The Knife

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The Knife

Synth Pop Band

Mixing entrancing pop textures with feminist politics, the Swedish duo the Knife has built its musical career on upsetting expectations. Formed by brother and sister duo Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, the Knife has prided itself on artistic independence, refusing to work with established recording labels and utilizing non-conventional artists for their videos. For publicity photographs the duo always appeared in masks, and for several years, the Knife refused to perform live. Even after their acceptance by the music industry, they have maintained a non-commercial and occasionally provocative stance. At a 2003 Swedish award ceremony, Andersson and Dreijer asked two friends-dressed in gorilla masks-to accept the album award for them. "The Knife takes inspiration from vintage synth pop and forward-thinking electronic music, crafting a sound that is equally unsettling, playful, and beautiful," noted Heather Phares in All Music Guide.

Andersson and Dreijer formed the Knife in 1999. Andersson was a member of the punk band Honey is Cool, but she was ready to try something new. "In 1999, I had made a demo of a few songs that I wanted to record more properly," Andersson told Dan Whiteley in Thrasher, "and since he [Dreijer] was making music on the computer, I just asked if he wanted to help." Neither she nor Dreijer, six years her junior, had been close as children, but they soon found that they worked well together. They released the single "Afraid of You" in 2000, followed by The Knife in 2001. To maintain control of their work and complete artistic freedom, the duo formed Rabid Records. "We could never work with anyone who had anything to say about the music," Dreijer told Emma Warren in the London Observer. "It is very important for us to be totally free, to be able to do whatever we feel like, whenever we feel like it."

In 2003 the Knife released Deep Cuts, an album filled with danceable pop songs laced with feminist political messages. "The idea is that ‘deep cuts’ will afford you a better sense of the artists' scope and breadth than you'd receive from just a cursory listen to their chart material," noted Josh Love in Stylus. He added, "Nowhere of late has this theory been more dramatically, insiduously [sic] proven than in the case of The Knife."

When the Knife won Best Album at the 2003 Swedish Grammis for Deep Cuts, the duo boycotted the ceremony, inviting two friends to accept the award for them. The stand-ins painted their faces like gorillas and had the number "50" printed on their tee shirts. Andersson and Dreijer intended this gesture as a political statement criticizing the unequal number of male and female performers in the recording industry. The gorilla masks also had an American reference. "It was in honour of the Guerrilla Girls in America who have made a lot of actions and it was all over the newspapers the next day," Dreijer told Warren. "Everyone liked it-but I don't know how much it will change the situation."

The Knife first reached a larger audience when Jose Gonzalez recorded a hit version of one of the duo's songs, "Heartbeats." Andersson and Dreijer also received a large payment for allowing Gonzalez's version of the song to be used in a commercial. The duo, justifying the decision, noted that the money would be used to support their label. Andersson and Dreijer nonetheless remained defensive about their decision. "That was the first and only time," Dreijer told Fred Shuster in the Los Angeles Daily News. "We don't believe in selling our music for commercials, but it gives us money, you know?"

In 2005 the Knife received critical and popular acclaim after the release of Silent Shout. "More than just a great pop album, the record boasted a truck of exotic characters, textures, and ideas," wrote Mark Pytlik in Pitchfork. Andersson's vocals also continued to evolve. "Karin Dreijer's vocals are more striking than ever," wrote Phares, who added, "Treated as another instrument in the arrangements, they're layered, pitch-shifted, and tweaked until there's almost nothing but tones and emotions." Silent Shout reached number 15 on the Top Electronic Albums chart, and three singles, "Silent Shout," "We Share Our Mother's Health," and "Like a Pen," reached the Top 20 on the Hot Dance Singles sales chart. The Knife was nominated for six Grammis in January 2007 and won every category. Once again, however, the duo declined to attend the ceremony.

In addition to their cool, carefully textured music, the Knife is known for its provocative visual presentation. In photographs, Dreijer and Andersson wear masks and costumes. In one photo shoot they wore surgical masks, jackets with hoods, and gloves, fashioning a look somewhere between that of an arctic explorer and a lab technician. Other photographs picture the duo as crows and gymnasts. "If we could choose not to do any photos at all, we would," Andersson told Craig McLean in a biography on theknife.net website. "But it's quite impossible. Because I don't think it has anything to do with the music. So we use the photos now to show what our music looks like."

In 2006 the Knife also decided to play its first live shows after they found a director who could deliver an imaginative stage show for an affordable price. The elaborate setup by Andreas Nilsson featured giant dolls that sang, two projection screens, and the duo dressed in black suits. When performing live, Andersson and Dreijer also chose to reinterpret many songs in a minimalist setting. "They were illuminated solely by UV light and the animated graphics projected on to screens that hung in front of and behind them," wrote Chris Campion in London's Daily Telegraph. "At times, they appeared to be completely enclosed by a wall of light."

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Knife is the duo's ability to re-imagine its sound from project to project. While Andersson and Dreijer's experimental approach has occasionally resulted in missteps, it has also ensured that they sound like no one else and, when all processes work in unison, they create startlingly original music. The Knife's experimental approach guarantees that no one will be able to predict the duo's next artistic move. And while fans and critics may wish they could read the Knife's future in a crystal ball, they do know one thing for sure: whatever the Knife creates, the results will be one of a kind.

Selected discography

The Knife, Rabid Records, 2001.

Deep Cuts, Rabid Records, 2003.

Silent Shout, Rabid Records, 2006.

For the Record …

Members include Karin Dreijer Andersson , vocals; Olof Dreijer , synthesizer player.

Formed in 1999; released the single "Afraid of You," 2000; founded Rabid Records; released The Knife, 2001, Deep Cuts, 2003, and Silent Shout, 2006; first tour, 2005.

Awards: Grammi Award (Sweden), Best Album, for Deep Cuts, 2003.