N°62 THE KNIFE - HEARTBEAT

David Bowie chose his last name based on the founder of the Bowie knife and so this Swedish electronic pop duo fits in perfectly. The Knife is a family buisiness between brother Olof and sister Karin Dreijer and is situated on their own record label Rabid Records. Apart from that you can’t call them mainstream since they hardly perform live. Olof does his DJ work under the name of DJ Coolof and Karin is a part of the band Honey Is Cool. When appearing under the name of The Knife they usually wear ancient masks usually used at a bal masque.

 

The Knife also rebells against mainstream music in general and big music labels in particular. When winning a 2003 Grammy they’ve let other people pick up the prize wearing monkey suits. The song I’m posted got fame when it was picked up for a Sony commercial and it was broadcasted worldwide. This did not stroke with their non commercial feeling but was later explained as they needed the money to start up their own record label and that this would only encourage their independence. A single commercial hick-up was tot hem a small sacrifice.

The Knife mastered  5 albums so far in 10 years time on top of 3 EP’s. Their album got nominatd in 2007 for six Swedish Grammy’s and the ban  won them all. Again they didn’t collect their prizes. Brother and sister both have their separate solo projects and in that environnement you can hear Karin sing in Slow by the Belgian rockban dEus. She also contributed to the What Else Is There by Röyksopp.