Rising To The Masses: Running With Knives

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Before the first riffs echo through the fields of Catton Park, we are diving head first into the pulse-pounding world of the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock 2024. So grab your backstage pass, tune your senses, and join us as we explore the stories, inspirations, and the relentless drive of the bands who are rising to the masses! Introducing Running With Knives…

How would you describe your band to someone who’s never heard you?

Metal With A Cutting Edge!!….combining complex riffs and solos with intricate vocal melodies and harmonies.

Tell us about your band’s origin story. How did you all come together?

We were formed in 2018 starting with ciarian (guitar) and Scotty (drums). They used to play together in a music class at school and after their other projects failed to yield success they joined together with Monty (bass) who also happened to have been in the same music class. Jack also joined after he was recommended by a Facebook friend after seeing our posts advertising for a guitarist!

We then spent almost a year trying to find the perfect singer and happened to get lucky with Alex directly messaging the band page!

What song would you recommend for someone’s first listen of your band?

Stay Afloat… new single very soon.

Describe your songwriting process. How do you create your music?

Our process varies, sometimes we jam riffs during a rehearsal or someone brings in a finished idea that then gets developed by the band as a whole. One thing that’s very important to us as a band is not recording and releasing a song as soon as it is written, our music and songs have developed over the 5 ish years we’ve been together and we’ve only just started releasing songs finished up to 2 years ago….they have to mature like a fine wine!

How do you handle creative disagreements within the band?

For us it’s all about what serves the song best, we don’t have too many creative disagreements but when we do we usually leave the part/song and work on something else. Coming back to it later with a fresh head.

What are your musical influences?

One of the best features of running with knives is our diverse catalog of influences. Each of the band members draws on their influences to bring interesting and diverse ideas to the table.

Our main influences would probably be recognized as Alter Bridge, Lamb of God, Sylosis, Metallica, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Opeth, Karnivool, Gods Hate, 80s shredders such as Steve Vai and John Petrucci all the way to bands like No Doubt, Bilmuri and even Musicals !!……so quite a bunch !!

What’s the story behind your band name?

The band name comes from a friend of Jack’s who used to work in a kitchen. Him and his chef mates, used to play a game where they would cover the floor of the kitchen in oil, hold a bunch of knives then try to run across, the game was called “running with knives”

What’s your guilty pleasure music outside of metal?

Obscure Tommy Lee nu-metal act Methods of Mayhem, 90’s pop , backstreet boys, Five, Britney all bangers, and very specifically Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

Tell us about your most memorable live performance or tour experience.

Probably this year’s uprising festival!

This was the first year we actively sorted out press and did interviews. It was all very exciting and everyone was eager to get involved. In terms of strange memorable gigs, we played a small basement in Stourbridge at Katie Fitzgerald’s as part of Metal 2 The Masses Alumni “Nameless”‘s first gig, which was a very small stage for the 5 of us, and in between each band was a Drag act which was entertaining and something we’ve not seen since!

What’s the most challenging aspect of being a metal band in today’s music industry?

Definitely, one of the most challenging aspects of being in a band is creating and maintaining a social media presence on various platforms. “content creation” and original ideas can be challenging to come up with when you’re trying to do it all on your own.

Any advice for other aspiring metal musicians?

We could say the classic “don’t listen to others” but sometimes it’s important to take a step back and assess everything from a different point of view, trusted friends can be good for that!. Don’t feel pressured to release music straight away, they’re your songs and you will know when they’re done. Play as many gigs as you can no matter the crowd or venue, “miles on the road” as we’d say Also try to look like a band too, you don’t have to all have coordinated outfits but look like you belong together!!

What’s next after Bloodstock for the band?

THE WORLD!!!…. Well we’re definitely looking at spreading our wings further around the UK and breaking into new cities. Hopefully another Bloodstock booking and more festivals in the future too!!!

How do you choose album artwork or visuals for your releases?

We use lyrical content to help shape the artwork, while also trying to be not too on the nose!

A good example of this is Stay Afloat artwork,

What’s the most unexpected inspiration for one of your songs?

Funnily enough, that’s ashes, the chorus was inspired by the song “Pony” by Ginuwine aka the magic mike song, sing that chorus over Ashes and it works

What’s the best gig you’ve attended as a fan and why?

There are too many for us to list, but some highlights include Ciarians many trips to see AC/DC and meeting Alter Bridge and Jack’s first time seeing Steve Vai, one of his biggest inspirations. Ciarian was pretty much lost for words meeting Myles Kennedy and the gang, it was like meeting God haha!

Have you faced any challenges as an unsigned band? How do you overcome them?

The Financial part is being in a band and balancing work/life alongside it. We’ve
overcome it, with careful planning and perseverance and be willing to make sacrifices.
Listening to music outside of the genre we play. This is good for new ideas and things we can implement that can make us more interesting

How do you stay motivated during creative slumps?

Listening to music outside of the genre we play. This is good for new ideas and things we can implement that can make us more interesting.

Running With Knives are set to play The Hopical Storm New Blood Stage On Saturday 10th August 2024.