What is a knife? A blade plus a handle? An instrument, a tool, a weapon that can pierce skin or catch light? Well, no, actually, that’s not a knife. This is——

A person who feels deeply. Someone who always wants more. Who cares and who seeks and who questions and wants, wants with their whole body, heart, and soul. It’s not someone who is okay with the surface. A knife wants to cut through reality to see what’s behind it all.

That’s what The Holy Knives—brothers Kody and Kyle Valentine, born and raised in New Orleans, now living in Los Angeles, with some time in Texas in between—are. Their music is a portal to their world. It’s a place that from the moment you press play, you actually go to. It’s a place that didn’t exist before and won’t exist after, somewhere you can feel what you truly feel, the powerful depth of the world, the weight of the sky, the unbearable beauty of the silence of being you.

Their newest effort, the 4-song EP I Don’t Wanna Win, was produced by Jamie Hince of The Kills. Under Jamie’s guidance as the visionary production powerhouse of his own two-piece outfit, the brother duo worked to string together the sounds of each piece of their journey, weaving in a bit of the dark swagger of New Orleans, with a few nods to desert psychedelia and the chopped and screwed of Texas, to create their most definitive work to date: music that is rock and roll at its core with a modern touch, bolstered by the expansive inspirations of the band such as western film scores, both hip hop and 90’s trip hop, and the idea of Vegas crooners.

To get here, the band has cut their proverbial teeth, honing their craft through endless hours in their pandemic-era studio 'The Sparring Program', teaching themselves synthesis and laptop production from the ground up, as well as playing over 125 shows across North America in the 18-month span before the world shut down, including a Paste live session and 6 festival appearances.

The official tracking for I Don’t Wanna Win was done at Sonic Ranch, a multi-studio complex on a pecan farm in West Texas, where Kody and Kyle had worked before. When they suggested it to Hince, he jumped at the thought. And the isolated location meant the three guys would be fully immersed in the work.

That’s how they got here, to all this right now. The Holy Knives is music made for ordinary people who feel in extraordinary ways. It’s not music for the background. It’s music made to change you. To empower you, to see who you really are. So with that, we say: Welcome. We welcome you. Welcome to who you’ve always been. Welcome to The Holy Knives.