The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

Pop videos are normally horrid, vain, shitty bits of eye candy that just fill space, but I have met people who basically use the format to make arty little films that if you put in a gallery only 10 people would see,” says Henry from Young Knives. “As an accompaniment to a song they get huge exposure, however.”

The unconventional, angular pop act have recently become indie auteurs. Well, not quite, but they’re pushing boundaries in ways other pop acts can only dream of, or talk about when they’re nursing hangovers.

With their new record Superabundance, they’ve decided to get filmmakers, including themselves, to work each and every song and make them more than just the songs they so diligently toiled over. In this multi-media age it almost seems churlish not to get with their philosophy.

“We didn’t want a whole DVD of promo videos, we wanted them to be more like short films that weren’t restricted,” explains Henry. “We did about five ourselves and we got some other people to have a go. Kai from the Mystery Jets made one, a filmmaker friend of ours called Harry Dwyer made one and co-directed one. He was so good we got him to help with a couple of ours. Then there are another three made by other people - just mates. Basically we had about £3,000 to make 10 films (excluding the two proper promo videos that appear), so it was all done on a shoestring, but that’s what we wanted. Lo-fi.”

It’s incredible what results can come from a bag of ideas and a lot of belief. While profligate major artists are allowed to spunk it left-right-and centre as the good ship Industry sinks, groups like Young Knives are taking the challenge to their hearts. Challenging preconceived ideas. Saying goodbye to long-standing fears.

Henry is understandably coy: “I really like doing them. The day of the shoot is a long painful, tiring experience but when you sit down at your laptop with a whole hard drive full of footage and you just get to put it all together on your own, in the quiet, it’s really therapeutic. But I am wary of being, to quote Steely Dan, ‘Show business kids making movies of themselves, you know, they don’t give a fuck about anybody else.’ I just find it like another way of being creative.”

More peculiarly, Young Knives found another inspiration. A very short, Scottish institution in fact. A biopic coming up perchance?

“I wish someone would offer me what Sam Riley got [he played Ian Curtis in Control], but he’s a good looking fella and that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”

So it’s the One Ronnie, then.

“Maybe I could be Ronnie Corbett when he dies and they do a story of his life.”

More content of interest...

• Young Knives Superabundance (Posted in 015 March 2008 | Long Players | The Stool Pigeon Review)
• Forward Slash (Posted in 014 December 2007 | Features)