The Knife

Wikipedia:

The Knife are a Swedish electronic music duo from Gothenburg, formed in 1999. The group consists of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. They first received international attention after their song "Heartbeats", covered by José González, appeared in a commercial by Sony. Subsequent songs have appeared on a number of television shows. Their first tour took place in 2006, as well as the release of their critically acclaimed album Silent Shout. They have won a number of Swedish Grammis, but refuse to attend awards ceremonies. They have appeared in public wearing Venetian masks. Andersson released a solo album under the name Fever Ray in 2009, while her brother released several EPs as Oni Ayhun in late 2009 and early 2010.

History

Formed in 1999, the group first gained international recognition when José González covered their song "Heartbeats" on his 2003 album, Veneer. The cover was used by Sony in a commercial for BRAVIA television sets, and released as a single in 2006. The group commented on this in a Dagens Nyheter article, claiming that Sony paid a large sum of money to use the song. Despite the group's anti-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, a DVD of the tour was announced. The DVD was released in Sweden on 8 November 2006, and is titled Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience.

On 4 August 2009, the band announced that, in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, they would be writing an opera for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera, titled Tomorrow, In a Year, is based on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. In January 2010, the band announced that they would release a studio version on 1 March.

In a post on the official Fever Ray website in September 2010, Karin stated that she and Olof "have started playing together again", hinting that new material may be on the way. On 18 April 2011, as part of a post on their website concerning discrimination against Romani people in Europe, The Knife announced that they were recording a new album to be released in 2012. The Knife has been casting people for their next video which was shot in late april.

Relationship with the media

The Knife rarely cooperate with the media or the mainstream music scene. Until 2006, they did not perform live concerts. The group rarely makes public appearances; most of their promotional photos feature the members wearing masks with birds' beaks, similar to the traditional Venetian Medico Della Peste (plague doctor) masks worn during Carnival.

The Knife won a Grammis award as best pop group of the year 2003, but they boycotted the ceremony by sending two representatives of the Guerrilla Girls, with the number 50 written on their costumes, as a protest against male dominance in the music industry. Their album Deep Cuts was also nominated for a Grammis as the best record of the year 2003, although that award went to The Cardigans. At the Grammis awards in January 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 by Pitchfork Media. The song "We Share Our Mothers' Health" from the album was made available for free as the iTunes Store's Single of the Week in late 2006. This song was also featured in the ABC series Ugly Betty, as well as an episode of CSI: NY. In August 2007, "Heartbeats" was featured in an episode of the HBO series Entourage.

Their song "Pass This On" was used in the 2010 drama film Les amours imaginaires by Quebec director Xavier Dolan. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Influences

In a 2006 interview with Pitchfork Media, The Knife cited David Lynch, Aki Kaurismäki, Korean cinema, Trailer Park Boys, Donnie Darko and Doom as inspirations for their work. In addition, Karin named Sonic Youth, Kate Bush, Le Tigre and Siouxsie and the Banshees, while Olof cited techno, grime and Southern hip hop.

Members' solo projects

In 2008, Karin announced that she would release a solo album under the name Fever Ray in March 2009. The eponymous album was digitally released (on iTunes and via other outlets) in advance of this date.

Olof performs as both DJ Coolof and Oni Ayhun.

Awards