The slice of life

The House of Lords could really go for a milkshake right now.
“As soon as this interview is over I’m getting myself over to Eddie Rocket’s for a big malt,” announces the Young Knives’ bassist. “And a burger. A whopping huge burger.”

Smartly attired in shirt and tie – paired bravely, if bizarrely with a Primark hoodie – the bespectacled bassist doesn’t look like anybody’s idea of a take-away junkie. Then again, he doesn’t exactly fill the stereotype of the blogger-approved indie hero either.
“The record company has been trying to smarten us up,” interjects frontman Henry Dartnall. “I was at an awards ceremony recently and they had me wearing a gold lamé suit. I looked like a fat version of Martin Fry out of ABC.”
It’s a glum Sunday afternoon in Dublin and The Young Knives, purveyors of an agreeably manic garage-pop, are straight off a ferry from the UK. In a few hours, they’ll open their first tour of 2008 with a set showcasing the unexpectedly bleak and intense songs that epitomise their new album, Superabundance.
“It’s not as wacky as before,” says Dartnall, over a pint of Bulmers. “We wanted to make it darker, cos that’s what we like.”
“Our mum likes it,” resumes the House Of Lords (the bassist, whose real name is Thomas, is Dartnall’s younger brother– ‘House Of Lords’ refers to his role in the group as ‘vetting chamber’ for the others’ ideas). “She said to me today, ‘I enjoyed your new album but it’s not very fun.’”
There are sighs all round as conversation turns towards Young Knives’ singular dress sense (“I hate interviews where all we talk about is clothes,” murmurs House Of Lords). Still, it’s impossible to discuss the band without touching on their fogyish style. In tweedy jackets and sweat-stained shirts they could have passed for junior bank managers blowing off steam at the karaoke lounge when they surfaced two years ago. This time around, they’ve raised the ante – in their photo-shoots they wear dull grey suits and quizzical expressions, a nod, they explain, towards oddball artists Gilbert and George.
“We thought it would be good to get some really nice suits," he explains, “not too glamorous, a bit more proletarian, but with something a bit odd about them. And then we thought, ‘Ooh, Gilbert and George!’. We did a video in which we looked a bit like them. But we don’t really spend too much time thinking about our image. It’s a bit of a wank thing.”
Speaking of ‘wank things’ the band aren’t fans of Britain’s Mercury Music Prize, for which their debut, Voices Of Animals And Men was nominated. Actually, Henry will go further: it’s a record industry love-in absolutely devoid of credibility.
“I don’t agree with it,” he spits venomously. “I like the idea of celebrating music, but did they have to make it into a ‘Who’s the best’ thing? I’m almost glad people don’t buy records any more – they download for free so that musicians no longer make shitloads of money. It blows it all out of the water. You have to start again. You have to pay to enter the Mercury – to claim it’s the best album of the year is nonsense. They should say, It’s the best album of the year out of all the people who paid.’”
On Superabundance, the Young Knives mix their love of post-punk and pastoral pop – whole swathes of the record sound like Sgt Pepper re-booted for the 21st century England of out of town garden centres and titanic shopping malls. But the band have weathered some bad reviews in the UK, prompting their manager Duncan Ellis to physically threaten a journalist at an awards ceremony in London recently. Or so we’ve heard.
“Yeah, we’re cool by proxy cos we’ve got a cricket-bat-wielding manager,” laughs Dartnall. “Duncan went up to this guy to defend our honour, because he’s a fan of the band as well as being our manager. It got a little bit heated apparently, but only in a conversational way. Then another guy butted in – and that’s what got Duncan’s goat up. He got punched in the head about three times.”
House Of Lords adds: “I read in The Sun it was the main fella from Bloc Party who intervened to break it up. Duncan says he can’t remember much about it though.”
Henry and House Of Lords grew up in Ashby de la Zouch, a cookie cutter market town in the English midlands. Today both live in Oxford together with Young Knives drummer Oliver Askew. However, they admit to having little affinity with the town’s storied rock scene.
“We played a gig with Supergrass once, but I wouldn’t say we know them," he admits. “They’re fucking stoners.” If Henry doesn’t mind dishing what might beconsidered ‘the dirt’, neither does House of Lords. You just don’t feel that you can believe any of it. “Radiohead have houses all over the place,” House Of Lords chips in. “Thom Yorke has one in the countryside and one in the town. And apparently he’s got one somewhere in Devon where he owns two miles of beach. Sometimes he goes for a walk in the morning and he has them close down the beach. That’s the rumour, anyway.”

Superabundance is out now