[INTERVIEW] ALLKNIGHT Talks Songwriting, Rick Astley, Touring, And More

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We sat down with arguably the fastest-rising star of Dance music for a chat.

*Cover image credit: Al Roberts

We’re always looking to learn more about all corners of the Dance world, from Mainstage EDM to Electronica, and from the swiftest engineers to the most majestic vocalists. Today’s interview certainly follows the latter. We’re excited to welcome Jodie Knight, known in the Dance industry as ALLKNIGHT, for a deep conversation into her career, projects, milestones, and how she’s got to soundtrack some of the greatest productions out there.

Although Jodie has been a singer and songwriter since her early teenage years, she was much more of a Pop-leaning artist then. Her big break in the Dance scene came in 2023, when she worked with Anjunadeep star Marsh writing and performing two of the tracks in his Endless album: ‘Fragments‘ and ‘Sleep‘. Prior to that, though, she’d already released on labels such as Rose Avenue, Elliptical Sun, and Mixmash Deep.

Since Endless, she’s featured on a staggering number of productions, including collaborations with Marsh such as the recent ‘Rabbit Hole‘ and ‘Everything‘ — my most played song in 2023 according to Spotify —, and works with artists from the likes of Enamour, Deeparture, Le Youth, and many, many more. In fact, she’s got over 80 tracks on Beatport (!).

So, we figured we’d ring Jodie and have her over, so that we could touch upon her skyrocketing career, and also understand how the mind of a lyricist of her calibre truly sees things. Everything from the early days, to her ongoing Aria tour through the UK and America, to Rick Astley (believe it or not), and everything in between. So, without further to do, lay back and read on, as we have a chat with ALLKNIGHT herself.

The Interview

(Please note, the bolded text represents a question, while the paragraph(s) following it represent ALLKNIGHT’s answers.)

Well, first of all, thank you so much for coming. It is a pleasure and an honour.

Thanks for having me! This is great.

Now, how are you? How’s life treating you lately?

Good. I’m actually really, really good at the moment. I have just come back from the Aria tour feeling very inspired and motivated. 

Actually, a few months ago, I was definitely feeling very lost and didn’t really know what I was doing, because I have two different profiles, and one of them hasn’t really been getting any traction, and it’s very disheartening when you’re putting everything into it. So, yeah, I had a moment where I just felt quite deflated, but since then, I’ve just decided to focus all my efforts on ALLKNIGHT and just really give it my best shot. It started out as a bit of a side project, and now it’s my main project, but I’m learning to simply expect the unexpected, and just go with the flow, go with what’s working, and I’m actually really loving doing the Dance music thing full-time.

Well, let’s go a few steps back and acknowledge, how does your story begin? When, and possibly how, did you get into music?

I’ve always loved music. I mean, I think humans naturally love music. I started playing saxophone when I was eight years old because I saw a man on holiday playing, and I thought he looked really cool, and I wanted to be like him.

Later on, I went to a little group that was singing, dancing, acting as an after-school club, and I was never any good at the acting or the dancing, but I always loved the singing and I just did it in my bedroom. It wasn’t, like, a big thing. I wasn’t one of those kids that was singing around the house all the time.

My parents love music, but they are not musicians, so it wasn’t a very musical household. And one day I decided, when I was 12, I’d enter my school’s talent competition singing, which I have no idea where that thought came from. I think my parents were slightly terrified because they’d never really heard me sing before. And then I did it and loved it and was actually okay, and it just all went on from there, really. Then my brother taught me some guitar, and, yeah, the rest is history.

I can see. Well, that’s funny you mention it. I also took saxophone at seven, but I never continued it for some reason, and it’s kind of a lost project of mine. Do you still play sax?

[Points to the very first saxophone standing behind her] I actually got this one for free because I was renting it from a music shop in Glasgow, where I’m from, and the music shop went bust, and so they just never asked for it back. This was like, 15 years ago, so…

Well, they’re certainly not going to get it now. [laughs] We’re aware that you have done quite a few impressive things in your life, including which stands, performing for Rick Astley. Could you give us a bit of an insight into that story? How did it all happen?

Yeah, it was so random. Luckily, I got to go to his soundcheck, because he came to Glasgow, and through a friend of a friend, got a ticket, and then was in touch. We told them we’d love to come to soundcheck and see and meet him and, you know, see how soundchecks work in a large venue like that one, because I’d only seen soundchecks at pubs and stuff.

And then went to the soundcheck and watched him. It was great. Went into his dressing room, was chatting to him. And he had a guitar case in the corner, and I was like, “Oh, I’ve got the same guitar as you”. And his wife came in right at that moment (she was his manager), and said, “Why don’t you get it out and give it a play?”. So of course I had to do it. And I got the guitar, and I’d literally written a song the week before, so no one had heard this. I hadn’t posted it anywhere. And I figured I’d just play the song.

And as I was playing — so his dressing room was opposite to the band’s dressing room, who I’d kind of met very briefly — I was just singing, almost always staring at the floor. I was like, “Don’t mess this up”. I’ve got a picture of it as well. There’s literally a picture of me singing to him in the dressing room. And when I finished, I looked up, and his tour manager had poked his head right in the door, and the whole band had just quietly come to listen. And his tour manager looks at Rick, and they nodded to each other. And Rick goes, “Do you want to open the show with it?”.

Oh my.

And I was like, “What? You mean in like, three hours?”, and he said, “Yeah, do you want to open the show with that?”, so I was like, “Hell yes”. And that’s exactly what I did. I literally didn’t have any makeup or anything. I wasn’t dressed correctly. So I had to message my dad so he could bring me my makeup bag and clothes. And I used Rick’s guitar and opened for him in Glasgow.

This happened twice, by the way. I was going to university in Liverpool. And as a bit of context, Glasgow was the first night of Rick’s tour, and Liverpool was the last. And on the last night, it was literally again the day of, his tour manager called me, and he was like, “Do you want to come and do it again in Liverpool?”. So I did the same thing, went up and sang.

Although I made such a massive mistake that I will never ever make again in my life. I walked on stage, I had my in-ears in, and I strummed the guitar, and I hadn’t had my in-ears turned on. So I literally couldn’t hear anything. And now I just had to play, so I sang the whole thing without hearing myself. And I came off stage and Rick had come to the side of it with a hoodie on to try and hide himself from the crowd to watch. And he asked, “How was it?”, and I was like, “I forgot to turn my in-ears back on!”. Judging by his face, maybe I shouldn’t have told him that. But anyway, it actually went well and it was completely fine. But I learned a very big lesson.

So, this next question, you had always been kind of a non-Dance act up to, say, the Marsh era. But I may be mistaken. So where does your love for Dance music come from, how did you get into this side of music? And did you ever expect to be such a key voice in EDM as you are right now?

So, I did my first Dance music release in about 2018. I was releasing stuff for a while before I worked with Marsh. But it was mostly, you know, small-time producers who’d reached out online. I’ve always loved Dance music. I think, if anything, my siblings got me into it. I’ve got an older brother and sister. And my older brother particularly, I always loved his music taste, and he kind of got me into Dance music. And then when I went to uni in Liverpool, there’s such a big Dance music scene there. I was going to raves all the time. So fun. And I just really, really got into listening to it and loving it. And then when someone reached out and asked, “Do you want to do a Dance song?”, I was like “Yeah, absolutely”. And then it just escalated more: the more I released, the more people reached out and I said yes, although sometimes I go, “Why have I said yes to this?”. I can’t say no.

So it just kind of expanded and expanded. And then I started working with a publisher and then through working with that publisher, they linked me up with Marsh. So, yeah, it all came about as an accident. And as I said, I started ALLKNIGHT last year because the algorithm was just completely messed up with releasing all my music under one profile. And it’s been amazing and it’s totally unexpected because, you know, this was always the side project and now it’s the main project. But now I’m so happy that it’s turning out the way that it is. There’s lots of plans for 2025. You say “A key voice in EDM”, that’s a very, very big compliment. So thank you.

But I’ve got a reason behind that, because I’ve been working in the A&R department of EDMTunes for about a year. And I remember very, very vividly that last year, between October and February, I couldn’t go about a week without a track with your voice coming up. They didn’t credit you, but I recognised you.

That’s so funny! Oh God, it was a bad move for me, but I worked with one of those places where you sell your vocals and then you don’t own the rights. And personally, I would never do that again just because I can’t handle the fact that I don’t own the rights. But yeah, I had a lot of people messaging me being like, “Is this your vocals?” And I was like, “Yeah, it is. Sorry, you can’t escape me”. [laughs]

Now, let’s pause a bit to ask the important questions. When you sing ‘Happy Birthday’, do you sing it like all of us mere mortals or do you get your professional voice out? [laughs]

Oh my God, that is such a good question! Do you know what? I actually don’t like singing ‘Happy Birthday’ because I’m so in the middle of being like, “How do I sing this?”. Most of the time, I just sing it. I don’t whip out the good voice for it. But yeah, that’s a really funny question. It’s like with karaoke. I don’t enjoy doing it because karaoke is something fun where everyone does it and people are rubbish and it’s fun and it’s great. And then when it’s my turn, if I sing well, people will say I’m trying too hard. If I don’t sing well, people will say, “Well, isn’t this your job?”. It’s a situation you can’t win.

Back to music now. Well, ALLKNIGHT. You kind of introduced us to this a little bit, but we want to know everything about the birth of this alias. Why did you do it? Have you seen different results than when you had just the Jodie Knight alias for everything?

Yeah, I mean, the reason to make ALLKNIGHT was partially an algorithm thing. It was also a release schedule thing. I was trying to cram so much stuff, there weren’t enough days in the month to release the amount of music that I had. I feel like when I separated the two, it made it so much easier for me to be like, “Okay, cool, now I’m working on this, and now I’m going to work on that”. It helped me to compartmentalise. And also, it’s quite important to have a brand nowadays, so that’s another great reason to make the alias.

And about seeing results, for sure. I mean, the climb in the last year has been really positive. And it’s been great not having to box myself in and assume I’m only going to release this one style of music and all my songs are going to sound the same, because I don’t like that. In fact I find it impossible. I don’t understand how people can do that. But I think, unfortunately, because music and, you know, how everything nowadays is so algorithm-based, and AI-based and whatnot… 

It ended up working in my favour, though. It pushed my music to the right people, gave it a lot more space. It was definitely the right move. I still have people nowadays saying it wasn’t right for me, “It’s all still you”. That’s easy for them to say. But when I was releasing a Pop song one week and then I had a heavy Dance track the next week and neither of them were hitting right, that’s why.

Was your first release with ALLKNIGHT ‘Everything’ or was there something before?

It wasn’t ‘Everything’. I think it was a song called ‘Gold Dust’, really random song. But then, when I made ALLKNIGHT, I contacted all the labels I worked with to try and move all of my back catalogue over. So it looks like my earliest release was, you know, 2018 or something, because I wanted it all on one profile. But my first actual release on ALLKNIGHT was last year.

Well, you talked a bit about genres. Is there one in particular in the Dance music spectrum that you feel suits your voice best? Or is it kind of an adventure for you to feature in every single genre of EDM possible?

I think up until now, I’ve very much been quite flexible, if I like the song, then that’s all that matters. But now going forward and going into 2025 — that’s really scary to say —, I’m really trying to have more of a clear sound, because again, it’s still a little bit too varied.

I think it would be the kind of darker Melodic House I love listening to, and I love singing on top of, and I think with it you can have some beautiful melodies, and some interesting lyrics. And yeah, I think that’s my favourite type of music of my own to listen to. So it’s my favourite type to write to.

Well, touching on the topic of writing, how does a vocalist’s mind go about producing music? Because we’ve always talked to a bunch of producers and producers only, and whenever we talk about vocals, it’s just like, “Oh, I had this and that, and the kick was perfect, and then we sent the demo to the vocalist and they crushed it, and that’s the song done!”. There’s never any insight into how lyrics really are written.

Well, the process, right from the start, with every single person I’ve worked with but maybe one or two people — other vocalists —, melody always comes first. So you’ve got to sing gibberish until you find that perfect melody. And once I started working in rooms of other people, it took me a long time to get comfortable to just, you know, sit there and just sing when you’re actually not saying anything. It feels really weird, and it’s very strange.

It took me a long time to get comfortable doing that. But once you’ve got that melody, then it’s like, “Okay, cool, what words fit in?”. And in most cases, because you’re singing that gibberish, it’s really good to try and almost sing words in the gibberish, because then you can start to find what works, and then base it around that. And, you know, sometimes I’ll go into a session thinking, “I want to write about this today”, or “I have this line”. And, yeah, it just kind of builds around a story.

I love having a story to talk about. Even better when it’s happened to me or a friend, you know? A, it’s great because you can really get that detail, and B, it’s therapeutic to write a song about something that’s happened to you. It’s a release. And after that, just remains fitting the pieces together of melody, lyrics, what works, and checking if the melody still works with the lyrics. Sometimes you’ll put them together and then sonically it won’t sound right, or it’ll be really hard to say. It’ll be a bit like a tongue twister. So that’s sometimes annoying, getting around that, because it actually fits perfectly in syllables, but it’s impossible to sing. So, yeah, I’d say that’s generally the way that most vocalists work.

And are the lyrics 100% yours, or do you work partly with the producer you’re in with to kind of create a common story?

Totally depends. I’m definitely a lyricist first. So if it’s me working just with a producer, most of the time I’ll start the session and say, “Do you write lyrics? Do you write melodies? Do you want to?”, and most of the time they go, “I just make the tracks”. Cool, that’s fine. A leave-it-to-me situation. But sometimes they want to write lyrics, or interject, or write together with me. I actually love it when there’s someone else in the room that’s a writer, because when it’s just me, the pressure is completely on me. Whereas when you’ve got a few writers in the room — not too many, I think two or three is great — you just bounce ideas off each other, and then it really pushes you to think somewhere else. Or they’ll say something and you’ll be like, “Oh my God, I would’ve never thought of that”. So it just depends on who’s in the room, I guess.

Now, another important question. Are you a dog person or a cat person?

Dogs, immediately. I’m actually a crazy dog person. Like, my family call me a crazy dog lady. That’s my side hustle. I also walk dogs and look after dogs.

Oh, really? I didn’t know that.

Yeah, I love having a dog in the house. So whenever I can, I’m like, “I’ll look after your dog”.

I saw you posted some in your story a couple of days ago. Are they yours?

So it’s my parents’ new puppy and her sister we were looking after for the weekend. So what happened was, I went home after touring, which was amazing, but I was exhausted. Went back home to Glasgow to my family home and there was a new puppy. I couldn’t have timed it better, because there was two, we were looking her sister. And I literally spent the whole weekend on the floor with the dogs. That was a good time.

That was a good thing to charge up batteries I reckon! Well, since we are on that topic, let’s talk a bit about touring. Was this your first longish tour?

Yeah, this, I mean, this was my first tour, full stop. I’ve done gigs, done a lot of gigs in and around the UK and some abroad. But, you know, an actual tour, this was the first one I’ve done.

And how did that kind of impact you or hit you? Because you said at the beginning of the interview that you were a bit exhausted, kind of a bit lost before the tour. And, well, I guess the whole thing of getting the visas and everything was a bit exhausting too. But then how it kind of changed your mind, the before and after, or preparing for going on tour, or being on tour itself, like sleeping at different times or whatever.

Yeah, it was a proper juggle of beforehand getting the visa. I only got my visa 10 days before we went away. It was so tight. So that was definitely quite a stress because Leo Wood, the other vocalist of the Aria tour, got hers a couple of weeks before mine. And we were all just waiting for mine. That was horrible, but it was fine because I got it. And, yeah, preparing, packing for it was… I’m a very organised person. That doesn’t stress me out. But I am the type of person who gets unwell when they travel. So I spent a good chunk of my time on what I could do and get to make sure I wouldn’t feel bad, so I bought vitamins. I bought a big neck pillow, everything that was going to help me sleep better, and I got all these vitamin C tablets, too.

Travelling across time zones was intense, getting up in the morning, going to soundcheck, doing the show, getting back at 3 am, waking up at 7, boarding a flight, having a show the next night. That was intense. That was nothing like I’d ever done before. I’m also not a morning person at all. Like, I need my sleep. I think the adrenaline and the excitement of it all really pulled me through because, yeah, I’m really normally not a morning person, but I did manage to pull through. But to be honest, it was such an amazing experience. And I feel so thankful to Tom for, you know, facilitating it because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have happened without him.

And I definitely was trying the whole time to just be so present and be like, “Oh my God, I can’t really believe this is happening, it doesn’t feel real”. And it was so nice because I’ve always been a solo artist, you know, whether that’s been with Jodie Knight doing the guitar stuff or now doing this as ALLKNIGHT. It was so fun being on stage and turning around and just seeing Tom, and we’d both have massive smiles on our faces, sharing that moment. And then when Leo and I came on for the encore all together, I can’t even describe the feeling. It was, it’s just an absolute dream come true. And I want more. I want a lot more.

Well, there’s one more. So, yeah, that’s good news for you.

Yeah, there’s one more. It’s Red Rocks in a few weeks, which again, what?

It’s not a small venue.

Oh my God, I know! And, yeah, it’s going to be amazing. And the final show of the tour so far, which was Montreal, I think really made me a little bit more aware of what’s going to go on. Because most of the shows along the tour were in clubs, or in old theatres. But the Montreal one was a festival, and it was the biggest crowd. And I did have a bit of a moment before I went on thinking, “This is next level”. Had to take a step back and take myself off to the side and just, breathe. That was big. And then I also was thinking, Red Rocks is going to be four times the size of that. So, I can’t even describe the feeling. Leo would go on stage first. Obviously, Tom and Leo were on stage doing their thing, and I was back there, no one else back here knows what this feeling is that the three of us have got. Excitement, you know, terror, adrenaline, anticipation.

So, I’m super excited for Red Rocks. I’m definitely a little bit apprehensive of just, when you get there and you see that amount of people and be like, “I’ve got to walk out there and perform”.

And the good thing — or bad thing, however you want to see it —, is that the people are sitting, like, upwards. It’s not a line. It’s not like the rest of the stages.

Yeah, so you can see everyone! But, no, it’s going to be amazing. It’s just one of those crazy, crazy venues. I’ll be able to say I performed at Red Rocks. So, yeah, it’ll be good fun. I’m very excited.

Moving on, would you say you have found your “signature sound” yet?

Oh, that’s a good question. I think I’m starting to find it now. This is probably a good time to talk about this: I am actually doing an EP next year, totally myself. It’s going to be just me. I’m producing it, I’m writing it, I’m writing the tracks, doing the vocals and everything. And this is what I’m really, really excited for, because up until now, I’ve always been a featured vocalist on someone else’s track, which I love doing, and I love being part of. But it does… You know, every vocalist feels like this. You never quite feel like it’s yours. It’s always, “The producers did such a great job on this track!”, when it is very much 50-50, but it’s unfortunately never seen like that. And I also love producing music. I love writing the tracks. I studied music production at uni, so I’m very interested in actually making the songs.

And so, yeah, these last few months, which is another reason why I’m feeling so motivated, is that I’ve been writing a lot of songs to hopefully release next year. And the sound of those is definitely genre-wise, I hate saying genre, because I’m just like, “What does that mean?”. But probably a mix between Melodic House and Electronica, I’d say. It’s kind of Melodic House with a bit more vocals on it and a little bit more commercial, maybe. Who I do like to compare it to, who I’d say is a very big influence, is CRi. So love, love, love his music.

And I think I definitely find myself being influenced a lot by CRi and that sound. And everyone I work with, you know, all the songs with Marsh… I was very lucky. He has been helping me with learning, I’m trying to learn how to DJ so that I can do this myself, do the vocals and DJing myself. That’s also part of the plan. So, yeah, I think I take influence from lots of people that I’ve worked with.

That sounds amazing! Now, I can definitely see a bit of a CRi influence, more so in the older songs you did with Marsh, you know, kind of the Endless album, as opposed to the newer stuff that’s a bit more banging.

Yeah, the newer ones are a bit darker and bigger. But yeah, the stuff I’ve got coming next year is, I’d say more so like CRi than ‘Fragments’ or ‘Sleep’. It’s just bouncy and, you know, melodically satisfying. To my ears, the chords are, satisfying. When you hear chords, you go, “Oh, that’s moody”. So, yeah, all to come.

Well, now you’ve sparked the interest in me. So let us know just when you have tracks out! Now, where do you see yourself in five years’ time? Any dreams that you have for that?

I really struggle to see a future me because of this career being so uncertain. And I think saying where you want to be in five years is much easier in a different field, in a different job. For example, if you’d have asked me two years ago what I’d be doing now, I would have said something entirely wrong, I’d be, Jodie Knight performing on stages as a Pop artist. I wouldn’t have even known about this Dance alias. So I think I more of have personal goals of, say, in the next six months I want to like really master DJing and have gotten down a set that I can do and perform live. And then in a year I want to be, hopefully I want to get a festival slot somewhere. I guess building on that, two, three years, be doing some bigger festival slots, be working with some bigger people. There’s definitely a lot of producers who I really admire and really want to work with. For example, Ben Böhmer. He’s definitely one of them. And yeah, I don’t know. I think just be better, be better at production, be better at writing.

I think you told us this a few minutes ago, but have you ever had a moment in which you sort of, abstracted yourself from whatever you were doing, for example, touring, and realised you were living a lifelong dream of yours?

Yeah, absolutely. The other day, to be honest, in Montreal! I mean, the whole time I was aware that it was crazy what was happening. But that was more a moment of feeling emotional, because the tour was coming to an end. So that was amazing.

On another note, although different because it wasn’t in Dance music, when I played at Murrayfield Stadium before the rugby, which was, you know, 65,000 people. That was a crazy experience to just be able to do that and be able to sing in that place, and say I’ve done that. I think for me, it’s always the opportunities that come last minute or come randomly that are the ones where I’m like, “Oh my God, this is actually happening to me”.

It seems to be kind of your repeating pattern in life.

Yeah! Hopefully it’ll just keep repeating and I’ll be doing bigger and better things.

If you could go back in time, say 10 years or any amount of years you’d find interesting, and meet your past self, what would you tell that younger Jodie? Were you worrying about something that wasn’t really necessary?

Was I worried? Interesting question. 10 years ago, I’d been 15. So, yeah, teenage years were a tricky time for me. I was very insecure. I mean, all teenagers are struggling, I think. So if I was to go back in time, I would say, “Don’t worry. We end up being someone we love and doing something we love”, which I think is really important. And, yeah, being happy, I think that’s the biggest thing.

When I had that time a few months ago when I was feeling a bit lost, I think I really scared myself because I was waking up in the morning, not enjoying this. And that was the scary part because I’ve always loved it. So loving what you’re doing is the most important thing.

So, yeah, I would say that to 15-year-old me, “Don’t worry. We’re happy”.

And now, final question. If you could give our audience one piece of advice, what would it be?

Oh I have a piece of advice for people who are musicians that I was given. It’s very simple. It’s not some crazy lifehack. I spoke to a girl, a vocalist called Hannah Boleyn. I went for coffee with her when I first moved out to London. She’s amazing. She’s doing great things. And she’d worked with some really cool people, and I asked her, “How do you work with them? I want to”. She was just like, “Message them. Just Instagram message them, you know?”. And it was such a simple piece of advice. And I went home after our coffee, and I messaged ten people I wanted to work with. And eight of them came back and accepted. Obviously be realistic. If you message, you know, Calvin Harris or Fred again.., obviously their DMs are full.

Yeah, of course.

I just reached out to a lot of people that I really admired who were definitely bigger and had pretty big audiences. But, don’t be afraid to just reach out to someone and ask them to work together. Literally the worst thing you can get is being ignored or a no, which most people won’t do because most people are nice.

And then, advice to non-music people is, keep listening to music and supporting artists because it’s so important. Keep showing up to live shows and actually show your support because, as musicians, our whole career is based on what people think of us and what people do for us. So if you like an artist, show up for them.

I understand, you know, when it’s winter and you don’t want to go out. I get it. But, whenever I have a show and my friends turn up, I’m like, “You have no idea how much this means and how great the support is”.

That’s a really good piece of advice, appreciate that. Well, that’s a wrap for the interview. Thank you so much!

Final Words

Thank you so much Jodie for this piece! It’s always amazing to be able to sit down and dive into another artist’s mindset and point of view. It’s also super inspiring to understand how people like her have dreamt big, dared to risk, beat the fears, leapt across the canyon, and eventually made it. We can’t wait for the next milestones of her career! We’re counting down the days for the release of that solo EP. I have a feeling that, after diving into production and DJing, she’ll be frankly unstoppable.