Sharp As Knives

ECCENTRIC, funny, sharp-witted and blindingly talented, Young Knives rank among the very best British bands of the past decade.

And, what’s more, they are one of ours.

The trio of Henry Dartnell, his brother Thomas (aka ‘House of Lords’) and Oliver Askew have been a longstanding fixture, first on the Oxford scene, and then on the national and international stage, attracting fans with their spiky blend of indie rock, pop, punk, and wry observation.

Their skewed take on everyday Middle English existence played out with alternately tender and incendiary vocals and guitars, saw them propelled from the backrooms of Oxford to the crowds of Glastonbury and Reading, New York City and an intimate gathering supporting Kaiser Chiefs at Leeds United’s 39,000-capacity Elland Road stadium. Oh, and their album Voices of Animals and Men was nominated for the most prestigious award in rock – the Mercury Music Prize.

Their anti-fashion taste for countrywear, blazers, tweed and ties, meanwhile, made them instantly recognisable.

For the past couple of years, we haven’t heard as much from Henry, Ollie, and ‘House’ (he earned his parliamentary ‘nom-de-musique’ because of his role as the band’s final decision maker). So the release of a new album, and the promise of a long-awaited homecoming gig in the city is cause for celebration, indeed.

I caught up with Henry to find out just what they’ve been up to.

“We’ve been pottering about, doing some things and not giving up,” he says modestly.

“It has taken quite a while to get this last record out, because we didn’t just want to smash out the ‘same old, same old’ Young Knives album.”

The result, Ornaments from the Silver Arcade, is an assured classic, which, like the best of their work, repays listening. In fact, you can practically feel it working its way under your skin with each song.

But, says Henry, it only came about after a bit of well-earned playtime.

“We spent lots of time getting ‘muso’ nonsense out of our systems,” he says. “Pop is inherently irritating after a while, and we got sick of it, and wanted to try some more leftfield stuff. Then we had a chat about how we should make this record.”

Henry says the album – named after a particularly lovely Victorian shopping arcade in Leicester, near to where the three grew up – represents a change in the band’s outlook.

“We were going down a serious route and felt pressured,” he says. “We only ever wanted to be credible, but felt we had to either throw caution to the wind and write a massive pop song and ‘do’ a Snow Patrol, or be seen as serious – like the XX or Foals. But that’s not what we do.

“My favourite bands all have had a sense of fun, but have also been credible, and that’s what we wanted to do.”

The lack of major label involvement, meanwhile, gives it more the sense of being a self-created labour of love.

“It’s a slow-burner,” says Henry. “We knew we weren’t going to smash it into the Top 20 when we got back. But I think it’s worthy of putting out. If people don’t buy it... well, ‘bum!’.”

While still widely touted as an Ashby-de-la-Zouch band, it’s been many a moon since any of them have lived in deepest Leicestershire – they are now residing in West Oxford, with Oliver settling in Jericho, and Henry sticking to his country roots by getting away from it all in sleepy Kirtlington.

I ask Henry whether rural life has influenced the band’s music in any way.

“Being alive influences me,” he says.

“The countryside is where I live and where we write, but I don’t write about how beautiful it is because it’s obvious. I love sunsets, babbling brooks, and stuff like that, but why write music about them? Paintings and photographs can do that.

“Music has to have something about human beings – even if it’s then set in the country.

“Sometimes it’s frustrating being here,” he confides. “There’s nothing around, but it’s great to come back here after travelling; I have the best of both worlds.”

So what else is different? Well, don’t mention the ‘t’ word for one thing. ‘Tweed’, that is.

“I haven’t got out the tweed for a while – or the deerstalker,” he says. “It started to feel like a uniform and I was worried that people would think we weren’t taking ourselves seriously – and that would be doing ourselves a disservice.

“I still like to make an effort dressing up, though,” he adds. “You can’t go on stage in your slacks... unless they’re very nice slacks, that is. But we don’t ham it up, as we are still caricatures of ourselves as it is... and I don’t like to do what’s expected.”

“The House of Lords has an amazing range of shirts, though,” he goes on. “But he is still ridiculous. He can go on stage looking like a sack of potatoes but you only see the glasses!”

They may have grown up, a bit, but not enough that you’d probably notice. Thankfully. The bruising banter is still there, as are the kind of casual insults that can only really be traded between brothers with more in common than either would care to admit.

In fact, with universal acclaim for their new album, and a string of dates taking form before them, it feels like they have never really been away.

They are even going back to the future by returning to two former regular haunts – the Zodiac room at the Oxford O2 Academy, and Truck Festival, at Steventon, which the boys play after a lengthy absence.

“We are playing some festivals which are cooler and more relaxing – like Truck,” says Henry, explaining why he is not interested in going back to the likes of Glastonbury.

“We haven’t played Truck since 2006, so I am looking forward to it. We once played it three times in a row. You can’t play it every year; people would get bored.”

So where next for the Young Knives? “I’d like to write a song which could be the first dance at a wedding, says Henry. “Something that you remember a lot of things by and which will be played on Radio 2 for the next 20 years.

“I don’t sit down and say ‘today I’m going to write a classic’, though. You just do what you do. Still, I never aspired to get big; just to enjoy it.”

And his philosophy on life? “To never stress about it… man!”

* Truckfest runs from July 22-24. Other acts include Gruff Rhys, St Etienne, Bellowhead, Philip Selway, Edwyn Collins, The Go! Team and Graham Coxon. For tickets and more info go to thisistruck.com