Keeping NYC’s Underground Alive: The Story of Knifetwister Records

Amidst a music industry largely controlled by corporate interests, knifetwister records is forging a different path. The project, which functions as both a digital magazine and a record label, was founded by seasoned veterans of New York City’s underground music scene. Their guiding principle is clear: “Either love what you do, or don’t do it.” This philosophy underpins their artist-friendly agreements and their primary focus on supporting local talent.

knifetwister records specifically highlights the best of NYC’s underground punk, ska, and metal bands. The digital magazine serves as a critical platform, providing exposure to lesser-known groups and helping them build connections that are hard to come by through traditional media. The initiative is a commitment to fostering a sustainable local scene through collaboration and community-driven efforts.

The label operates on a unique artist-first model. Instead of signing bands to long-term deals, they work with them on a trial basis, offering promotion and support without demanding exclusivity. This gives artists the flexibility to pursue more promising opportunities should they arise. The founders describe this as a fundamental expression of their values, prioritizing artistic freedom over commercial profit.

The team behind knifetwister records applies their combined expertise in music and technology to build a small, but impactful, community space. Their focus is not on achieving mass-market success but rather on providing a stable foundation for independent artists within the underground scene to grow and thrive.

In a scene often dominated by commercial interests, what inspired you to take such an anti-corporate, artist-first path?

knifetwister records: Well, the anti-capitalist structure of our operation is the backbone of the commitment to never treat music or musicians as a commodity. The music industry has long been subject to exploitation – blues singers in the 1930’s, girl groups in the 50’s, the 1990’s had a proliferation of labels signing artists when trends in the industry suggested they’d be commercially successful and then dropping them the moment market research dictated that the public’s tastes are moving in a different direction. The paid streaming services of today are hyper-capitalist, or really corporatist I suppose – these are run on a predatory business model that has zero interest in the music scene or musicians themselves. These are large corporations, and by definition their interests are short term shareholder profits at any cost. They’re not about music, they’re about buying your personal data from Google or Meta and then pushing targeted ads at you – that’s their business model, and it’s fairly transparent. Most people use free Spotify accounts, and it’s axiomatic that if you aren’t paying for something, you’re the product.

The moment an artist feels like they’re a product on a shelf, no different than computer chips or marital aids, we’ve lost most of what’s meaningful about music.

How do you feel that music and musicians can have an impact on their listeners and fans?

knifetwister records: I have a good answer to that, and it’s pretty personal, but I’ll share it. When I was 21, in college, I was sitting around watching MTV, and a video came on that make me sit up straight. It was a band I had never heard of, and two minutes after watching it I was walking to my local record store to pick up the CD. I listened to it and loved it. Still do, in fact, I listened to it probably twice a month for 30 years, as well as the second album they released three years later. There was an address in the liner notes to write to, and I did, and the record label sent me back an autographed photo and a whole bunch of cool stuff, which I still have. I managed to get a poster of the band and I hung it on the wall of my dorm room. I used to tend to put musicians on a pedestal, but these guys were my heroes, they really were.

A few years ago, the singer sent me a friend request on Facebook after I had made some comments in the band’s group. I nearly peed my pants. I eventually ended up becoming friends with several members of the band, and have met all but two of the members.

Three of them became very good friends of mine. I’ve been in their homes, they’ve been in mine, we hang out together. Two of them and I are on a text chain, we’ve been chatting pretty much every day for a year or so. I’m pretty comfortable with these guys, but maybe once a week for about 10 minutes, I do get a weird feeling, kind of regressing in time and realizing who I am chatting with. When I went through some tough times in my personal life, they were there for me with advice and support. Always. I got to direct a video for their new band. I’ve had songs dedicated to me at shows. If I could go back and tell my 21-year old self about this, I’m sure I would be met with hysterical laughter.

I asked one of the original members for an autograph once while at his house, I had printed out an 8×10 of him and asked him to sign it. I put it in an envelope and headed out to my car to drive home. Outside, I took a look at it. It had my name on it, and said “to my brotha, and favorite video director”. And then it said “and true friend”, and his signature. I am not ashamed to say that I was holding back tears. I wasn’t very successful. It’s framed, and it’s one of the first things you see when you walk into my apartment, and I‘m proud of that.

I lost that poster I had in college, but I managed to find a replica, and now it’s signed. To me.

So, can music and musicians have an impact on people? You better believe it.

Why did you choose to launch as both a digital magazine and a record label rather than focusing on one side first?

knifetwister records: Oh, that’s simple. Nobody else seems to be doing it. The two really work well together. And we wanted to be as sleep-deprived as humanly possible.

How does the magazine side act as a “feeder system” for discovering and supporting artists for the label?

knifetwister records: Well, as a new endeavor, it accomplishes a few important things. It builds relationships with artists. It gets our name out there and establishes credibility. It just generally promotes good will. Most importantly, it fosters trust. When we are ready to actively scout and sign bands, which is down the road but not too far in the future, they can look at us and see how we operate. See what we’re all about, what our motivations are, and what we’re willing to do simply for the enjoyment and fulfillment of helping out the scene.

Can you share a standout band or artist profile from the magazine that really encapsulates your mission?

knifetwister records: The first 5 or 6 interviews we did were with bands or artists that we knew personally, and they were wonderful. Lot of fun to do. I then got a message from a band I had never heard of, we chatted a bit, they were cool, and I offered them a slot. They really expressed gratitude, which is a disappearing commodity these days as social media pushes people more and more into general solipsism. This band was called The Colourflies, out of Washington State. I sent out the interview questions, with the standard intro: you have complete creative control over this – be serious, be funny, be profane, answer in a made up foreign language. Present yourselves how you want to be presented – that’s what we’re all about.

What I got back were the absolute, hands-down, funniest interview answers I have ever read. I couldn’t wait to get this posted, and with a little promotion, this interview got a ton of views. And rightfully so. Being creative as an artist doesn’t always translate to personal creativity, but these guys had me rolling. As an artist, you want to make people think, and maybe you want them to smile as well. Mission accomplished.

“Handshake contracts” are almost unheard of in today’s industry—how do you foster the trust required for such an arrangement?

knifetwister records: We hold one of your children in escrow for the duration of the contract. No, we actually develop that mutual trust, the same way you would in a personal or familial relations. We’re not cigar-chomping hardasses sitting behind a desk yelling “write me a hit single”. Look, if we were Sony or Elektra and we were giving six figure advances, then yeah – obviously lawyers are involved, and it can be contentious, and you’ve got people looking over the shoulders of others and in the end the artist almost never feels very good about any of it. How many musicians that were on major labels do you ever hear talk about looking back on their time dealing their label with fondness? The label will usually recall the artists as pains in the ass, and vice versa. That’s not what we want.

What does your “test drive” model look like in practice for an up-and-coming band?

knifetwister records: That’s pretty simple. So music distribution these days is all do it yourself – you don’t need to be on a label to get your music onto the streaming platforms. You don’t need a label to press CD’s or vinyl. You don’t need a label to handle the merchandise you sell at shows. And for small artists like the ones we deal with, a label doesn’t book shows, We do reach out to our contacts at venues, but the members of the bands have lives, jobs, families – they know when they’re available, and 9 times out of 11 they’ve played the venue before and know the booking procedure.

So, what does it come down to – promo work and artistic guidance, both of which we are very familiar with. And the promo work is mutual – we’ll promote you, you promote us, everybody wins. You can wear our t-shirts, put “knifetwister records recording artists” before your name on flyers, we’ll add you to the roster of bands on our website, etc. And we believe that’s a great way to begin. There’s no need to jump into a marriage immediately. Let’s make sure we’re right for you and you’re right for us, we’ll circle back after a set period of time and see if we both want to continue working together. Everything’s copacetic, we’ll structure something a little more detailed.

How do you strike the balance between giving artists full freedom and still guiding them toward career growth?

knifetwister records: It’s a pretty simple concept relating to deferring to others when appropriate, and trusting their judgment. We are not musicians, couldn’t tell an E flat from a C minor in a million years. It would be kind of silly for us to step in and try to change the bass line in a song or tell anyone to speed up the tempo a little. By the same token, we would ask that they trust us in the best way to build a solid foundation for a band. Everything is up for discussion, nobody is laying down mandates, but we have a proven track record of knowing how to navigate things the right way, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to let the artist do what they do best and for us to do what we do best under a rubric of mutual trust.

What role do you see knifetwister records playing in preserving the history of NYC’s punk, ska, and metal scenes?

knifetwister records: Our role is to do what we can. If that means metaphorically standing at the ocean trying to push back the tide with a teaspoon, that’s fine. But although we want to support the industry as a whole, that’s not really where we see ourselves being of the most use. It’s that one band, or maybe a handful, that we can work with and provide guidance to. We’re looking on a micro level, because the industry won’t change for a small label; frankly, it won’t even change for a major label at this point. But making an individual difference, that’s something we can do, and we believe that’s where things should start anyway. Let me draw a parallel. Is our economic and social system broken? Very few people would argue that it’s not, regardless of your political persuasion. So how do you stop, as an example, the increase in the number of people having to live on the streets? Sure, you can put pressure on your local representatives, that’s fine, but your impact will be necessarily limited within a system where the ruling class directly benefits from income inequality. You can take an hour and go vote every two or four years, but the odds of your single vote ever swinging an election are infinitesimal; voting is really to soothe your own conscience and be able to say that it’s not your fault if the other football team wins and starts doing things you don’t like. So how do you make a difference? One person or maybe a few at a time, hands-on. We have to help each other. This concept spans across many parts of life, but it is especially relevant to the arts.

How do you encourage mutual aid and civility in a scene often known for its raw, rebellious energy?

knifetwister records: I don’t think they are mutually exclusive. I was at a hardcore show earlier this year out in Jersey, and the crowd is moshing around pretty aggressively, and someone got seriously injured. Not sure whether it was as a direct result of that, it may have simply been an unrelated medical condition, but an ambulance arrived and people stopped what they were doing and helped out, made sure she was alright. That’s not an uncommon occurrence. I don’t know about other genres of music, you’re not going to see me at a Kanye West show or whatever, but underneath the aggressive images and personas of people in the scene usually are good hearts. Despite everything going on in the world today, and some of it is pretty terrible, I still believe in the essential goodness of humanity. To believe the opposite is not a road I think you want to go down as a person.

How do you help artists translate their live energy into a digital presence that still feels authentic?

knifetwister records: Personally, I’d much rather listen to a live performance than studio material. There is something a little more authentic, a little more human, about listening to something where vocals aren’t multitracked, where you’ll hear flubs here and there, and it isn’t polished in the studio. There’s also energy that you won’t get on a studio track. Now I recognize that I am in the small minority here, that’s fine. But, what would prevent a small act from putting out a live album on their Bandcamp or even on streaming services? What’s the downside? A little out of pocket for professional recording equipment at a show, and someone to produce it, which we’d do for free. It’s really just a matter of hard limiting the audio (we wouldn’t tweak anything else) and adding fade ins and outs to the tracks to make it flow a little more smoothly. Would really love to see it done more often.

You look for diversity beyond “one trick pony” acts—what are some surprising musical combinations you’d love to see more of?

knifetwister records: The possibilities are endless. There’s an NYC band that we’re good friends with. They’re a salsa-punk band. How could that possibly work? Well, it does. That’s probably the most interesting blending of styles we know of. But why should things be limited by some artificial construct? There are many bands that blend classical music with metal. Hop hop and hardcore. Punk and rockabilly. Blues and metal.

If someone is going to tell me something isn’t possible, and that goes specifically for this question as well as for our entire endeavor, I’m going to respond with my favorite word (and favorite letter, I suppose): “why?”

With your deep tech background, what’s the most overlooked digital tool that underground artists should be using right now?

knifetwister records: Generally speaking, I much prefer to see artists eschewing technology as much as possible. I miss the days of bands out there putting up flyers. But that’s me personally, I’ve been in tech long enough to see the ugly side of it, and most people haven’t. But I think most bands have a general sense of the tools involved, although there are things that can be done, while strictly speaking may not necessarily be considered tools, that can benefit. A general rule of the trade is have a professional website, or have none at all, but don’t have a dogshit website, if you’ll pardon the phrase. Get your lyrics up on every site you can. Create background canvases for streaming services. Get your shows out to local websites. Emphasize quality over quantity when posting on social media. Learn about online dropshipping your t-shirts and merch instead of having inventory in a box in your closet that may never sell, is an upfront investment, constantly being out of stock on certain sizes and/or colors and having to make a trip to the post office twice a week. Learn about how to optimize yourself for search engines – when you put yourself out there as an artist to venues or labels, the first thing they’re going to do is stick your band name into Google. They’ll look at the first two or three results. What do you want them to see?

What does success look like for knifetwister records in five years, knowing you aren’t measuring it in profit margins?

knifetwister records: We’re not really looking that far down the road at the moment, just because the industry is changing so fast right now. I mean, who knows, in five years there may be record labels created and run entirely by AI – there’s just no way to predict things. The current three labels that currently own 85% of the market share could (but likely will not) be broken up as monopolies. In the old days, it was the goal of every band to get signed to a major or even medium-sized label. Now, you don’t need a label to get your music out there. You can make your own CD’s online for about 2 dollars each plus shipping. You can make a video yourself without needing a hundred thousand dollars up front for a professional videography outfit. So, we feel that the model has really shifted from distribution to guidance. Will it continue to shift further? Probably.

knifetwister records was founded on the principle “Either love what you do, or don’t do it.” How does that ethos shape every decision you make?

knifetwister records: If I may offer another personal anecdote, I turned 50 during the start of the pandemic. It really set the stage for a lot of time to think, and some serious re-examination of things, and – this was sort of an epiphany – I realized that there were way too many things in my life that I did just because they were socially acceptable and everyone else did them. That’s not a good enough reason to do things. Take fireworks. I fucking hate fireworks, always have. And yet I went every year with my kids. That was it, have never gone again. Why did I wear a wristwatch? Had never really thought about that. Got rid of them. Socks – goodbye. Swimming – hated swimming, adios. And so forth.

So, it’s really a matter of self-examination and deciding what you really enjoy, and then giving those things a higher priority in your life or cutting out what you don’t enjoy. That’s what this project is predicated on. If we didn’t love doing it, we wouldn’t be doing it. There are many things in your life that you don’t really want to do but have to do them – dealing with your boss, going to weddings that you’re kind of obligated to go to, getting your oil changed, and so forth. Why voluntarily add to that list?

If you could be remembered for one specific contribution to the NYC music scene, what would it be?

knifetwister records: We did it the right way. We did it for others. And that we cared.