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Young Knives announce first album for seven years

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 26 March 2020

Young Knives have announced that they will release their first album for seven years in September. Titled ‘Barbarians’, it is, they say, their “most cathartic and noisy album” yet.

The band’s Henry Dartnall explains that he and his bandmate/brother The House Of Lords – aka Thomas Dartnall – always “need a good reason” to set about making a new record. “We often start with some high concept that we feel passionate about and use it like a framework to build lyrics and motifs around”, he adds.

“As confirmed but self-aware nihilistic miserabilists we often have to dig our way out of a spiralling bleak world view that would make for a super depressing listen”, he goes on. “This album is no different. But I think that’s the point of the records we make: how can we turn the worse aspects of humanity into something really fucking entertaining?”

“Obviously there was a lot going on around the world at the time we were writing this record, with the rise of the alt-right and politics designed to divide us”, he adds. “All this fed into a sense that humans are always going to have this battle between our collective existence and the existence of the individual, some days we give and some days we take … What if cruelty to others is just part of who we are? How do we live with that?”

The duo have released the album’s first single, ‘Sheep Tick’, which draws further on that idea. Watch the “baffling and entertaining” video for it here:

As well as the album, they have also announced a London show at Colours on 25 Sep. “I know six months’ time may seem uncertain, but we have the faith that live music will be in our lives and yours again, we all need it”, says Dartnall, noting the current situation we find ourselves in. “Imagine that Friday in London in September, we can all get together and party and high five each other, it will be ecstatic”.

Tickets go on sale on Friday.