Knifing Around, the dance-rock band known for delivering bold, politically-tinged grooves to Richmond’s music scene, sat down with me at Bamboo Café last Wednesday. I caught up with singer Owen Martin (he/him) and bassist/synth player Jack Wolfe (they/them) to talk about their highly anticipated EP, All Across the Nation, dropping on September 14, 2024.
Lucien: Don’t Stab Your Hand (2022), your first EP, and Rebels of the Neon God (2024) were very strong and consistent introductions to your sound. How do you think All Across the Nation fits sonically with the music you already have out?
Jack: I think it’s a really nice progression — it takes a lot of the things we really liked that Owen did with the first record and just tried to grow it in a different direction… Would you say that’s accurate?
Owen: Yeah, I would say that’s accurate. I agree. I think it’s because some of the songs bled from the earlier writing period… “Theft Is” and “Advertise” were both written a little bit earlier… So I think it’s a bit of a transition—more rockin’, but at the same time, a little more spacey and ambient.
Lucien: Personally, after listening to All Across the Nation, I feel like it’s the same thing y’all have been doing, but a little more refined.
Owen: A band’s next record should still sound like that band but have some new stuff they do, you know? I feel like a lot of what’s going on with the new one is moving towards full live band instrumentation. Being like, “Oh, there isn’t just a track in the background going click”—the band sounds like this, and everything we play, we play live.
Jack: And also just trying to further define what we consider the Knifing Around sound, which is fun.
Lucien: So, Rebels of the Neon God: Remixes and More came out in March this year, and we kind of touched on this already, but when you were recording that collection of songs, did you already have the new EP written, or were some of them more recent?
Jack: I think some of them existed for the last year or so. I think it’s a really cool thing when bands do a remix EP and stuff, you know, just breathing new life into the old singles or what would have been a single.
Owen: Some of them were probably more ready to go than others. “Theft Is Reality” was ready to go first, and we had been playing that, I think… last year?
Jack: Yeah, we had definitely been playing “Advertise” for seven or eight months.
Owen: And for “Bloodsuckers,” I did the demo of the song last summer, but we didn’t actually finish the full band version until… March, April.
Yeah, the remix EP was just because we wanted to put something out, but these weren’t ready yet.
Lucien: Songs like “Theft Is Reality” (All Across the Nation) and “American Theme” (Don’t Stab Your Hand) touch on American political themes. What do y’all want your audience to take away from these songs? For example, you open with “he’s a fascist”—
Owen: He’s a fascist!
Lucien: What do you mean by that?
Owen: I mean, he’s a fucking fascist! I think songs should feel… you don’t want to over-explain it, and people should be able to take from it what they want. It doesn’t matter which politician you’re thinking about when you’re listening to that song. It’s very political, and I think strong statements are good because they let people form their own opinions and attachments.
Lucien: What do you want listeners to get out of a live performance versus listening at home?
Owen: Oh, so much.
Jack: We literally just saw Jack White on Monday night, and that—that’s the epitome. When I was a teenager, seeing videos of The White Stripes on YouTube, I thought, “That is such a captivating show.” I think the performance and the crowd involvement, making the crowd feel like they’re part of something instead of just watching something, feels really cool.
When Owen goes down into the crowd… I think we have good stage presence. I like the idea of entertainment versus just watching a band play—we want people to be entertained.
Owen: It just makes you want to do it. When you see a really good band, you want to be in the band.
Jack: I want someone to see our band and have the same feeling I get when I see really great bands, where I think, “I wish I was at home with my guitar in my hands right now.”
Owen: I think it’s really important and a bit of a lost art, to a certain point. Recorded music is like a plastic art—you have all this space in your own head to create it—but performing is performing; you only get one shot. It’s about the vibe of the room, the crowd, whether it rained or not.
Jack: Yeah, rain’ll do that.
Owen: There are so many variables, even with the same songs. I think I like that element more than the recorded element.
Lucien: Circling back to recorded versus live, what are you most excited about with All Across the Nation? Any favorite songs—or are they all your favorite?
Owen: They are not all my favorite.
Jack: “Bloodsuckers” and “Theft Is Reality” are my favorites. Those are my two—not just to play but to hear. They are two very defining Knifing sounds in a song. The really crazy sawtooth synthesizer, weird guitar effects—“Theft Is Reality” just being a punch in the fucking chest.
Owen: Yeah, I like when we play “Theft” fast live, if the crowd is really feeling it.
Jack: And I get to do my high kicks during that song.
Owen: I’m gonna say “Bloodsuckers,” too. I was really happy with how it turned out—the synth sound—and I felt like it was a good push to do something I don’t always do. We were talking about Nine Inch Nails, and this was very much the song to go for that.
Lucien: When I listened to “Bloodsuckers,” I felt, lyrically, that it was inspired by Nine Inch Nails, actually. You know “Sanctify”?
Owen: Yeah, “Sanctify” is a great song—that song is totally awesome, and yeah, you’re totally right.
Jack: That is such a compliment. I have a giant poster from Plan 9 from years ago when they did the Add Violence EP, and I literally went every day and asked them if they were done with it. That means so much, thank you.
Owen: I do love that song. I think, generally, the lyricism from that record is almost corny… like, what did you just say?!
Jack: Oh—he was a Tumblr-ista before being a Tumblr-ista was a thing.
Owen: It’s such borderline camp where it’s like, “I can’t believe you just said that.” I wanted to write something like that where it’s a performance.
It’s like when an actor’s in a movie, you’re not like, “you are that character.” I mean, maybe over time, someone who keeps playing the same kind of roles—like Brian Cox will always yell at you in a crucial moment—but for the most part, actors get to be performers. Whereas musicians, especially with social media, everyone is like, “What you said, you meant.” Like no, there are characters, personas…
Lucien: Do you have any closing thoughts about the new EP?
Owen: The record has a lot to do with government, transportation, and the cost of living. I think all of those things inform the “why” of the lyrical stories.
Except for “Bloodsuckers”—that song is just horny. But the other ones!
Jack: Imagine you’re in the middle of nowhere at night, and you see an off-kilter gas station, but there aren’t any cars. Do you stop?
Thank you to Knifing Around for their preview of and conversation about All Across the Nation, coming out next week! Make sure to catch them on Saturday, September 14, at Gallery 5 for their EP release show—or, if you can’t make it out, be sure to listen online.
Main photo by Jake Cunningham, courtesy of Knifing Around
