The Knife | |
|---|---|
 The Knife performing at Melt! Festival in 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1999–2014 |
| Labels | |
| Past members | |
| Website | theknife |
The Knife were a Swedishelectronic music duo fromGothenburg, formed in 1999. The group consisted of siblingsKarin andOlof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company,Rabid Records. They gained a large international following in response to their 2003 albumDeep Cuts.
The duo's first tour took place in 2006, along with the release of their critically acclaimed albumSilent Shout. They have won a number ofSwedish Grammis, but refused to attend award ceremonies. They have appeared in public wearingVenetian masks. AsFever Ray, Karin releasedtheir self-titled solo album in 2009, while Olof released severalEPs as Oni Ayhun in late 2009 and early 2010. The Knife disbanded in November 2014 after releasing their acclaimed 2013 albumShaking the Habitual and completing its attendanttour.
Formed inGothenburg in 1999,[4][5] amidst the deterioration of Karin's former groupHoney Is Cool, the group gained stronger international recognition whenJosé González covered their song "Heartbeats" on his 2003 album,Veneer. The cover was used bySony in a commercial forBravia television sets, and released as a single in 2006. The group commented on this in aDagens Nyheter article, saying that Sony paid a large sum of money to use the song. Despite the group'santi-commercial views, they justified the transaction by citing their need for money to establish a record company.
Having never before performed live, the Knife went on tour in 2006, and after selling out shows worldwide, aDVD of the tour was announced. The DVD was released in Sweden on 8 November 2006, and is titledSilent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience.
On 4 August 2009, the band announced that, in collaboration withMt. Sims andPlanningtorock, they would be writing anopera for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera, titledTomorrow, in a Year, is based onCharles Darwin'sOn the Origin of Species. In January 2010, the band announced that they would release a studio version on 1 March.[6]
In a September 2010 post on the official Fever Ray website, Karin stated that the siblings had "started playing together again", hinting that new material might be on the way.[7] On 18 April 2011, as part of a post on their website concerningdiscrimination againstRomani people in Europe, the Knife announced that they were recording a new album to be released in 2012.[8] In December 2012, it was confirmed that their next album would be titledShaking the Habitual and would be released on 8 April 2013.[9][10] The duo posted a teaser trailer for the album on theirYouTube account with the message: "Music can be so meaningless. We had to find lust. We asked our friends and lovers to help us."[11] The album was supported by tour dates in Europe in 2013.[10] "Full of Fire" was released as the album's lead single on 28 January 2013,[12] for which a short film was directed byStockholm andBerlin-based filmmaker and visual artist Marit Östberg.[13]
After announcing their plans to play atCoachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2013, the Knife also announced plans to tour North America during that time period.[14] On 21 August 2014, the Knife announced that the duo would disband following the final six dates of theirShaking the Habitual Show Tour from 31 October to 8 November 2014.[15] In the duo's final interview, Karin toldDazed, "We don't have any obligations to continue, it should only and always be for fun."[16]
The Knife played their final show, entitled Post-Colonial Gender Politics Come First, Music Comes Second, on 8 November 2014 at the Iceland Airwaves Festival inReykjavík. The final performance was recorded and released as a concert film and a special edition vinyl set.[17][18][19]
The Knife rarely cooperated with the media or the mainstream music scene. Until 2005, they did not perform live concerts. The group rarely made public appearances; most of their promotional photos featured the members wearing masks with birds' beaks, similar to the traditionalVenetianMedico Della Peste (plague doctor) masks worn duringCarnival.
The Knife won the SwedishGrammis award for Pop Group of the Year in 2003, but they boycotted the ceremony by sending two representatives of theGuerrilla Girls, with the number 50 written on their costumes, as a protest against male dominance in the music industry.[20] Their albumDeep Cuts was also nominated for the best record of the year, although that award went tothe Cardigans. At the Grammis awards in 2007, the Knife won in all six categories that they were nominated in: Composer of the Year, Music DVD of the Year, Producer of the Year, Pop Group of the Year, Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. Again, they did not attend the award ceremony. On another occasion, they did not come to collect the award but sent a manipulated video that muffled their voices and made them look very elderly.
Silent Shout was named the best album of 2006 byPitchfork.[21] The song "We Share Our Mothers' Health" from the album was made available for free as theiTunes Store's Single of the Week in late 2006.
In a 2006 interview withPitchfork, the Knife citedDavid Lynch,Aki Kaurismäki,Korean cinema,Trailer Park Boys,Donnie Darko andDoom as inspirations for their work.[22] In addition, Karin namedSonic Youth,Kate Bush,Le Tigre andSiouxsie and the Banshees, while Olof citedtechno,grime andSouthern hip hop.[20]
In 2008, Karin announced the release of a solo album under the nameFever Ray in March 2009. Theeponymous album was digitally released in advance of this date. The single "If I Had a Heart" was featured ina 2011 episode ofBreaking Bad and in the 2013 filmHorns, is the opening theme of the Canadian-Irish historical drama television seriesVikings, and is the opening of the movieLaurence Anyways by Canadian directorXavier Dolan, who also used Karin's song "Keep the Streets Empty For Me" in his movieHeartbeats. In a 2016 interview withThe Fader, Karin related that they were at that moment working on more solo music, though they were "unsure" if it would be under the Fever Ray moniker or not.[23] Their second solo albumPlunge was released in 2017. A new album by Fever Ray, Radical Romantics, was released in the spring of 2023.
Olof performs as both DJ Coolof and Oni Ayhun.
The Knife initially did not play live shows, until 8 February 2005 when they played a show at theInstitute of Contemporary Arts inLondon consisting of a screening ofWhen I Found the Knife byAndreas Nilsson and performances of "Heartbeats", "You Take My Breath Away" and "You Make Me Like Charity".[24]
| Award | Year | Nominee(s) | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTV Europe Music Awards | 2006 | The Knife | Best Swedish Act | Nominated | [25] |
| mtvU Woodie Awards | 2007 | The Knife | Left Field Woodie | Nominated | [26] |
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| Year | Awards | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Nöjesguiden's Stockholm Award | Music Category[5] |
| Swedish Hit Music Awards | Best Video for "Heartbeats"[5] | |
| Swedish National Radio P3 Gold | Group of the Year[5] | |
| Grammis | Pop Group of the Year[5] | |
| 2004 | Manifest Awards | Pop Rock[5] |
| Scandinavian Alternative Music Awards (SAMA) | Song of the Year for "Heartbeats" | |
| 2006 | Pitchfork Media | Album of the Year |
| Manifest Awards | Dance/House Techno of the Year | |
| Live Performers of the Year | ||
| 2007 | Swedish National Radio P3 Gold | Group of the Year |
| Dance of the Year | ||
| Grammis | Artist of the Year | |
| Pop Album of the Year forSilent Shout | ||
| Songwriters of the Year | ||
| Pop Producers of the Year | ||
| Music-DVD of the Year forSilent Shout: An Audiovisual Experience | ||
| Pop Group of the Year | ||
| SAMA | Song of the Year for "Marble House" | |
| Album of the Year forSilent Shout | ||
| 2013 | Nordic Music Prize | Best Nordic Album of the Year forShaking the Habitual[27] |
The song "We Share Our Mothers' Health" was featured in theABC seriesUgly Betty, as well as an episode ofCSI: NY. In August 2007, "Heartbeats" was featured in an episode of theHBO seriesEntourage,[28] and was later used in an episode of the HBO seriesGirls. The song "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" was used in the closing scene and credits of the episode "The Bridge" in the2017 first season ofHulu'sThe Handmaid's Tale.
Their song "Pass This On" was used in the 2010 drama filmHeartbeats by Quebec directorXavier Dolan.[29] "Pass This On" was also used in the 2011 dramaElles by Polish directorMałgorzata Szumowska and in the 2013 thrillerMagic Magic by Chilean directorSebastián Silva, which opens with Canadian actorMichael Cera singing along to the song. The documentary filmThe Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) used the song "Still Light" during the closing credits. The 2014 documentaryDior and I uses an instrumental of "Silent Shout" during an atelier montage sequence.
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