Knife Skills - By Erin LaCour
kitchen confidential

KS plays vigorous rock fueled with anxious guitars. Their nervy, jittery songs speak of desperation in one breath and talk of listening to records in the next.
Over $2.50 lemonade, Knife Skills, made up of Anna Barie (g/v), Fon-Lin Nyeu (b/v) and Joel Saladino (d), discussed future recording plans, why playing in Texas is fun, and the inaccuracies of reviews.

Your Get Home Safe EP was released earlier this year. Do you have any plans for a full length?
A: We're writing songs now and plan to record them by the end of the year. We want to put out the record at the beginning of next year.

Your EP has been getting reviewed quite a bit. What do you think of the reviews?
J: They're rarely accurate but always interesting.

What do you think you sound like then?
J: The musical equivalent of a novice parachuter parachuting into Bronco Stadium.

Well, in a recent interview about the EP you seemed pretty proud of not discussing "girly" subject matter in your songs. Do you think people expect something "girly" from you since you are girl-fronted?
A: I think we just make music. It's not about who's playing it. What would a feminine chord sound like? Something pretty?
F: We're just not very sentimental.
A: We're not a pop band. I think most female bands are and so they sing about relationships. We don't sing so much about romance - we sing about other things.
F: The other part of relationships.

Do you think that girl bands that sound "girly"/have a pop sound get more attention? Or do girl bands in general, as a sort of novelty?
A: I think we'd get more attention if we were Japanese.
F: I was in a super girly band before (Hissyfits). It was cool, though. We probably did get more attention because we were girls.
A: It's hard to say if any band gets more attention than another. But, in NY, it's mostly still male bands so girl bands pique interest because of the numbers. Fon-Lin and I have been playing together for three years and we just don't fit into those categories. We don't sound like a girl band and we don't try to work that angle.

But the photographs on your website are pretty sexy.
A: That was happy accident. Fon-Lin set it up with someone from school. When we got to the shoot, our outfits didn't match, but Fon-Lin had created super long pantyhose sculptures and had white tank tops, so we decided to go with it. They are a little provocative.
F: Also disturbing and creepy.
A: Our former drummer (Gerhardt Fuchs) said we looked like scared little children. It was really just us goofing around.

So what do you think about the NY band scene as far as music, musicians and fans go?
A: I think the scene is what you make of it. We have a lot of friends who play music, like Parts and Labor.
J: I think there's an insular underground scene and a whole lot of others - I know of one or two - so shows are always hit or miss.
F: It's more fun to play in galleries or at friends' houses than the venues.
A: Playing in NY is not a barometer of a band's success. We do like Cake Shop, though. They treat bands really well. It's a fun space to play and it's pretty low-key.

How is it different playing outside of NY? How was SXSW?
A: It was like spring break for Brooklyn in Austin. It was all about supporting our friends' bands.
F: It was so much fun. This year was a particularly good year - for whatever reason, there were really talented people there.
A: The most fun was the 21st Coop. It's a punk rock community housing building. We played in just this room with a really ugly mural and a pool table. The kids were just drunk and screaming. It's more fun playing outside NY because here you play to about 30 people in their twenties with their arms crossed. Other places people are excited to see you and really get into it.

Anything else you want people to know?
A: We're inventing a new genre of music, but we can't talk about it yet. It sounds really different than the EP.

For the debut of the newest music genre, check out Knife Skills in September at the Right Rides Benefit (www.rightrides.org) and visit their website at www.knife-skills.com