About

Bloody Knives is an industrial shoegaze band from Austin, Texas, started in 2009 by Preston Maddox and Jake McCown. The name for the sound came from Jake Reid of Screen Vinyl Image, and it fits: heavy punk and industrial rhythms buried under blurry ambient electronics, noise and shoegaze haze, with post-punk, drum and bass and 8-bit glitches drifting through.

Jim Moon was the band’s sound manipulator in its early years, adding the effects on Disappear (2011) and Blood (2012) before stepping away. He came back for Drowning In Light, and today Bloody Knives is a trio: Preston on vocals, guitars, bass and keys, Jake on drums, synths, programming and artwork, and Jim on synths, noise and programming. Along the way the band has included Ish Archbold, Kim Calderon, Christo Buffam, Jack O’Hara Harris, Ritchard Napierkowski and Martin McCreadie.

The early records came out on their own and through Preston’s Killredrocket Records. Saint Marie Records released Blood, the DEATH EP, I Will Cut Your Heart Out For This and “The Descent”, a hand-made lathe-cut 7″ filled with red liquid. White Light Black Moon (2018) brought in Jack O’Hara Harris’s guitars and a heavier drum and bass pulse. 70 Years of Static (2020) was played straight through with no overdubs and came with remixes from Dean Garcia, Secret Wilderness, Me You Us Them and We Are Parasols. Drowning In Light followed in 2024 on Green Witch Recordings, with a limited vinyl edition from Wax Mage, and the single “Kill Me Again” arrived in October 2026.

They have toured the US many times and the UK twice, played Cold Waves in Chicago in 2016 and 2023, SXSW, and the New Colossus Festival in New York, and shared bills with The Faint, A Place To Bury Strangers, Cubanate, Ringo Deathstarr and Dead Leaf Echo.