Cut & thrust

You’d be forgiven for thinking the Young Knives are bonkers. Not only do they exhibit songs which sound like they’re actually enjoying a psychotic episode, but onstage at Dublin’s Marlay Park, their between song banter is nothing short of stand-up comedy.
“Are you looking forward to KAS-A-BI-AN?” goads frontman Henry Dartnall.
“You can just say ‘Kasabian’. You know, like normal,” interjects his brother and bassist The House Of Lords (because of his love of the veto, seeing as you ask).
“No, you have to say KAS-A-BI-AN.”
And so it goes on, until they decide it’s high time to knock out a strangely catchy oddball-indie tune that'll make even the dance crowd for Faithless pay attention.
Sat in their dressing room after the show, it turns out that the Oxford-based trio are bonkers, but in the best way possible. They are friendly, serene people whose apparent normality disguises the eccentric humour which is littered across their album Voices Of Animals And Men, produced by Gang Of Four legend Andy Gill.
“I’m looking forward to meeting Russell Brand,” House Of Lords says, mulling over the band’s imminent joining of the celebrity circuit, “so I can kick his face in.”
Before going any further down that road, he exercises a little damage limitation.
“Although I like his way with a live audience in his Big Brother show. He’ll answer questions like, ‘How do you know he’s gay?’ by saying, ‘Because he’s bummed me all week.’ He’ll say stuff like that. On the telly. I think that’s quite admirable.”
While the band have accepted that they’ll have to perform in front of the media circus, they admit they’re not looking forward to the inevitable T4 appearance.
“We try and make songs that are cool and catchy and have meaningful lyrics,” explains House Of Lords, “then you go on TV and they ask, ‘What do you think about cheese?’ and make madcap comments like, ‘Imagine if you grew a beard and there was a flood and a shark came up and ate your beard.’”
“But we’ll do anything,” adds Henry. “Plus, TV is fleeting. It’s not like a newspaper where things might come back to haunt you. Unless you say something about Jesus.”
House Of Lords: “Or rape.”
“Jesus rape,” contributes drummer Ollie Askew.
“Yeah, if you say, ‘I do like rape’ on TV, I imagine that would stick around for a bit.”
Jesus rape aside, what’s surprising about The Young Knives is that they've been so well-received by the mainstream.
“Our last release (The Young Knives Are Dead) was in 2002 when the rock scene was much more insular,” Henry points out. “Now you've a load of indie bands in the Top 20, and Sun readers who know who Carl Barat and Pete Doherty are.”
It also helped their campaign no end that they released the enjoyable ‘Weekends And Bleak Days (Hot Summer)’ during the hottest UK summer since way back when, making it the indie anthem of the season.
“It marks how kind fate has been towards us,” explains Henry. “Last year we were scrambling around for gigs, and then we were asked if we could do Jools Holland. I’m almost bored because it’s so good. I’m waiting for tragedy.”
“Well, your wife and I have been kissing behind your back,” offers House Of Lords helpfully. Cue Hot Press ducking out. It is, after all, a family affair. Boom boom.