If you haven’t heard of Kitchen Knife Wife yet, it might be because just months after forming they decided to head overseas on tour with The Wombats. If you HAVE heard Kitchen Knife Wife before reading this article it might be because you saw their standout set at Laneway Festival 2009. Either way, with the release of their single Happy, this won’t be the last you hear about Kitchen Knife Wife. Paul Luczak from the band chats with Music Feeds.
MF: How did you guys meet and start playing in a band together?
KKW: Bernie and I are brothers. We started writing songs together since the age of 21. We stumbled across Jimmy in a rehearsal studio and fell in love with his Ukrainian impersonations and keys playing. Dave was the last one to complete the original line-up on drums. After we finished recording this year, we knew we had to bring on another member to recreate the record. That’s when Dom came in; more importantly that allowed us Polish kids to rule majority.
MF: Shortly after you guys formed, you left Australia to go and tour overseas; how did that come about?
KKW: We had planned from the early days to take KKW to the UK. While we had our UK showcases and Popcom in Berlin locked in pretty early, we really wanted to get onto a good tour to make it worth our while. After firing off three or four emails to some bands that we liked, we got a reply the next day from The Wombats’ management. And off we were!
MF: That easy huh?
KKW: More likely at the right place at the right time.
MF: How did you find it being a fairly new band and already playing massive shows overseas?
KKW: Pretty surreal. We went from playing small clubs to large theatre shows in nine months or so. I still think it’s a lot easier to play to 2500 people than 100 people in a small room.
MF: Tell us about the new single (where was it recorded, who produced/ engineered it, how did you find the process)
KKW: Happy was first recorded at Bernie’s bunker on acoustic. The song was then refined during our album pre-production sessions at James’ wine cellar down in the Mornington Peninsula . We ended up tracking the record at David Carr’s church studio, which is near the Dandenong mountains. After blowing out our recording timeframe by five or so months, we were finally done! David Carr produced, mixed and engineered the record.
MF: What is the song inspired by?
KKW: Triple distilled vodka and special cake
MF: What kind of bands and music inspires KKW?
KKW: Radiohead, Supergrass, The Cars, The Beatles, Black Lips, Eastern Bloc drinking music
MF: How does the songwriting process typically work in KKW?
KKW: Sometimes the songs can develop from a jam, where we’ve all played together and just found an idea we really like. Most typically though, Bernie or one of the other guys will find a chord progression and a lyrical concept that feels right, and it will develop into a song on the acoustic guitar first
MF: Who are some of the bands that you’ve played with lately and are digging?
KKW: We stopped playing shows mid last year before going into battle with this record, so we can’t really answer this question… however there’s so much good music coming out of Australia at the moment ie Money For Rope, Eagle & The Worm, Bleeding Knees Club
MF: What can audiences expect when they see KKW at one of your upcoming shows?
KKW: Interpretative dancing
MF: Ha ha, interpretative dancing by whom? The band or the Fans?
KKW: The Fans!
MF: What’s next for Kitchen Knife Wife?
KKW: It’s go time for the new record!
Catch Kitchen Knife Wife at Purple Sneakers Last Night on the 8th of July or The Espy on 15th of July
