When I first herd the UK's Blue Knives the first and only thing that came to my mind was "Wow!" This is a small band with a big, epic swelling sound that just sucks you in and refuses to let go. The sound resembles the layering of Coldplay meets The Editors meets Snow Patrol. They are truly a contemporary band for our modern times, however they stand apart from those they take influence from. Blue Knives lyrics and sound strike you right where it counts, your heart. Originally a cover band going under the name Liquid Dogs, they ditched the cover idea and took the name Blue Knives. I had the opportunity to interview bassist Nathan Bayley who mentioned "If I had to try to define its meaning for the band, I'd say that the "blue" represents the sometimes-melancholy, emotional sound of our music, and the "knives" represents the contemporary drive & energy that we always put into our songs." This is a band who is hard at work mastering and mixing their first record and I promise, you will fall in love with them as much as I have. For more info and to hear the music of Blue Knives check out their Myspace HERE. For more of my interview with Nathan see below:You come from England, a place that is seeing a musical Renaissance, do you find it hard to get your music heard in your own country?
NB: If a band puts a lot of effort into the promotion and marketing side of the industry, and if the music is genuinely good then it will get heard by the right people, and by the right type of fans, and the band will progress. In my experience if a band hasn't been heard by enough of the right people, then they've been too lazy.
How does your music differ from every other unsigned act in the UK?
NB: Each band-member's own individual musical background is completely different to the next. We have backgrounds in fields like jazz, commercial music and music technology, and genres such as electronica, heavy metal and post-punk. From the extended chords and harmonies that are placed subtly into the songs, to the electronic and synthesized elements, it all seems to come together to form this atmospheric and layered final sound. It's a very British sound according to most people's views, we won't argue with that, but it's unique enough we hope.
The songs are very epic in sound, do you think that strikes more of an emotional chord with audiences? Especially Global audiences?
NB: I personally adore many bands that use layering, melody, harmony and ambient effects to create a huge, epic sound. If it's done correctly, adding more melodies and making the overall song denser can really have an emotional impact on people. As for global audiences, we do seem to have attracted a lot of European and North American interest online, perhaps it's just chance, I don't think British music fans are less keen on "epic" music haha!
Will the band ever make a trip to the US soon?
NB: Sadly I think a US trip will have to wait for another year or two, that's the kind of venture that needs a lot of financial and professional backing, both of which we're working on acquiring at the moment :) We've already had numerous requests by fans to play all over the US, but both the band and the fans will have to be patient a little while longer.
When will an EP / LP be released?
NB: Very soon!! We've been working on our first full-length album for the past couple of months, it's been very hard work sometimes, but that's just part of the beauty of creating something to be truly proud of. We're currently at the mixing and editing stage, we recorded so many instruments, and so many vocal parts that it's relatively slow progress to mix the entire thing, but seeing as this is our first release we wanted it to be something special, emotional and complete, not a rushed "collection of our songs". The finished product should hopefully be available to buy in the next two months.
How do you measure success?
NB: "Success" means different things to different people, for us it means a steady progression up the musical ladder. The first time I think we'll be able to call ourselves a successful band will be when we have finished our first album, we've put so much effort and love into creating something we're proud of that when it's complete we will have reached the first important rung on the ladder, even if it's initially just a personal success.
Where would you like that success to take you?
NB: After finishing the album we want to reach the point where we can viably share our music to the whole of the UK, I think we should reach that before we start spending too much energy planning anything global or pan-European. For most bands it's always a slow and steady progression, only a few groups are lucky enough to have a global fan base and audience from very early in their career, but of course we're not ruling out that possibility for us either haha :)
Special thanks to Nath and Blue Knives, keep up the great work!