The Knife

The Knife

The Knife are a Swedish electronic duo from Stockholm, active from 1999 to 2014. The group consists of siblings Karin Dreijer and Olof Dreijer, and they run the Rabid Records label. Karin Dreijer is also known for work with Honey Is Cool and Fever Ray, while Olof Dreijer also records as Oni Ayhun.

Style and themes

The Knife work across electronic, electronica, synthpop and related styles, with their broader sound also associated with art pop, dark wave, electro-industrial and electroclash. Their lyrics are often political and left-leaning, with criticism of capitalism, colonialism and discrimination, and with support for queer rights, feminism and gender politics.

The duo rarely appear in public and often use bird's-beak masks in promotional photographs, recalling medieval plague-doctor masks.

Career

The Knife form in 1999 and first perform live in February 2005 at London's ICA, with Rex the Dog and a video by Andreas Nilsson. After that single performance, they embark on a wider tour in 2006 and later issue a tour DVD titled Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience.

Their 2003 album Deep Cuts receives a Swedish Grammy nomination for record of the year, while the song "Heartbeats" later becomes widely known after José González covers it on his Veneer album. Sony uses that version in a Bravia television commercial, which brings further attention to the original song. Another track, "We Share Our Mothers' Health" from Silent Shout, is featured as a free song of the week by the iTunes Store and also appears in Ugly Betty and CSI: NY.

The 2006 album Silent Shout is named best album of the year by Pitchfork Media. At the Swedish Grammy awards in 2007, the duo win all six categories for which they are nominated: 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. They also attract attention in 2003 as Artist of the Week at HitQuarters.

Other projects

In 2009, The Knife write the opera Tomorrow, in a Year, which marks 150 years since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species. In 2013 they release Shaking the Habitual. Karin Dreijer later says in 2014 that the group are ending after the final tour.