The Holy Knives – brothers Kody and Kyle Valentine – return today with “Manipulator,” the latest single from their upcoming Jamie Hince (The Kills) produced EP, I Don’t Wanna Win, set to arrive December 13. 

Discussing the single, Kody notes, “There are a lot of manipulators out there trying to sell you a message, a product, trying to change who you are. There are manipulative lovers, manipulative friends, manipulative politicians–they can be anywhere. I’ve been manipulated by a few people in my life who I won’t name, but this song is really just a fuck you to them and manipulators everywhere.”

Regarding the writing process, Kyle adds, “‘Manipulator’ was a bit of a problem child for us. The initial demo felt so strong, but to get it to where it ended up felt the most like a trying process of the EP songs. We both learned so much about drum programming and sonics as a whole from working with Jamie, and this song was almost like the final test of proving what we’ve learned, and, in the end, I think we passed.”