Hot Summer, Hot Hot Summer - The Young Knives

2006 is fast becoming a hot, hot year for our tweed suit wearing troubadours The Young Knives. The unlikely looking indie heroes have been plying their trade for over four years now and following a spate of fan-bloody-tastic singles, they’re ready to unleash their beast of a debut album ‘Voices of Animals and Men’. Gigwise cathes up with band lynchpin and bassist House of Lords shortly after their triumphant June tour of the UK and he’s in a fine mood. Reflectin on one particularly memorable gig at the London Scala, he muses about the stage invasion. “It was certainly the most manic gig on the tour. I had to give away my bottles of water to all the people at the front because they were all getting a bit dehydrated and crushed”. And we can understand what the commotion was about.

Very rock ‘n’ roll. Another highlight for Mr Lords, is their show stealing  performance on Jools Holland. He beams: “It was very nerve wracking because I felt a bit fake being there. It’s one of those things that you always talk about doing half jokingly and then to actually be there with people who’ve been doing it for years, it was awesome”. Afterwards, mingling with the stars, They also got to chat with Kinks legend Ray Davies who appeared on the evening. “I spoke to him really briefly.  He came over and said that we were a good band. I can’t think of a better compliment.”

Things were very different back in 2002 when the trio released their mini album, ‘The Young Knives are…. Dead’.  It was released on a tiny independent label Shifty Disco, but it failed to launch the band into the nationwie psyche and was greeted with a muted response. “It was alright, I’m still proud of the album itself, but it was a nightmare in that the record company fell through afterwards. We released it and we thought ‘oh we’re going to hit the big time now’, but nothing really happened,” explains House. “I don’t think it sold very many, it didn’t get press or anything like that, and suddenly we had no record company again”.  Fortunately, things later took a turn for the better.

The Young Knives, made up of House, his brother Henry Dartnall (guitar/vocals) and Oliver Askew (drums), started playing together while they were school in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.  Being the type of place where nothing much happens, being in a band was inevitable says House. “It’s just one of those places with a couple of parks and a swimming pool, that’s why we initially formed a band. There’s loads of kids in bands in Ashby, it was the best solution. If you’re stuck in somewhere with nothing to do and you like music, why not form a band? “ The band got sidelined for a while though as they all had other jobs. House for example worked in publishing sourcing pictures for children’s books.  “It was alright, it was a job,” he says. “Not what I really wanted to be doing which was playing the guitar for a living. That’s why we got to this stage because we’re all so adamant that’s what we wanted to do and we should definitely try for as long as possible just in case we could”.