The Knife

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Stockholm, Sweden (1999 – present)

The Knife is an electronic duo from Stockholm, Sweden formed in 1999. The band consists of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson (formerly of Honey is Cool, now Fever Ray) and Olof Dreijer - who also run their own record company, Rabid Records.

The group rarely makes public appearances, most of their promotional photos feature the members wearing masks, and formerly refused to perform live concerts. However the group has showed themselves in public wearing masks formed as bird’s beaks, similar to those used by medieval doctors.

The Knife won a Swedish Grammy award for best pop group of the year 2003, but they boycotted the ceremony by sending two representatives of another artist group dressed as gorillas with the number 50 written on their costumes, apparently as a protest against male dominance within the music industry. Their album Deep Cuts was also nominated for a Swedish Grammy as the best record of the year 2003, although that award went to The Cardigans. It was also in 2003 that the The Knife was featured as Artist of the Week at HitQuarters, which helped them gain greater attention in the worldwide music community.

The group became prominent in late 2005 when José González covered “Heartbeats” on his 2003 album, Veneer. The song was used by Sony in a commercial for Bravia television sets, and released as a single in early 2006. The group commented on this in a Dagens Nyheter article, claiming that Sony paid a large sum of money to use the song. In view of the group’s left-wing views and non-commercial philosophy, they excused this transaction on the basis that the money was needed to establish their record company.

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  • haunaballe

    the new version of Got 2 Let U that's part of the show is really good. I want them to release it. [2]

    5 hours ago Reply
  • Tool__

    Pure Madness

    Yesterday 1:48pm Reply
  • Prince_de_Rien

    Sandslott put it RIGHT.

    Yesterday 11:52am Reply
  • Tahula

    Without You My Life Would Be Boring, without you my life would be boring. Yeah, literally.

    Yesterday 12:03am Reply
  • Sandslott

    They began with an epic one-two punch of A Cherry on Top and Raging Lung, while closing with a stunning rendition of Silent Shout. Don't think this is The Knife + a bunch of dancers. No, Karin and Olof were dancing just as much as the rest; Karin would give Beyonce a run for her money. There's been some negative comments about an instrumental song (Networking) that was played while the stage was empty, but the haters never mention that it was preceded by nonstop dancing (20+ minutes) and functions as a much needed and well deserved break. Hands down one of the best shows I've seen.

    18 May 10:52pm Reply
  • sinztye

    Miss the days when I could easily reproduce their songs with my old Yamaha... Still love them, though.

    18 May 8:20pm Reply
  • CiemnaStrona

    I love new main picture!

    18 May 4:34pm Reply
  • DassaultnEUROn

    I thought the show was genius, not saying it just to pretend I understood something others didn't, but I just really enjoyed the experience. Not suprised over the criticism though, thats standard when people goes innovative.

    18 May 11:10am Reply
  • ACrackedSmile

    Karin, Queen of irony. ^_^

    17 May 5:37pm Reply
  • mscNOW

    Shaking The Habitual review form musicNOW! : http://musicnow.pl/plyty/the_knife_shaking_the_habitual/ (yep, its in polish only)

    17 May 10:21am Reply
  • imgettingmine

    that interview is actually pretty great

    17 May 1:47am Reply
  • mavarco86

    INTERVIEW after the critics at the ROUNDHOUSE show: http://thequietus.com/articles/12252-the-knife-interview

    17 May 1:21am Reply
  • Macaron11

    "doot DOOT doot DOOT doot DOOT doot DOOT doot DOOT doot DOOT" -me impersonating full of fire

    17 May 12:33am Reply
  • ohsolucky

    the new version of Got 2 Let U that's part of the show is really good. I want them to release it.

    16 May 7:29pm Reply
  • nocturnal_vixen

    Tracks from "Shaking The Habitual" were my first listen to The Knife; I like it!

    14 May 8:27pm Reply
  • ACrackedSmile

    I like how the weekly listeners for '' Heartbeats '' has shot up like 2 thousand since Shaking The Habitual came out. O_o

    14 May 1:49pm Reply
  • mister_tussin

    without "without you my life would be boring" my life would be boring

    13 May 11:01pm Reply
  • Tahula

    it iz what it iz :)

    13 May 9:39pm Reply
  • EnderFoShowYo

    @Tahula... lolwot?

    13 May 9:12pm Reply
  • Tahula

    Not normal if you consider that these lads have done an album like SS.

    13 May 8:57pm Reply
  • All 6528 shouts