Quick-fire Questions: 10 minutes with Knitting
Burnished in the zenith of Montreal’s DIY underground, Canadian slacker trio Knitting have dreamed up another LP of bedroom indie scoring frontperson Mischa Dempsey’s fleeting, lyrical reverie.
They’ve been busy. Not even two years since their Some Kind of Heaven debut, ensuing world tours and a SXSW slot would hone the material rippling together on new record Souvenir.
It’s an intimate affair in all respects. Desmpsey’s tales of childhood, trans identity, wage labour, and emotional disconnection seem to gel and mingle on an elemental level with the lo-fi soundtrack behind them, courtesy of locals Ultra Far’s Sarah Harris on guitar, Sunforger’s Piper Curtis on bass, and Andy and the Dannys’ Andy Mulcair behind the drum kit.
Armed with an electric intuition for Dempsey’s songcraft, the entire Knitting mob wields an impressive grasp of slacker rock without stumbling into its cliches on Sovenir. ‘I Want to Remember Everything’ strikes a piquant bullseye of listless yet hooky as hell, deep summons of guitar attack amid a chiming aura casts its enchantment on ‘I Wasn’t Fully Cooked’, and ‘Sequel’ manages to crawl into your earworms via a wholly jumbled and inside-out cascade of misshapen riffs.
Another fine addition to the teeming Montreal music community, then. With Souvenir out to the world, we caught up with Dempsey for our Quick-Fire Questions series, exploring hot new Berlin synthpop, traumatic Doctor Who episodes, and bad jokes aimed squarely at any band’s drummer. Check it out below.
Quick-fire Questions with Knitting:
What song would you want played at your funeral?
“While I’m being lowered into the ground, I want a piper wearing the Clan Campbell hunting tartan to play ‘The Skye Boat Song Bagpipes’.”
Who’s the best support band you ever saw?
“Das Beat opening for Lemongrab at Urban Spree in Berlin.”
If you could step back in time ten years ago, what would you tell yourself?
“Don’t settle for that. Also, be nicer to your friends.”
Tell us a bad joke.
“How do you get a drummer off your doorstep? Pay for the pizza!”
Who are the Montreal bands we need to check out pronto?
“Literally so many … Taupe, Ribbon Skirt, Sasha Cay, Marlaena Moore, Fraud Perry, Lovelet… Also, Andy and the Dannys and Ultra Far.”
What’s the one thing Souvenir has taught you?
“I’m still learning how to sing all the time.”
Ever seen a ghost?
“The first time I met Andy in 2016, we played this show in a small rural town in Nova Scotia. After the show, we went to the graveyard to walk around at night. We had the strange sensation that someone had fallen behind from the group, hanging around at the entrance to the cemetery, but we were all there. Andy calls this feeling “goatman,” but maybe it was a ghost.”
What’s the most pretentious lyric you’ve ever heard?
“Probably something off of AM by Arctic Monkeys… the lyrics are so indulgent, and I feel like they kind of lost the plot. They really dove nose-first into big rocker mode. It’s so pretentious but also kind of awesome…”
Who would be your dream director for a Knitting music video?
“Michel Gondry.”
I’ve developed a rash that resembles Rod Hull and Emu. What do you recommend?
“I’m not sure who that is, but I am worried for you….”
Who’s the scariest Knitting member?
“Mischa.”
What was the last book you read?
“How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty by Bonny Reichert.”
What frightened you as a kid?
“The episode of Doctor Who called ‘The Empty Child’… still gives me chills. It features a little half-dead kid wearing a gas mask walking around a bombed-out 1940s London looking for his mum, asking, ‘Are you my mummy?'”.
?sgnos ruoy ni egassem sdrawkcab a kaens ot detpmet neeb revE
“No, but there’s a sneeze hidden in a drum take on Souvenir.”
Are The Beatles overrated?
“The Beatles may have their issues, but they are not overrated. They know how to write a song.”
