Yves Jarvis — the moniker of Canadian musician Jean-Sébastien Yves Jarvis — releases the new single/video, “The Knife In Me” via In Real Life. It’s the first new single from a forthcoming release out in early 2025 and follows the “wide-eyed optimism and withering wit” (Pitchfork) of 2022 album The Zug. “The Knife In Me” is a golden and textured track that feels at once like a handknit piece of fabric and a sheet of precious metal. On the track, Yves says, “The sardonic masochist confronts the trauma of betrayal. RIYL: Claymation sequence of walking on the entire earth, Apollo 13 mission, staring out the window wistfully. Anderson .Paak, Stevie Wonder, Electric Light Orchestra.”
The video for “The Knife In Me,” directed by Derek Branscombe, depicts Yves in the kitchen of a Sushi restaurant, preparing dishes until he is stabbed by a fellow chef. From here, the kitchen catches fire, and Jarvis is ultimately shown slipping in and out of reality, creating a part-real, part-celestial scene.
Watch/Stream “The Knife In Me”
Unlike his previous analog tape-heavy recordings, “The Knife In Me” was recorded by plugging gear into a half-broken laptop. Whereas once Yves had favored the idea of “using magnetic dust as a medium,” now, he appreciates the value of working without any such preciousness. Recorded on bare-bones Audacity, sansplugins, Yves says “The Knife In Me” has “no pretense, no self-indulgence, [it is] music for the sake of music,” channeling the spirit of Paul McCartney’s II. “Lyrics that matter. Vocals up front, where people will actually hear them. “If something’s true to you,” he explains, “it’s probably true to a million other people.”
