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On 25 May 2011, Swire previewed a teaser of a Knife Party remix on
Knife Party are an Australian
> The duo started Knife Party as a side project to Pendulum. However, after the project's success and mass popularity, Knife Party became their primary project.
The name is derived from the electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
duo consisting of Rob Swire
Robert Swire-Thompson (born 5 November 1982) is an Australian musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and DJ, best known as the founder and vocalist of the drum and bass
and electronic rock band Pendulum, as well as DJ and co-founder of ...
and Gareth McGrillen
Pendulum is an Australian electronic rock band founded in 2002. Pendulum originally formed in the city of Perth, Western Australia, by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen and Paul "El Hornet" Harding. The band was later expanded to include members Ben ...
, two members of the drum and bass band Pendulum
A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward th ...
.
The duo has worked with artists such as Swedish House Mafia
Swedish House Mafia (SHM) is a Swedish house music supergroup consisting of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. The group officially formed in late 2008, were placed at number ten on the '' DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJ Poll 2011, and have ...
, Steve Aoki, MistaJam
Peter Dalton (born 19 January 1983), known professionally as MistaJam, is a British DJ and radio presenter. He is known for presenting radio shows on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from 2005 to 2020; since 2020 he has presented on Capital and ...
, Foreign Beggars
Foreign Beggars were an English hip hop and dubstep group. Since their formation in 2002, the group's trajectory had seen them evolve from an underground hip hop group to an electronic crossover act. The group consisted of four artists individ ...
, I See MONSTAS, Tom Staar
Thomas Ingamells (born 24 October 1982), better known by his stage name Tom Staar, is an English DJ and record producer.
Biography
Many of his singles remain for several consecutive weeks in the top 100 on downloading platform Beatport, inclu ...
, Pegboard Nerds
Pegboard Nerds is a Scandinavian electronic music group, consisting of Norwegian DJ Alexander Odden and Danish DJ Michael Parsberg. The name Pegboard Nerds is an anagram of the duo's surnames, Odden and Parsberg. The duo first met in 2005 and for ...
and Tom Morello
Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known for his tenure with the rock band Rage Against the Machine and then with Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, More ...
.
Knife Party peaked at 23rd on DJMag's 2013 Top 100 DJs rankings.
History
2002–2010: Origin
Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen met in 2002 and have since performed music in various different bands and music projects. They along with Paul Harding formed the drum and bass bandPendulum
A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward th ...
.005
''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...Deftones
Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by Chino Moreno (vocals, guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Abe Cunningham (drums), and Dominic Garcia (bass). During their first f ...
song "Knife Prty" featured on the 2000 album ''White Pony
''White Pony'' is the third studio album by American alternative metal band Deftones, released on June 20, 2000, through Maverick Records. It was produced by Terry Date, who produced the band's first two albums, ''Adrenaline'' (1995) and '' Aro ...
''. Knife Party's name caused consternation at first, as some said the name showed support for knife crime. Rob Swire rebutted this during an interview stating "...we’re not advocating any type of knife-related crime any more than Swedish House Mafia were advocating organised crime."
2011–2012: ''100% No Modern Talking'' and ''Rage Valley''
On 25 May 2011, Swire previewed a teaser of a Knife Party remix on SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...
labeled "Not Pendulum", which later turned out to be their remix of Swedish House Mafia's " Save the World".
Knife Party's first EP, '' 100% No Modern Talking'', was released digitally through Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
on 12 December 2011. The EP originally was to feature "Back to the Z-List" but was replaced with "Destroy Them with Lazers" as the duo had decided to abandon the track. The EP title refers to the lack of "Modern Talking", a wavetable in the software synthesiser '' NI Massive'' commonly used to create "talking" basslines.
Their second EP, '' Rage Valley'', was released digitally through EarStorm and Big Beat
Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as th ...
. It was made available for purchase on Beatport and iTunes on 27 May 2012.
The song "Bonfire", released on this EP, was featured on an episode of AMC's ''Breaking Bad'' and in the video game '' WWE 2K15'' (the latter of which features the instrumental version on its official soundtrack). The EP was also Knife Party's first ever entry on the ''Billboard'' 200, peaking at 75.
2013–2014: ''Haunted House'' and ''Abandon Ship''
Their third EP ''Haunted House
A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the prope ...
'', was released on 6 May 2013 digitally through EarStorm and Big Beat
Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as th ...
. The EP was leaked on 29 April 2013 and was uploaded in its officially on 5 May 2013. The EP entered into the iTunes Top 10 Albums Chart and peaked at 3. It also hit number 1 Electro House Album on Beatport. The EP was also Knife Party's first Top 40 entry on the Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of ar ...
, peaking at 37.
In May 2014 Swire stated that the debut Knife Party album was near completion and that they were in their final stages of finishing it. In June it was announced that the album would be titled '' Abandon Ship.''
"Resistance" the first single off the album was released on 25 August 2014. The album was scheduled for release on 24 November 2014. The second promotional single, "Begin Again", was released on 22 September 2014 and the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 183.
On 7 November 2014, iTunes accidentally released ''Abandon Ship'' early, causing Knife Party to have to release the album early on all platforms. Knife Party's Rob Swire mentioned in a tweet that he was happy with the album leaking, but that he felt it made "months of arguments about release dates and watermarks pointless."
2015–2016: ''Trigger Warning'' and ''Battle Sirens''
Evidence of a possible new EP made itself known during their performance at Ultra Music Festival 2015 where they debuted three new tracks: Parliament Funk, PLUR Police and Kraken ft. Tom Staar. On 13 November Knife Party tweeted on their official Twitter page that they will be releasing the EP on 20 November 2015. At Kingsday Festival 2015 they premiered a brand new collaboration withTom Morello
Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known for his tenure with the rock band Rage Against the Machine and then with Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, More ...
of Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commer ...
. During Ultra Music Festival 2016, Knife Party closed out the festival and brought out Tom Morello to perform a live version of the collaboration. The track was later announced to be titled "Battle Sirens" and released worldwide on 9 September 2016. Official remixes by Brillz and Ephwurd
Ephwurd is an American electronic music project. Ephwurd is best known for tracks such as "Rock the Party" (with Jauz), "Vibrations", "Wildchild" (with the Bloody Beetroots) and "Just Us" (featuring Liinks). In addition, Ephwurd has remixed so ...
were released shortly after as well as a Live version from the Ultra performance. The original and remixes were collected together in an EP release on 2 December 2016.
2017–2018: ''Knifecast Begins and Singles''
At a Life in Color event held in Manchester on 3 February 2018, they played out a remix of Pendulum's "Blood Sugar" that was released with the Pendulum's ''Reworks'' album launching 16 March and releasing in full on 29 June 2018. On 10 May 2018 Rob revealed the existence of a Pegboard Nerds collaboration on Twitter. This collaboration was eventually titled "Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal ...
" and released as part of the Pegboard Nerds' ''Full Hearts EP'' in July.
The subreddit, r/electronnicmusic, hosted an AMA with Rob Swire discussing upcoming songs and miscellaneous topics on On 13 July 2018
Rob and Gareth premiered their live radio show titled "Knifecast" on 20 September 2018. The show was a mix "between a podcast and just playing music". At the end of the episode they premiered a new Dubstep ID, titled Lost Souls.
During their eighth Knifecast podcast on 16 November 2018, Rob and Gareth premiered another new track tentatively named "Ghost Town", which eventually became "Death & Desire", and showcased several previous versions of the track.
2019–present: ''Lost Souls''
On 17 April 2019, Knife Party previewed the track "Ghost Train", a minimal tech house track, from their EP ''Lost Souls'' on the 13th episode of their podcast. The tracklist for the "Lost Souls" The EP also included the tracks "No Saint", "Lost Souls", and "Death & Desire" (featuring Harrison), and was released on 19 July. The EP debuted at No. 7 on the US ''Billboard'' Dance/Electronic Album Sales chart in August. The song "Death & Desire" debuted at No. 35 on ''Billboard''s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart on 14 December. In addition to four tracks, Muzz's remix of "Ghost Train",Laidback Luke
Lucas Cornelis van Scheppingen (born 22 October 1976), better known under his stage name Laidback Luke, is a Dutch DJ and music producer. He notably remixed the Robin S. song, " Show Me Love" which charted at No. 11 on the UK charts in 2009. He ...
's remix of "Death & Desire" and Annix's remix of "Lost Souls" were also released.
Production
Knife Party use thedigital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrat ...
application Nuendo for production. In an interview with ''Sound on sound'' Swire mentions he used to use Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which later went by E ...
, but switched to Nuendo, mainly due to the linking system and workflow environment. Most of the sounds emulated are virtual instruments (VST). They also use outboard gear such as Tube-Tech SMC 2B Stereo Multi-Band Compressor.
Discography
Studio albums
Extended plays
Singles
Remixes
Production credits
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music.ARIA Award previous winners. , - ,2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
, , "Rage Valley" , , ARIA Award for Best Dance Release , ,
, -
DJ Magazine top 100 DJs
Notes
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knife Party 2011 establishments in Australia Ableton Live users Australian electronic music groups Australian house music groups Australian musical duos Dubstep musicians Electronic dance music duos Moombahcore musicians Musical groups established in 2011 Musical groups from Perth, Western Australia Monstercat artists