A group of roadies who have previously worked for Linkin Park, Slipknot and Fall Out Boy have joined forced to form a new band called Knifes.
The idea for the group began during a Linkin Park concert in Brazil, when the band’s roadie Ben Young jumped in at the last minute for the band’s guitarist Brad Delson and performed a set in front 50,000 screaming Linkin Park fans.
“We arrived in Brazil, and our creation supervisor called me. I thought he planned to mention to me what flight I expected to jump on. However, he said Linkin Park’s guitarist Brad wasn’t coming – and that I needed to play the shows,” Young told BBC.
“It’s abnormal because, as a roadie, you’ve been on the phase previously – however, the genuine encounter is so extraordinary because you’re focusing so hard on which part of the melody comes straightaway.”
Young went on to perform in more shows for the ‘Crawling’ hitmakers, and soon began writing his own music before enlisting another another Linkin Park roadie – Warren Johnson – after which the pair created their own band Knifes.
In fact, Johnson had also previously found himself performing drums for Linkin Park before.
“Linkin Park’s drummer is also a film director, so it started out with me covering for him in rehearsals when he couldn’t make it,” Warren said. “And it got to the stage where if we were playing in my hometown or it was my birthday, he would let me come up on stage and play a song instead of him.”
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“My birthday was actually the last Linkin Park show ever. I played a couple of songs – it was the ultimate present.”
After forming Knifes, the pair began recording music during the time Linkin Park had also been working on their album.
“We were working with Linkin Park while they recorded One More Light and they had this room set up with like three different drum sets,” Johnson said.
“They left it set up that way for like two weeks and they weren’t using it the whole time, so we snuck in one day and recorded our first five songs.”
After Linkin Park artist Chester Bennington died in 2017, both Ben and Warren began working for Fall Out Boy, where they were joined by yet another roadie for their group, Brian Diaz.
And while COVID has temporarily put any potential touring plans on hold, the group hope to kick things off as and hit the road soon as possible.
“I try to underplay what our goals are for this because, like, I’m a just a roadie, but secretly of course we’d love to be bigger than the bands we work for,” Johnson said.
The group continues practicing and are currently working on their debut album Proof of Concept, due out Friday, October 2nd.
Check out ‘The Comedown’ by Knifes:
