Cutting Edge: The Knife

The Knife aren’t your average group. The brother-sister duo steer clear of performing live, conceal their identity with a variety of different guises and make mind-bendingly brilliant and off-kilter music. Originally released in 2003, their last album ‘Deep Cuts’ was an electro-pop tour-de-force and became a firm favourite with anyone who got their hands on it. Currently enjoying renewed commercial success thanks to Jose Gonzalez covering their track ‘Heartbeats’ for that bouncing balls TV ad, Gigwise caught up with Olof and Karin Dreifer on the eve of the release of their second album ‘Silent Shout’ – a work which sees the pair going back to creating music that was challenging.

Speaking of Deep Cuts, Olof surprisingly explains that it wasn’t completely what the pair are about: “It was a side step to our development, where we tried to make songs with a chorus and we wanted clear lyrical content.” Now ‘Silent Shout’ has now provided them with the means to change direction “We wanted to get away from the ‘Deep Cuts’, we wanted to make something you get moved by, that takes longer time to get into”. Lead single ‘Silent Shout’ typifies this. A slow brooding number it centres on a reoccurring electronic hook, that’s baffling for the first few listens, but eventually works its way into your psyche and stays there. 

Moving on, Olof talks about the difficulties they had in producing such a dark long-player: “Even though we go to the studio everyday we can’t work everyday because you’re not in the right mood, you have to wait for the mood to come.  It took a while to do it, but we pressured ourselves to do something better than the previous one”. It also seems that this time around they’re not as keen to be so in your face and bombard the listener with searing sounds, as Karin adds “I don’t think we are as angry, more like something cooking underneath the surface. I think it’s more on a personal level this time.”      

Until they started to work together musically in 1999, Olof admits that due to the six year age gap between them, he and his sister didn’t really know each other that well. “We didn’t hang out so much before we started making music.  We learned to know each other through making music. I don’t think we would have known each other if we didn’t work together.” Like all spouses, Karin admits that they do argue sometimes. “I think we’re both clear about what the songs are, but not how to get there. I mean which is the right way for the song to express that feeling, that’s what we argue most about”.  What’s it the best thing about working with your sibling? Olof jokes: “You know you will fight a lot, but I don’t think you ever will get rid of each other!”