I am new to the glorious, dark, pounding electronic-
B.G.M.: Give us the history behind how Knifight came to be.
John Gable: Knifight started actually as “Knife Fight” when the band that I, singer John Gable, was in at the time disbanded. After playing for a several years as a solo artist, I eventually started collaborating with Patrick Marshall, whose band had recently disbanded. Patrick being a classically trained musician brought melody and structure to what I was doing at the time. It slowly evolved into something different and we took a break and started rethinking what we were doing. During that time Nick Garrison moved back to town and started playing guitar with us. John Hetherington started playing bass for us while he was recording our first E.P, From there we moved to Austin and picked up Nick Cogdill on drums.
In your words, how would you say your sound has evolved over the years?
Knifight was started when I looked up the definition of music and it wasn’t “making art with sound” and I thought it should be. I wasn’t really a musician at the time. I was painting and sculpting mostly. I thought making music is the same thing, just with sound. So I started doing that. I was interested in that kind of noise art and was listening to Wolf Eyes, Merzbow and the like but deep down I’ve always loved pop music. I grew up listening to Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Yazoo, Information Society, etc. So when I started collaborating with people that knew more about harmony and melody, music theory, I naturally gravitated towards that. So Knifight’s sound has evolved from music’s most basic form into a style of music that I love.
Describe the writing and recording process for V.
Writing for us is all over the place. Sometimes it’s one of us bringing a completed idea to the group, sometimes it’s only just a fragment. We also might write as a whole group or sometimes it’ll be just a couple of us.
We recorded it on our own, in our studio. John H. and Patrick are both well versed in studio recording and always getting better.
I’ve always been a fan of albums that don’t have a bunch of filler. They always seem more solid overall. V is one of those albums for me with only seven tracks, were these the only songs you wrote this time around? Or were these just the ones that fit together the best?
These were a group of songs that naturally fit together. There were a few others that didn’t make the cut and a few that came up while we we’re recording. The instrumental track is actually the first song that I made with Nick Garrison from a long time ago, before he was in the band. He gave me a tape on which he’d recorded some piano samples. I made that track and neither of us ever really did anything with it. I remembered it while we were recording and it fit really nice with the rest of the songs. “Buttons” is also an old Knifight song that we’ve revamped into a full band post-rock/noise jam. We were all very happy with how all these songs came together.
I feel that the use of live drums on this album really adds to the intensity of your sound. What steered your decision to include them?
Well it was always our plan, once we acquired a drummer, to include him on the recordings. I was hesitant to bring a drummer into the band at first but once Cogdill came out and we played together, it was undeniable the “oomph” he brought to the sound. We still incorporate drum machine samples into our live show, but you can’t beat the natural push and pull, and dynamic contrast that a live, human drummer brings to your set.
What brought about the David Bowie “Breaking Glass” cover?
I don’t know when it was that Patrick showed me this track, it was a while ago but we have always talked about covering it. We are always talking about covering songs… always. To the point that I even get on my own nerves whenever I say “We should cover that song”. So, when we finished recording the record, we had a bit of free time and H. said lets record a cover. So, this was naturally at the top of our list. We have done other covers like Kraftwerk’s “Sex Object” and The Cure’s “Killing an Arab” but I wanted to record something new and it was a blast. We also recorded a cover of Scott Walker’s “Hero of the War.” Which we’ll be putting out at some point.
Do you ever feel bad for “one hit wonder” bands like Orgy who only got famous from covering other bands songs?
Na. They had to have had fun when they were doing all that. Plus, when I was a kid “Stitches” was my jam. So, they’ve got that going for them. Editors Note: “Stitches” is a really dope song!
You’ve played with Future Islands. I feel like they put on an intense show, how was the experience for you? Anything super memorable?
It was a dream come true. We’ve actually opened for them a couple of times. Those guys are our heroes. They’re extremely nice dudes. The whole thing was surreal, and very memorable. I kind of nerded out on Sam.
If you could open up for any band who would you pick?
Depeche Mode
What band would you most like to have open for you?
Thomas Dolby
Are you guys going to do a full U.S. tour in support of V?
Well, we all have day jobs. So we’ll have to just keep going out on weekends and four-day jaunts.
What are your thoughts on Austin’s live music scene? Love it? Or is it over saturated?
We love it but it is heavily saturated. It’s not for the timid or weak willed. What we love most about it is the community behind booking local shows, and playing shows with bands who are good friends. There are some truly inspiring people here who work incredibly hard to foster some type of self-supporting scene in a huge variety of ways. Moving to this city and not knowing anyone helped us understand how fortunate bands are in this town to have such a vast support network.
If you had to get a portrait of one of your fellow bandmates tattooed on you, who would it be? And where would you get it?
I’d like them all tattooed on me. Maybe something biblical. Like a last supper type scenario or Van Eyck alter piece. On my gut.
Any big Valentine’s Day plans?
Fuckin’