Knife in the Water began in the summer of 1997 in Austin. Their dark, quiet rock was welcomed alongside Austin’s louder punk bands, despite the fact that their cinematic sensibilities, desolate sense of space, and woozy tension set them apart.

They established themselves alongside Austin acts Glorium and American Analog Set, toured with Calexico, shared bills with ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and released three records and an EP: Plays One Sound and Others (1998), Red River (1999), Crosspross Bells (2001), and Cut the Cord (2003). 

We released their fourth album Reproduction on March 3, 2017, which was preceded earlier that year by a remastered edition of their first album, Plays One Sound and Others, released on vinyl for the first time.

There's no dramatic story about the long hiatus. People break up, band members quit or move away, record labels fold, but songwriter Aaron Blount kept writing. In 2015 they began recording at Jim Eno (of Spoon)'s studio Public Hi-Fi. "It slowly dawned on us that if we were gonna keep doing records on our own eccentric schedule, we needed to build our own studio. The first song "Call It A Shame" is the first song we did at our new place."

Their music is at times woefully bleak and resigned, while shot through with moments of graceful, uplifting release. Pitchfork compared their debut to the Coen Brothers’ film Blood Simple and Rolling Stone writer David Fricke wrote, "This record gets you nowhere fast, which is hardly a problem. You'll be in no hurry to leave."

This is music best heard on long drives or late nights listening alone. Whether it’s the rarity of their live shows, (two in 2016) or the 14-year gap in recorded output, this is a band that rewards patience with songs that hold up over time. Now entering their second decade of making and releasing dark, sparse music that pulses with grace and beauty, the wait has proven to be worth it.