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Southampton-based River Knight are Mark ‘Stone’ River and Darren Knight – 2 blokes, 1 guitar 2 voices, 6 strings & a digital orchestra. Discover River Knight, below…
What are the origins of River Knight, and how long have you been playing together?
Mark: How far do you want to go back? It all started in the late nineties I think. I was in a band called Templeball, Darren was in a band called Happy As Larry and we rehearsed in the same building. One evening during a quiet period I heard Happy As Larry playing, and as Templeball weren’t doing anything I walked in on HAL and announced that it sounded like they needed a singer hahaha.
Darren: We were thinking who is this fucking dick? But we got talking and passed him some lyrics and he was a member of Happy As Larry from that moment on. Then, after a short while, Templeball rebranded themselves as This Black Static and Mark asked me to join on rhythm guitar. So now we’re in two bands together. Those bands lasted a while but in the end, we went our separate ways with me joining No Hot Ashes and Mark joining 60th Parallel.
Mark: The funny thing is that there were a couple of members of This Black Static that ended up in No Hot Ashes.
Darren: No Hot Ashes then came to an end while 60th Parallel continued and I took a break from music. Then tragedy struck and my wife passed away from cancer and as a kind of therapy, I started writing songs again. Mark was supporting me during this time and that is how River Knight came about. Heaven’s Door was the first song we recorded and released.
What should people expect when they check the band out? How would you describe River Knight?
Mark: I think they should expect to be entertained. We’re an acoustic duo made up of long-term friends and that is apparent at every show.
Darren: You might laugh. You might cry. You might even sing along. We always have fun on stage and hopefully, that translates well and you will have fun as well.
How did you feel performing your first gig as a band, and how was it?
Darren: It was a bit daunting for me. I’d only been in 4 or 5 piece bands before River Knight so it was quite a leap from grooving at the side of the stage to becoming one of the focal points.
Mark: Luckily I’d done acoustic shows before. Myself and the lead guitarist from Templeball/This Black Static formed an acoustic act for the downtimes in those bands, like when we were trying to find a new drummer or our bass player was away at university. We recorded 8 tracks as that acoustic duo which I still listen to this day.
Darren: Yeah, so Mark’s experience helped settle the nerves before our first show, and a couple of beers helped. The gig went well, better than I expected.
The new music scene is bursting at the seams at the minute with fresh talent, in what ways do you feel that a band has to stand out to build a name for themselves?
Mark: I think it would help if you have a family member already successful, or already working in the industry hahaha.
Darren: So true. But any band just needs to be themselves and not worry about what else is going on. Embrace social media and be consistent.
What are you working on at the minute that people can check out?
Mark: We’re gearing up to record our second album, but unfortunately no one can check that out anywhere. All I can advise is that you join our mailing list, or follow us on any of the socials and come to a show.
Darren: Really looking forward to putting the new songs down. But on top of that, we have a couple of shows booked in April for the start of the festival season, and we should have a London show coming up soon. Can’t give any more details as the promoter gave us the wrong date and now isn’t answering emails about the correct date. But if you follow us you’ll be able to get the final details as soon as we have them.
In terms of a similar audience, which band out there at the minute do you feel you would be best suited to open for?
Mark: I always struggle with questions like this. Is there anyone out there at the moment that’s doing what we’re doing?
Darren: Yeah, it’s like we have small elements of people like George Ezra or Ed Sheeran, but lyrically we’re nothing like them. I mean, we don’t listen to those people and we have further elements of britpop and rock when it comes to rhythms and melodies.
Mark: In reviews, we’ve had comparisons to Oasis, The Verve, Bob Dylan, The Pixies, and A-ha.
Excluding yourself, which new band would you like to see break out and become a success?
Darren: Well, we have to say South Coast Ghosts because the daughter of our good friend and GROW/UNSPRUNG producer is in that band. And there’s that nepotism Mark spoke about earlier hahaha.
Mark: And I’ll say a young, south of England rapper named Lagon, although I think he may have changed his name recently.
What are your own first musical memories? And what was the lightbulb moment that made you go “I want to do that”?
Mark: My first musical memories involve singing along to Adam and the Ants albums in my bedroom when I was 7 or 8. And my lightbulb moment was discovering Iron Maiden when I was 12 or 13.
Darren: My first musical memories and lightbulb moment are the same thing. Listening to my dad’s Beatles albums, picking up his unused guitar and teaching myself how to play.
What was the last gig that you attended as a fan?
Mark: Shit, who was it? I think the last gig I went to as a fan might have been a Deep Purple tribute act, but I wasn’t that impressed and saw them as more a Deep Purple covers band than a tribute act, do you know what I mean? Saying that though, it may have been South Coast Ghosts in Portsmouth.
Darren: I’ve just recently seen Ricky Gervais. Does that count? hahahaha
What current social issues are you particularly passionate about?
Mark: I have an unhealthy obsession with the current economical model the world goes by – fractional reserve banking. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.
Darren: Yeah, the distribution of wealth, or rather the hoarding of wealth by the select few and the lack of it for the rest of us. It’s a broken system that relies too much on debt based on practices hundreds of years old.
The album that you have in your album collection/Spotify playlist that would surprise most people?
Mark: Well, it won’t surprise anyone that knows me, but Hot Chocolate’s Greatest Hits, the red album with Errol on the cover. Think it came out in the late eighties. Absolutely love the guy’s lyrics.
Darren: Wham! Fantastic. I’ll leave it at that.
There were some amazing new albums released last year, what would be your album of 2022?
Darren: It’s becoming a bit of a cliche, but the Wet Leg album is pretty good.
Mark: I’ve been enjoying Arctic Monkeys’ “The Car”, and I’d like to throw out a little mention of “Harry’s House”.
What does 2023 hold for River Knight?
Mark: Much of the same as usual I’d guess. Rehearsing, writing, gigging, recording. There are a few festivals booked up, with some intimate gigs in between.
Darren: That’s exactly what we’ll be doing, although it’d be nice to play a slot somewhere not in the UK. If anyone’s putting on a festival lineup that we can get to, we’d love to play.
How active are you on social media and where can people connect with you?
Darren: Hahahaha. I’m not that active on social media at all but Mark does a good job of keeping it going.
Mark: Hahaha. Cheers bro. Yeah, we post 2-4 times a week, short lyric videos or our attempt at some sort of humour. We are @riverknight2018 on all socials or you can use #rkgrow to find us as well.
Darren: Thanks for having us, it’s been fun.
Mark: Was great chatting with you.
