In our latest Label Spotlight, we chat to the team behind New York’s knifetwister Records (Raph Copeland, Maya Bishop and Dan Dellechiaie) about their ethos, origins and much more!
S] How are you today?
Maya Bishop, Senior Staff Writer/Media Outreach: Honestly I’m really good. I’ve been having a week of seeing friends and community building so my heart is full of those warm fuzzies.
Dan Dellechiaie, Staff Writer: I’ve actually had a great day. My Brooklyn music scene comrades Dracula and His Band the Draculas just put out a live album, Ghouls Night Out, that is just as fun as their spectacular concerts. I’m finally getting a chance to listen to it, four days late, while writing these responses. I’ve now listened to it four times and could easily listen to it again. This is surprisingly not the only British interview I did today. Sadie Kaye over at The Hooghly Review interviewed me a few hours ago.
Raph Copeland, Founder: Tired. Holy fuck. Thanks for asking.
S] What would you say, in your own words, are the core values of Knifetwister, aside from community over profit?
Raph: Luckily, I think Dan, Maya and I are really on the same page on this – strong humanist values, support for marginalized groups, and authenticity. No racism, no homophobia, and a firm commitment to trans rights, which we are pretty freakin’ outspoken about.
Maya: Probably if you stand for what’s right we stand for you.
Dan: Punk humility. We’ve got bad attitudes but big hearts. Or at least I do.
S] Raph has talked a lot about feminism and inclusivity in other interviews, and I wonder, how deep do those values go back, and how challenging have you found it keeping hold of ’em in the modern age?
Raph: They go back to when I was very young, I’m not going to give you a year, but let’s say early elementary school. I never saw a fundamental difference between the genders – frankly, it seems pretty illogical. Sure, men and women have differences, but they’re a lot alike sometimes. Like when they’re both on fire, then they’re exactly the same. But I’ll give you a pool example, because that’s pretty much all I talk about. I’ve had my ass kicked by women in tournaments. If I hear the phrase “she plays pool like a girl”, I usually agree. And I have the ego bruises to prove it.
Dan: Well, I was raised by a single mom, so feminism comes naturally. I don’t find it hard to keep hold of my radical beliefs because being a dreamer keeps you young and sharp. Hate is mind cancer.
Maya – Credit: Gerson Vargas
S] What have been the biggest challenges building a platform like Knifetwister?
Maya: Scheduling. Always scheduling. The more people involved in a project the more lives you gotta work around.
Raph: Burnout for sure. When we started this, I said to myself “self, don’t let this become ANOTHER project that consumes you. Half an hour a day, max”. A month later, I’m up at 5 AM drinking double shot iced coffee and writing interview questions. Zero self-control, it’s kind of sad.
Dan: Challenges? Bands are really bad at responding to emails, meeting deadlines, spelling their band name correctly in interviews, etc. We are also very busy people outside of knifetwister, with jobs and passions and shit.
S] What do you look for in a band, or musician/artist that you interview now, and has that changed over the history of the label?
Maya: Do you make me want to move? Do your lyrics hit on something I believe in or do they make me feel good? Do you show up when you’re not the center of attention? DO YOU HAVE A BASSIST?!
Dan: Good fucking music. Well, I mean good FUCKING music. Gah, that looks even worse. Just to be clear, none of the bands I’ve interviewed are on my sex playlist, okay? That playlist is exclusively polka. I look for a band that has music that makes me want to listen to it again. I like when bands experiment with genre. Good lyrics are nice too. One thing that’s totally lost on bands is their visual aesthetic. I don’t mean the thirst traps some bands post to get followers. (Keep those coming.) I mean when they’re on stage, they should be wearing outfits that enhance the experience. Too many bands dress like they’re skaters smoking cigarettes outside Starbucks.
Raph: Oh, it’s changed for sure, and multiple times. At first, we wanted to interview small bands that wouldn’t get press otherwise – you know, giving them a shot. Then I went through a phase where I wanted to interview the biggest bands and people I could. Ultimately didn’t quite feel right. Now, I think we’ve found a sweet spot, generally small bands that reflect our values and are willing to speak to things that we believe in.
S] What is a typical day like for Raph, managing Knifetwister, alongside doing his other tech work, and life responsibilities?
Raph: I’m going to sidestep that question for the moment and rant about social media for a bit, since I gotta spend half the day checking for messages on Instagram. I really hate it. As an example – this is going to be an unpopular opinion (and is only reflective of me personally, not the label or other staff – let me stress that, bold and underlined), but I see so many annoyingly sanctimonious posts about AI from bands. Some band discovered that a band they were about to play with created a show flyer with AI, and they’re regretfully cancelling the show, and standing on their collective values, and this ragebait post gets 2,000 shares or whatever. They’re not wrong: I don’t like AI, we don’t deal with bands that use AI artwork, but I personally don’t give a FUCK about AI artwork. I really don’t. Autonomous agentic AI systems literally have the capacity to end all of human civilization. There are documented cases of supposedly sandboxed systems getting out into the loose and breaking into external networks in order to perform their malicious (and often hallucinatory) tasks. We don’t know what they’re capable of or will be, but that’s the point – we have no idea, nobody cares, and nobody is fucking doing anything about it. So to me, complaining about AI artwork is like being in a car speeding toward the edge of a cliff with no brakes and people are arguing over who left the Burger King wrappers on the back seat.
Dan: I always imagine Raph to be meditating with a pool cue in his hands.
Raph: That too.
Raph
S] Raph, you work in tech, play pool and are recognised as a hero – are there any skills that you’d like to share you are not known for?
Raph: Whoa, easy on the hero stuff, I put my pants on just like the rest of you – one leg at a time. Except once my pants are on, I make gold records. Hmm, no SNL fans here, the cowbell sketch? Okay, ignore that. I guess my skills are mostly cognitive – I was taken to be tested when I was young, I remembered and repeated a sequential string of 48 numbers and didn’t understand why that was unusual. My brain seems to work a little differently, which is very much a mixed bag. Hopefully this doesn’t sound spectacularly arrogant, I hate self-aggrandizement, but I do understand many philosophical, geopolitical or predictive concepts on a level that a lot of people don’t. But then I’ll go to the post office, impulsively ask the woman behind the counter out on a date and have to go to a different post office for the next 3 years out of embarrassment. If I made a list of all the stupid decisions I’ve made, and tried to e-mail it, it would bounce back as “attachment too large”. So I guess that’s a pretty important skill – poor decisions arising from a fundamental lack of common sense and understanding of appropriate human behavior.
Dan: Raph once performed open heart surgery with a Swiss Army knife while blindfolded. I lent him the knife. True story.
Raph: It’s true. The guy flatlined immediately. Our attorney is handling the matter.
S] You have a fascinating mix of people on staff – how does someone interested in whatyou do get involved?
Maya: I saw the post looking for a new member working at my venue job. Actually, Raph tried to talk me out of it because he thought I’d be underpaid. Hilarious because my history of covering bands has largely been free.
Dan: Well, as the newest employee, I got involved because my superbly talented guitarist friend (Toby Youngman of Cellophane Kiss) saw the Help Wanted posting on Instagram. Anti-fascist, punk, and I get to interview bands, sign me up!
What you need to be good at knifetwister-ing: writing good questions. I’ve noticed a lot of other music mags who use the same questions for every band. It’s like a shitty Proust questionnaire. I listen to a band’s discography a few times before I start writing the questions. I’m an artist myself so I think about the shit I’d like to be asked about.
Raph: There’s kind of a hidden secret to our label, but please don’t print this. If you bother me enough, I’ll usually agree to anything. So, relentlessly pestering me personally would be the ideal way to get interviewed, write for us, or whatever. Took my dog about 3 hours to figure that out.
S] What have been two or three major highlights of knifetwister history?
Raph: Seeing us on PunkNews last December after our first benefit compilation dropped, that was amazing. Our first and hundred-and-first interview was with Aaron “White Owl” Collins of Butterbrain – he was in the early 90’s band White Trash, and I had a poster of them on my wall in college. I’m sure he’s sick of hearing that story. I’ll reserve the third for what’s to come.
Maya: Personally, I was shocked by support for both the knifetwister anniversary bash and the outpouring of people applying to the comp. Days like that kinda shock you with the reveal that way more people care than you notice sometimes.
Dan: I don’t know if I ever told Raph and Maya this, but I raised $600 for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund at a concert while wearing our signature knifetwister records new york shirt. I loved our birthday bash concert and talking with all our fans and the bands. It was a nice community moment that our atomized world lacks.
S] What UK bands do you admire at the moment (in 2026), and why?
Raph: I saw the band Chasing the Fall here on their first US performance across the river in Nyack, and they totally blew me away – music, energy, stage presence. Expect big things from them. We also interviewed one of my favorite bands River City Rebels, they’re .. oh, wait, they’re from New England. Does that count? Never mind.
Dan: I’m a massive BIG SPECIAL fan. I smoked a joint with Joe Hicklin when they performed in Manhattan last year. I’m going to see them again this week. Yard Act, also great. Fontaines D.C., of course. Alright, I’m just gonna list them from here on: DEADLETTER, Heartworms, Shame, Do Nothing, Goat Girl, Manic Street Preachers, KNEECAP, NewDad, and Opus Kink.
Maya: UK bands? Hmmm… Wargasm, Bob Vylan, Native James, and Alien Chicks.
S] Is there anything about British culture that you love, or hate and why?
Maya: Love? I tend to meet cool UK bands when they cross to our area. Hate? The fact that a lot of people from the UK talk about America like they’re not the tree the apple fell from. With Brexit, their housing crisis, their youth can’t afford to exist, and the fact that JK Rowling’s moldy ass (can I say ass?) keeps putting money into trans extermination I find myself wondering what’s so United about the United Kingdom.
Raph: Hate first – I’m trying not to hate anything these days, it’s kind of hard but I’m working on it. Love: I LOVED Benny Hill when I was a kid. The beer there is amazing; I spent some time in England after college and barely remember it. I think people in the UK are more intelligent and interesting (on average, obviously you have idiots too). Mid 80’s British neo-prog like Marillion and IQ. Allison Fisher (who we interviewed). Anthony Burgess (who we probably won’t due to him being deceased). Snooker. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Smarties!
Dan: I’m part-Irish so you can imagine I have some…opinions. I’m also an American so I don’t have much of a moral high ground re: imperialism. Regardless, 26 + 6 = 1. Some of my favorite writers are British: P.G. Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Jonathan Sims, Alison Rumfitt, China Miéville, Jon Greenaway. I also enjoy HP Sauce and Colman’s Mustard.
S] You have a Trans Riot compilation coming in November – tell me about pulling that together?
Raph: Putting together a compilation is easy to do if you’re willing to cut corners and be sloppy. Doing it right is incredibly time consuming and more than a little stressful, with a huge amount of coordination and organization. Having done it twice before is important, because this one has become pretty high-profile and I’d be a little freaked if this was our first one. Actually kind of am anyway, klonopin supplies are running a bit low.
Maya: Raph takes point on that but Dan and I reviewed entries as well, make suggestions on the track order, and I make some of the promo vids. Light work y’know?
Dan: Raph is the mastermind behind the compilation CD, but Maya and I screened some of the bands. We wanted more aggressive, political tracks for this record so I had to reject some of the great folky and pop submissions we got.
S] What motivates you the most, day-to-day? Think movies, people or places?
Maya: The edgy teen in me would love to say spite, but realistically I keep moving because any time I think about stopping there are friends in the scene giving me something to look forward to. I can’t miss these shows and these people no matter how bad it gets.
Raph: Yeah, you probably already know what I’m going to answer with, it rhymes with pool, so I’ll go in a different direction. Getting out and enjoying my city motivates me. I live in a small city called White Plains, half an hour out of New York City proper (yes, I’m in the suburbs, Maya and Dan are the real deal). It’s the perfect balance for me, I love it here – never leaving unless maybe if Trump somehow gets elected again, in which case I’d probably take a hard look at house prices in Ottawa or Trondheim.
Dan: Palestine Action’s bravery. I stand with Palestine Action. Can’t arrest me from across the pond, bobbies! My musician friends also motivate me. Writers like me have an uphill battle fighting for the attention of screen-addled minds, but musicians have so much more competition within their own scenes. I’ve watched my friends go all out on stage despite only three people being in the crowd. THAT is inspiring.
Dan
S] What is your message to Knifetwister’s supporters now, and in the future?
Dan: Go to a concert every week. Your quality of life will improve. And you’ll get so many dope t-shirts.
Maya: Keep making noise, if no one hears you know that I do, and I love you.
Raph: Thanks for your support. Sincerely.
S] Anything else you’d like to plug or promote before we finish up?
Raph: Absolutely! We have a new NFT and crypto platform coming out, it’s called knifetoken. See, crypto is built on a very solid financial foundation, it’s totally not a flimsy house of cards that can and will collapse if you look at it cross-eyed. So rest assured it will not lose 95% of its value four hours after you buy it like most other NFTs. Seriously, get on board early with this, you can’t lose.
Maya: The compilation obviously, whenever bands want they’re more than welcome to hit us up for interviews. I also cover releases sometimes but currently my more aggro publication is on break lol.
Dan: The goth post-punk band I manage, Cellophane Kiss, who are very heavily influenced by britpop and contemporary UK rock, are releasing their debut album, The Litter Trail, on October 23, 2026. Some other New York bands you Brits should check out: Dracula and His Band The Draculas, LOST DOG, The Dutch Kills, Jackson Cavalier, Mandy’s Dreaming, O’Laochra, Fallow Days, Seraphine’s Cleaver, OBOY!, Pleasure Death, Believe In Ghost!, Hit, George & The Lords, Hear Hear, Crowd the Airwaves, Sui Moto, BEAT COP, Planet Mercury. For the electronic music crowd, there’s also my buddy Express Fantasy.
I should also plug my fiction writing and non-music writing here: https://dadell.com/published-work/
Raph: I guess we’re going to end the interview by plugging Dan’s personal website. Ahem.
S] Thanks for the time!
Raph: Not at all, thank you! Maya and Dan already left.
For more on the label visit: https://www.knifetwisterrecords.com/