Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere sponsored by Density Studios connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
“The Knife” is a construction project in song form.
Allison Mahal’s second single from Backbone, her forthcoming EP, starts simply enough: a loop of five or six notes plucked on acoustic guitar and Mahal’s gentle, quavering vocals wondering whether she’s been truthful with herself:
Have I always been such a quitter
Freezing the frame
In a way that makes me feel better?
Upon that foundation, Mahal stacks bass and percussion that provide rhythm for a trip down memory lane:
Your best friend in glitter
Was it a dream
In the dead of winter
You fall asleep on me
Slide guitar puts a roof on this whole building metaphor just in time for the future-facing chorus:
And I’m gonna marry him
Do what I never thought I’d do
Live past 27
Admit I want it, too
I do
It’s a methodical approach Mahal has chosen for the subject of this Milwaukee Music Premiere, and the three phases fall into place with more than two-thirds of the song still waiting to unspool. Yet it still manages to move the listener, largely due to Mahal’s emotive singing style that seems to bounce between regret and hope.
Those vocals serve her well as “The Knife” finds another gear in its remaining two-ish minutes, particularly on a relatively forceful bridge that packs an entire short film into nine lines about promotional giveaways, skeptical waitstaff and a metaphorical (hopefully) weapon at the ready:
A Bacardi t-shirt prize
Our waitress gives us the eye
The youngest ones in town
Not what I wanted
But I’m here right now
Do you think I have a spine
It is hard, but I know I’m right
Give me space, give me time
’Til I’m not holding your knife
Mahal said she wrote the track “quickly, after I moved out of the city at the start of 2025. The quietness of my new neighborhood, juxtaposed with the turmoil I was going through in my personal life, inspired most of this song.” Nothing like a little forced tranquil solitude to kickstart a combo of self-examination and creativity.
The Milwaukee-based artist added that “The Knife” is her favorite song off the upcoming EP, which comes out Sept. 18. The single will get a few weeks to breathe when it’s released June 25, but you can enjoy it right now using the player at the top of the page and catch it on 88Nine throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.). There’s also a video to accompany the track, created with help from videographer Austyn Meyer, that you can check out on YouTube.
Mahal might just trot out a live version as well in the near future, with shows coming up at Summerfest’s Johnsonville Summerville stage at noon June 26 and Chill on the Hill on July 14.
