Young Knives
We catch up with the trio before the release of 'Superabundance' for a chat about the new album.
Young Knives are back with their second album 'Superabundance' on 3rd March, with new single 'Up All Night' out on 25th February.
We speak to Henry, House Of Lords and Oliver as they prepare for the Off The Beaten Track Tour later this month.
New single 'Up All Night' is a little bit bitchy - is it about anywhere or anyone in particular?
Henry: It's more of a mood. Half of you thinks it's a good idea, but then you know it's a bad idea.
House Of Lords: You know what it's like when you go out on a Friday night, you're like, we're all going to the pub and we're all going to get leathered. Then we're going to go to a nightclub and drink as much as possible, and stay up as late as possible in the given time - this is to make sure we definitely have as much fun as possible squeezed out of that evening. No going to bed until six in the morning. It's sort of that. We ended up doing a lot of that on tour, and you realise how pointless it is.
Henry: You wake up at 3pm the next day, and you realise you've got soundcheck. That's the day gone! I should've gone to bed at 3am, when all the fun had been had. It was daylight, and I was a bit lethargic and depressed, still drinking gin and tonics.
House Of Lords: It's about everyone wanting to have the ultimate... experience... the ultimate high.
What is the perfect Young Knives night out?
Oliver: A nice lamb lunch. A pint of Director's bitter.
Henry: A bit of Lebanese food. Anywhere you can get a belly dancer at your table is really good.
House Of Lords: I like to go to the pictures.
Henry: And then you get leathered, yeah?
House Of Lords: The cinema stops you drinking.
'Superabundance' was recorded in Glasgow with Tony Doogan - how did you come to work with him?
House Of Lords: We forced him at gunpoint.
Henry: Trangressive, our record label, asked us who we'd like to work with on our next album, and we don't know anything about producers. Who does? Only real nerds know who produced albums! We did actually think of the obvious names, like Steve Albini, Dave Sitek - then we found out Foals were working with him, and Brian Eno. After that I can't really think of anybody. So they just came up with a list of people and we listened to their work. Tony seemed to be the most... varied. He's worked on soft lovely things, then heavy, dark things. We wanted to do a bit of a mixture. And as it turns out... he's a horrible person. [laughs]
Was it his idea to introduce the orchestra into tracks such as 'Turn Tail'?
Henry: We talked about it, and we were a bit worried about it. We could hear it on the track as well, but we didn't mention it as we thought it would get a bit Verve, you know, strings for strings' sake. We realised it doesn't have to be like that, if we do it properly.
House Of Lords: He happened to know the best person for it. He lived five minutes from the studio, so we just walked up the hill, and knocked on his door. He didn't end up sleeping for a week, as he was already working on loads of stuff!
You've made a video album - have you directed them yourselves?
Henry: We've done about five ourselves. Two are promos, then some are made by friends. It was a bit of fun! We wanted to make a DVD that was value for money, like a piece of work in its own right, rather than the 'making of the album!', 'us on tour!'
House Of Lords: On our last album we did a limited release which had a DVD, which had some live stuff, and we made a couple of videos for it, for a laugh really. Turns out that was the bit people enjoyed the most. We thought we could make a bit of a feature of it, and make some short films.
Henry: I don't think it's the mind-blowing piece of art ever, but for a free DVD I think it's pretty good value. When you look at the difference in budget from what it cost to record the album and to make those films... it's quite significant.
How's the hunt for local bands to support you going?
Henry: We've just started - we've found a couple. Loads have been rubbish. I'm excited, but I'm also worried we're not going to find anyone good. We're trying to draw up a shortlist. You've got to give them a proper listen, that's the thing. You can't just turn it on and go "oh I don't like this". Well, you can, but it's a really bad habit to get into - that makes you as bad as a record label! You end up missing the next big thing because you listened to their one slightly duff song.
Oliver: There are a lot of bands who can't actually play their instruments. At all. That was quite an eye-opener.
Henry: It's almost as if kids have gone "we're on MySpace, we should be in a band", rather than the other way around. They've done it, and thought "we can get a gig off the back of it!" It's a bit of fun, but when you put a demo together there has to be a bit of thought to it, if only because you'll look back on it in ten years' time, and go, "yeah, we were alright".
Where are you looking forward to going to on your 'Off The Beaten Track' tour?
Henry: Wrexham Central Station I'm looking forward to. Truro - that'll be good.
Oliver: Tamworth.
Henry: Crewe. No, the little Scottish towns will be good.
You played a gig called 'All The Rage' recently, for the 'mature' concert-goer how was that?
House Of Lords: It was curious. It seemed to me to lack a little bit of what the live experience is about. Why does a middle-aged person need a special gig?
Henry: I wouldn't want to turn up and go somewhere just because everyone was middle-aged - just go to a gig! Someone came out with cardboard trays of mashed potato and cheesy risotto - it was really weird. Some people loved it - they obviously don't go to gigs unless it's laid on for them, like a package holiday.
Oliver: They had Krispy Kreme donuts. There was some review, saying it was really good and that "I was introduced to the world of Krispy Kreme donuts".
Subscribe to the Clickmusic News Feed
