ahuman and The Bishops took to the stage to get the fans rocking. An eclectic selection of acts and DJs ensured the vibe was never broken, and when the time came for The Young Knives to prove their worth, they didn’t disappoint. Famed for their lively shows, Henry, Oliver and the House of Lords (aka Thomas) showed the Canvas lot exactly why they were headliners, with storming performances of tracks like Terra Firma and Here Comes The Rumour Mill.

The Rage events are known for picking the crème de la crème of emerging new talent, and The Young Knives were no different. Yes, they may never look like the uber-cool bands of the day, but their Mercury Music Prize nomination must count for something, right?

Melisa Tang caught up with the boys backstage before their standout performance at The Rage Out In Winter…

Henry: It’s just a band name. We sweated over it for quite a while, then we realised it didn’t matter.

Thomas: We quite liked Soft White Underbelly.

H: And there’s probably better names out there anyway.

H: Did we?!

H: Oh really? Not often Phil Collins! I think it’s when we realised we couldn’t make any money from it that we realised he was rubbish!

T: (to Henry) You inspire me.

H: We’re kinda inspired by ‘70s, English proggy rock. Soft boys, Adam and the Ants, David Bowie…

T: He looks like a lady but he’s really a man! David Bowie!

H: We really wish we were the Jimi Hendrix of our time. That’s what we’re aiming for. That would be the ultimate.

T: Now Queen, they were tip top!

H: Eric Clapton should have died at an early age. Which would have been a lot better.

H: Yeah, I wish he was dead.

H: I like the idea. I would have loved to have seen it, but I don’t care what they do.

T: No not really.

H: Yeah, cos then they’d take away from us. They’re Led Zeppelin. They’re quite good. And apparently it was quite a good show the other night even though they’re all in their 60s.

H: It’s a direct rip-off of the Stone Roses, Roxy Music and David Bowie.

T: It’s more melodic.

H: Yeah, it’s written for a much wider audience so that we make a lot more money out of it in the long run. With that in mind, we’ve packaged it like one of those complicated books, like Aerial Shots of the World and that big Damien Hirst book and that big book of graffiti.

T: Yeah, we got Banksy to do the front cover, yeah?

H: It’s pretty good, we got loads of people collaborating on it, like the Puffster and Dizzee, and 2Pac, bless him, rest in peace! They’re all there, Biggie… No, but it’s quite a good album.

A lot of bands come out with a second album and it doesn’t tend to do as well as their first album. Your last one was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize…

H: I don’t see the Mercury Music Prize as any kind of like, arbitrary taste, that’s a load of old rubbish. We went because it was free booze and you get to go up on telly. No, I think this one is about 70 per cent as good as the first one, it’s not too bad really.

T: Drugs and prostitutes. Apparently prostitutes will do anything you ask nowadays…!

H: Yeah… But no, we never do anything like that. It’s not a lot of money really, it’s like 10 grand, isn’t it? It doesn’t go very far when you’re a musician.

T: I would get those things done on your teeth, like a rapper?

T: Yeah, only instead of getting it put over your teeth, I’d have my teeth all made in gold. I’d be like ‘Fiddy’…

T: Ok, I’d be like, ‘Hey Nelly’ and he’d be like, ‘Nice grill mate’, and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, but these are real. Look, I knocked my teeth out.’

H: I’d like to have met ODB. He was great…

T: I’d like to have had a drunken fight with him one day, about what’s best, British indie or American rap.

H: They seem to enjoy it on a level. Relatively, we haven’t played to as many people in the U.S. than we have in the U.K., but whether they buy it (the album) on the back of our performances I don’t know.

T: Sick, sex and big knobs!

H: I don’t know, you’ve got to judge it by the audience. So it might be nice, it might not be so mental.

H: Yeah, so it all depends on how they react to us. But I don’t know if that means it’s going to be tamer though. They might really let their hair down. We played a gig in the Isle of Man recently, and they don’t really get many big gigs out there. I think they had Michael Bolton there about six months ago, but that’s not going to rock your socks off, is it? So there were all these people who obviously hadn’t been to a gig in a while, and they just went mental. The response from them was phenomenal. So it might be a bit like that tonight. At least we’ve got a few support bands on before us though!

H: Motherf**kers! They once called us paedophiles which I think is fair enough if you’re an idiot. The whole point of paedophiles is that they don’t look suspicious, that’s why you let them into your house and let them play with your kids. Whereas you wouldn’t let us in, so… I’ll just shut up now! I just thought it was a cheap shot, put it that way.

T: Morrissey just seemed to have made a slightly ill-advised statement, and they were like, ‘Oh you’re a racist’, like he’s the BNP or something, and then he’s a bit of a bighead so he felt he had to respond and was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s what I really think.’ But I think it’s just really boring. It’s just like student politics on a national level. I do feel a bit sorry for him about that though.

H: But how can he not understand the flux and flow of how things work? You can’t just say this is better than this, make your own personal judgement on something like immigration. It’s not good or bad, it’s what happens. Alright, you’ve got the biggest invasion of people since the Vikings in England, people from the eastern block countries, new Europe. But good, great, we need a bit of that, that’s like the one part of Europe that there’s not enough of in the U.K.

H: We’ve got New Year’s Eve off for once, because we can never find anyone willing to drive, so I always end up driving hundreds of miles to London, which is great, but frankly, I’ve had enough. So this year, I’m looking forward to having a nice family Christmas, not having to work New Year’s. Then we’re gonna head out the U.K. a bit, do a few shows in Europe: France, Germany… Hong Kong. We won’t make any money from that, but it’ll be fun. Then we’ll be back in the U.K. for March in time for the album release.