Swiss electronic rock pioneers The Young Gods played three UK dates near the front end of their Appear Disappear Tour in 2025. Moshville Times caught up with them at the London date at The Garage (review here) and vocalist/guitarist Franz Reichler generously gave up some of his time before the show to have a chat.
First of all, could we clarify the correct pronunciations of the band members’ names? The only one I really had a problem with was Césare Pizzi.
Césare. Italian style. It depends if you’re in the French part of Switzerland or the German part. There are four official languages in Switzerland: French, German, Italian and a mountain language called Romansh.
I haven’t heard of Romansh. I know a little bit of German and a little bit of French, so I was happy you speak such good English.
(In order to really understand) these languages, you have to go there to start with, you need to be in the country because it’s much faster and you get the nuances and the different pronunciations (in different parts of Switzerland).
You are playing a few UK dates on this tour, have you played this venue before?
We played in 2019. Although Césare was with me in the very beginning of the band, from 1985 to 1988, he left and came back in 2012. He only played the first two records for two years because he didn’t really want to be in the band. The first record that we did together, with the three of us, was in 2019 and it was called Data Mirage Tangram. We played here in the garage (on that tour) – for the first time.
The record we did just after that was an interpretation of Terry Riley’s In C, which was a more contemporary piece of music and instrumental stuff. This happened by chance and we started becoming more interested because we’d been asked to collaborate with a brass band and we really liked the results.
We recorded as the three of us and then we toured, but not extensively. We played a very ‘rock’ venue in the middle of Camden Town, I think it was called The Underworld? [A short description of the venue-which I know well-confirmed this.] We played contemporary music at the Underworld: it was pretty funny. And now we are back with a new album here at the garage. Yeah, I like this venue.
I was introduced to your first three or four albums when I was at Uni. Then I saw you play the inaugural Phoenix Festival in 1993, which blew me away. At the time, I didn’t realise that you’d already been going for eight years when you played that festival.
Yeah, we started in ‘85, so we’ve been going for 40 years now.
Your material immediately struck me. I was already into some of the other bands on the bill, Manic Street Preachers, Sonic Youth and the like, but I remember thinking “these guys are really original, really different, but with power in their music”. It was an interesting mix of different styles and instrumentation, which was unusual at the time. You left a lasting impression on me. Do you remember those first big gigs?
Yes, I do. It was surprising for all of us, when we started, ‘92 may have been our first record sung in English. [It was, TV Sky.] The first two records were in French, the second one was some Kurt Weill-Bertrand Brecht cover album, so it was all in German, and then we started the fourth album, sung in English. But, straight away, from the very first record, we had really good reviews from the British audience. It didn’t bother them that it was all in French. I think it was probably because we were doing something that was different, especially because of the way we used sampling technology at the time. Nobody was doing sampling of vocals and drums, basically. People were already using samplers as a ‘plus’, but not as a main thing in the band.
So, we always had a really, really good response from the British audience. That was amazing because, at some point we were more welcome in England than in Switzerland! Switzerland was OK, but France took longer to like the band. Here, it was straight away. We played Reading in 1990, Phoenix in 1993…we did a few big festivals.
Did you actually start out in a punk band with Cesaré?
Yes, it’s all style I suppose. I think you can still sense a bit of this energy in the Young Gods, even nowadays, because we like lots of different stuff. Punk came out when I was 17, basically, so I was very impressed by it because of the tabula rasa (the absence of preconceived ideas). All of the conservatism in rock music at the time, the technique and all the other stuff, was becoming such a corporate thing, it needed ‘fresh air in the house’. We could just take a guitar, two or three chords, go on stage and just do our thing. It was like a big opening of a window with a lot of fresh air coming in, so I was really impressed by that. I liked the energy.
To me, the “no future” thing was more of a provocation and, literally, a destructive thing. I took it as a way to kick my ass, to do things, to believe in what you do. I think this energy started the Young Gods. You can do rock music without guitars. You can play with technology. It was trying to break with convention.
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First single “Envoyé” was a statement of intent!
Yeah, exactly.
Do you play it tonight?
No, we don’t play “Envoyé” and we don’t play “Kissing the Sun”, because we played these two songs too many times in the past tours. We do a few classics, let’s say, but we mainly play the new record because we want to see how it is received by the people. That’s who we are now.
I’ve had a listen to the new album…it’s really good. It harks back to what I remember of your early days. I’ve followed most of your history but realised that I have big gaps between the Only Heaven album (1995) and now. Back in their early days, The Prodigy famously described themselves as ‘electronic punks’. What do you regard punk as? I don’t think of it as a musical style. It’s an attitude.
It was a style in the beginning and then it became an attitude. A way to go for it. Do it and do it for yourself. Don’t give yourself restrictions. I think the real early punks took off their safety pins after two years. It became a fashion thing and also an excuse for just drinking more beers and being destructive.
There’s an English folk punk band I really like, called Ferocious Dog. They’ve got a song called “Punk Police” because they’re sick of certain people trying to tell them what punk is ‘supposed’ to be.
Every time you have a new thing happening, it becomes a style. Rock music is not that. It shouldn’t be. We describe ourselves as ‘electronic rock’. We do have a punk energy but when we have to (describe) our music we choose these two words.
I found a quote from you, replying to a question about The Young Gods’ music: “It’s the first time you’re listening to music because you don’t know what it is.” I thought that was interesting…
Did I say that? Well, sometimes you watch a band that totally blows your mind. You’re like, “what the fuck is that?” In the early Young Gods, because we had no guitars and no bass, you could not anticipate what was going to happen. With this keyboard thing, you could have a classical orchestra blasting out of the speakers in a millisecond or heavy metal guitars or cabaret. You don’t know. I think you’re more receptive to the music because you don’t see the guy going “RARRRR” (makes a grinding guitar sound) and you just ‘go for it’. I think that’s what I meant. You don’t know what the fuck it is, it bypasses the comprehension. You go ‘straight to enlightenment’, as William Blake used to say. Good poetry is the one that speaks to you, not to your comprehension. I think good music is the same. You don’t need to know what’s being done and what instrument (is used). Sometimes you just have an emotional response. It doesn’t matter that you’re singing in French or German. It still has a response. You just get something from it.
I do speak some of those languages a little bit but you’re right, even if you don’t know what people are saying, it just works.
Even if you don’t know what kind of emotion you’re feeling because sometimes it’s more than one or it’s complicated. For sure, you don’t need to understand. If you want to dig into the words, you can. But I don’t like it to be too upfront with the words. If you want to be, you can. You can put them on the record. Sometimes they’re obscure, as well.
It’s a bit like the Ramones’ lyrics, which could have been written on the back of a fag packet, but they work so brilliantly with the music. They repeat the same thing but it works.
I’m a big fan of the Ramones, yes.
I think you have previously said that songs work differently when they are sung in French or English. Which do you find easier?
Yeah, I think English is easier to sing because I probably have some kind of collective unconscious, it flows better. French is harder and every word is a bit heavier. There’s not a big tradition of French rock singers. It is very fast and turns out to be very dramatic. You have to find your own way to sing in French. Of course, as it is my first language, it’s easier to find the words. My vocabulary in English is sometimes a bit restricted. If I stay too long in Switzerland, I don’t speak English anymore and I have to start reading again or start watching movies in the original English versions so that I reconnect. I make (the lyrics) simpler when I sing in English rather than in French.
Has the tour been going as well as you’d hoped? I’ve seen some of the footage online.
Yeah, actually. Good turnout, a lot of joy. You can see it on people’s faces. Very positive!
Do you think it’s the same audience that’s aged with you over the years or are there a lot of younger people as well?
There are quite a lot of people who’ve been following us for quite a while, sometimes 20 years. Some people know us from TV Sky, some people from the very beginning, some people bring their children to the gigs… (About) two thirds are followers and one third is new ‘heads’, people who are curious and just like the new album or just want to have a good time.
Do you write most of the music or is it really a collaboration?
The music is collaboration but the lyrics are not collaboration. [Franz writes all the lyrics.]
I think the balance of light and dark/loud and soft is a defining part of your sound and that’s why it’s so powerful.
I always fight with the lighting guys because I don’t like it to be too dark or too silhouetted (on stage) but they proposed this set up (indicating tonight’s stage show), which is light from the back. You don’t always have light in the front in venues anymore but that’s a question of aesthetics. I don’t think we are a dark band. I think that we are, maybe, a ‘deep’ band but I don’t consider myself a dark person. I’m trying to give off positive energy, give off some joy. When people leave after the show it’s not like they’ve been punched in the head but, rather, they have been kicked in the ass and are like “yeah, let’s do stuff!” That’s more the idea.
Some of your tracks start off in quite a brooding manner but it’s not a sinister sound.
It’s sort of celebratory… It can be violent… and I totally accept that. I wouldn’t say it’s aggressive though because aggressivity, to me, is aimed to hurt. We don’t want to hurt people but it can be like an ocean… that kind of energy. I don’t mind if it’s a bit shaky and you’re stepping into the unknown, not knowing if you’re feeling ok, but it’s always more of a positive thing to me.
On that note, I saw that you played Montreux Jazz Festival in 2005. What was it like working with Mike Patton? I thought he’d be a good fit for Young Gods just because of the way he is.
He came to sing two songs with us but we have a long relationship with Patton because, at the time of Faith No More, we met many times and even shared a stage. When he started his Ipecac label he signed us, in 2000. He’s always been loyal to us, inviting us to collaborations but it wasn’t always happening because of the timing. This was in the 90s and 2000s, doing some projects, but there’s definitely a connection. So he came to sing with a couple of songs with us (at that festival), yeah. That night, he played with Fantomas and it was fantastic; with Buzz Osbourne, Terry Bozzio on drums… it was really cool because we played with an orchestra; classic versions for our 20th anniversary. And Fantomas played that night too on the same stage. For me it was like “Wow!”
This is a question that I stole from a DJ friend at my local radio station, Hailsham FM, (Chris Pullen). He always asks bands what the first record they ever bought was, single or LP, with their own money; it doesn’t matter if it’s not metal or cool.
With my own money? I remember two. I don’t know which order it was but I was in this supermarket and I saw a very psychedelic cover. It was, like, 40 songs by the Beatles on one record. At the time, it was very cheap. I bought it without asking anything or reading the credits and when I came back home it was James Last playing 40 songs in a medley. Very pompous…very horrible, I was so disappointed.
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James Last is like Big Band music isn’t he?
Yes, a brass band…very cheesy. I was like “what have I done with my nine francs?” But then the very first 45 single I bought, which didn’t frustrate me at all, was “The Jean Genie” by David Bowie because I saw that clip on TV and I was like yeah, that’s so good! Ah, this is Bernard.
[Bernard Trontin (drums) then joined us, so I asked him the same question.]
Bernard: T-Rex – “Ride A White Swan.” I was a bit surprised, I saw T-Rex on TV and it was really at the glam peak and when I bought “Ride A White Swan” it was like something between the glam period and something from before. More like funky minimal music or something in between, so I was a bit surprised but I really used to love it.
Franz: That was our glam experience. We covered Gary Glitter, we called it “Did You Miss Me” but the real title of the song is something like “Hello I’m Back Again”. We covered that on the first Young Gods record. So, we give credit to the glam period, that influenced us a lot.
The Young Gods are obviously very Glam!
Franz: I might put my shiny shirt on with the glam pants, hahaha.
You’re playing three dates in the UK?
Franz: only three yeah. Basically, three in France, three in the UK, two in Portugal, two in Spain, one in Stockholm, one in Copenhagen, one in Helsinki… it’s like 29 to 30 shows in total. We would love to play more in England but it’s difficult to get decent fees. It’s harder at the moment and I think the euro fees are high. We can’t afford to lose so much money by going to Glasgow, unfortunately. It’s a long drive and it’s risky for the promoter.
I don’t know if Brexit has had any particular effect or whether it’s just extra fees and visas etc.?
Franz: It’s even harder for us because we have to go through a lot of paperwork to get here. Before Brexit, it was way easier, administration-wise.
Bernard: This is also the case for British bands. I’ve got some friends (and also tourists) that have more difficulties coming to Europe than before; they can’t bring merchandising to sell anymore, it’s really changing a lot, in terms of money.
And with that, our time was up. I am still kicking myself at forgetting to ask just what it was that is ‘appearing and disappearing’, so the enigma that is The Young Gods will have to remain for others to explore further…
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