Knifeworld

Kavus Torabi is a very musical body, boasting a career with bands The Monsoon Bassoon, The Cardiacs and Guapo. His recent role sees him perform as Knifeworld, an artist whose latest single ‘Pissed Up on Brake Fluid’ made Mastodon want to take their pants off! As Knifeworld prepares to release the new album ‘Buried Alone: Tales of Crushing Defeat’ on August 13th, Music News reporter Susan Ford caught up with the leading man to talk lyrics, place, and new releases.

Who/What is Knifeworld and what’s your story?

Knifeworld started out as a solo venture I suppose. I rehearsed the material with drummer Khyam Allami, we recorded the drums and I played most of the rest of it myself. I drafted in some great players to do the bits I couldn't, like horns and tricky keyboards, such as Max Tundra, Katharine Blake, Sarah Measures and Melanie Woods on singing. It's in the process right now of turning into a seven-piece live band.


Where does the name ‘Knifeworld’ come from?

From those shops that have names like 'Monocle World' or 'World Of Rococo Vases'. What, the world is full of them? Are you saying the world is made from them? Surely that's too specific a product to warrant A WHOLE WORLD being made of them. So Knifeworld seemed really funny to me. Plus it's quite a rock sounding name, which I liked. It's not, God forbid, meant as some sort of social commentary about "shit, it's so bad that kids are stabbing each other up, it's some kinda crazy knife world out there, no?'. It's a name that doesn't fuck about, you know? There's a tendency in, say, Post-Rock for these really dull, sort of grey, utilitarian names, almost apologetic. Knifeworld doesn't sound apologetic, it sounds like it means business.

Describe your music for those who have never heard it before?

I never can, really. I like the term psychedelic because it's quite open ended; it seems to suggest something expansive, colourful and ambitious, essentially 'head music'. Certainly my stuff doesn't sound 'sixties-ish', that's not what I mean at all, but in terms of the approach, and the music being multi layered and dense and giddy and delirious, then it's completely psychedelic. It's hard to describe because my songs tend to take whatever funny route they always take. If that requires them being done as a kind of 'riff-fest' then so be it, if they need to be really spectral with a load of backward guitar and toy piano, then that's the way they've got to be. More often than not I'll do both in the same song. My music tends to take a journey sometimes with 45-degree turns. That sounds completely normal to me; I think that's a good thing. If the 'sonic colour' of a tune needs to shift from one place to another between a verse and a chorus then that's fine. It's weird people having some sort of problem with that. It would be the same as only liking films that took place in one room. The same goes for instrumentation. You'd be surprised how many people don't think the addition of a Persian santoor and Melotron helps a rock tune particularly. There are certain intervals and key changes that I really like so I tend to use them a lot. I also like it when you have at least two different lines playing against each other, that really gets me on, it makes you feel like you're on drugs, so I do that a lot too.

New single ‘Pissed up on Brake Fluid’ gained a lot of praise from the likes of Mastodon, what is the story behind the song in terms of lyrical content and musical style?

That was lovely, they gave it 10/10, far out. The musical style is a lot more straightforward than what I usually do. I just started writing it and thought it would be a crime to that, essentially pop, song to kind of shoehorn a big complex passage in. It's a really driving rock tune in terms of its style, though. I always like that kind of thing, like I've said; I've never really done anything like that before. It has a real Husker Du/ Magazine vibe to it. With the tune being more straightforward it gave me a chance to be less opaque and a little more direct with the lyrics. I'm really happy with those lyrics actually. It's the first time I've ever used that tried and tested songwriter cliché of analogy. In that sense it's about infidelity while using the analogy of cars/roads/auto stuff, not that I give a fuck about cars, and worshiping the Devil. Three classic 'rock' topics.

Why do you think the single received such great praise?

Did it? I don't think everyone loved it. I think a lot of people expected something less 'straight' sounding from me. It's a great song, it sounds like a single and it does really sound like one of my songs in terms of the melody but it's not particularly representative of the rest of the album. I don't really read my press anyway, good or bad. I have enough self-doubt on an everyday basis without reading criticism meted out by strangers. With good reviews it's even worse. If they really like it, they still don't like it enough, to my mind. So I don't read them, I used to a few years ago, because it was a big deal to be getting written about and I was younger and wider-eyed but it does you no good. I don't want to question my music. Let someone else do that.

You’ve played in a lot of other bands including The Monsoon Bassoon and Cardiacs. Of all the musical line-ups you’ve been part of, who have been your favourite

Really don't have a favourite. Different people, different vibe. The Monsoon Basson stuff was all written by myself and Dan Chudley. The band all lived together like a cult. We all moved up to London together, were extremely close and just absolutely lived that band for about seven years. The success we had was completely down to us. Cardiacs is a band I'd loved since I was sixteen, so getting to play in them was a trip all of its own. You know, you join an established band and the next minute you're playing to two thousand people at The Astoria who all know who you are. It's pretty fucked up, I felt a little as if I hadn't earned it. The two are totally different though. It was far less stressful doing Cardiacs that's for sure. All I had to worry about was learning my parts, which I really enjoyed doing anyway.

What do you take from these other bands you’ve played with into Knifeworld?

Again, I don't know really. I've always been very single-minded about my music. I'd been writing music for a long time and with Dan Chudley since we were about seventeen, so I'd kind of found my style by the time I started joining other bands. I'm a very different person with my own stuff than I am in other groups. As a writer I guess it would be really frustrating to play in other bands if you didn't have your outlet. I'm happy to do as I'm told because I've got my own thing where I can be the taskmaster. As it happened I started to get a lot more hands-on with Cardiacs anyway.

How much does place, i.e. where you come from and where you write your lyrics affect your unique style?

That's an interesting question. I guess very little, though, really. I don't know if those factors should affect it or not. I suppose I tend to live very much inside my head anyway. That's where the tunes come from anyway.

Tell me about the new album ‘Buried Alone: Tales of Crushing Defeat’…

It has eleven songs, it comes in a lovely sleeve and it doesn't sound anything else you might buy or illegally download this year

Are you excited about playing the album launch gig?

Really nervous more than anything else, this is the single biggest musical undertaking I've done, in terms of having to get a shit hot band together in a short space of time without it having developed naturally. I'm lucky; I have really good players in it. I'm very excited about it being a proper band after all that time in the studio. It'll be a real trial by fire, we have an XFM session on the day of the gig, then we've just got to haul our collective asses to East London, sound check and play our first gig. I've never done it this way before, so I'm pretty stressed but in a good way.

What can fans expect from a live performance, especially on your album launch night?

Well if a seven piece band playing some kind of full-on unusual rock and roll doesn't grab you, and it should, I'm working with a sort of video artist for the visual side of things. I can't say too much, because we're just putting it together now but we'll be putting on 'a show'.

How much does your music differ between live performances and recorded?

I can't really say as we've yet to even play a gig. One of the reasons for having a seven-piece group was to be able to play most of the parts that are on the record. I would have liked an additional horn player but I just didn't have the time to get that sorted, but we have Khyam and Mel who are on the album, Emmett and Chloe from Chrome Hoof on Keys and Sax/ bassoon, Craig from North Sea Radio Orchestra on bass and my old friend Tom Clues on guitar.

What is next for Knifeworld after the album launch and gigs?

Well, to get balls-deep into touring the album and get a load of new material together. I've written most of the next album now. It'll be recorded as much more of a band thing than this one was. I've got the band to do it now.