Yog Interview

In the first month of 2009, Yog’s first full length titled, ‘Years Of Nowhere’ was released in the states. Since its original release, they have been hard at work playing shows and writing new material. Fabien, the band’s drummer and guitarist, was able to answer some questions I had about the band’s new material, as well as his thoughts on the bands previous release and a few miscellaneous questions.

[BACKGROUND]

For the readers who are not familiar with your band, can you give a brief history of ‘Yog'?

Fabien: We formed in 2000, upon the split of our previous band, a brutal death combo where I was playing the guitar and doing vocals. I was pissed off because I could not find any good drummer to start something new and I had also been jamming around (on the drums) a lot with a friend who wanted to set up a band to play Napalm Death covers, so we hired the other guitarist and the bassist of the split band and tried something this way. Then we hired a singer and it started like that. But we soon turned to our own compositions since half of the band was not that much interested in covers. Still, we chose to go into something easy to play, few technical stuff, pretty punk-crust oriented. With one guitarist change and the addition (and then departure) of a second singer, this went for about 3 years. We were not much productive and had a lot of tensions, we did not all want the same thing and this blew up in the end of 2003 with the departure of the guitarist and the singer, about 6 months after the recording of our first EP “Feed The Masses”. Not motivated anymore, the other guitarist left shortly after. We kept looking for new guys and found the right ones then with a new guitarist and a new singer. 2 persons who wanted the same thing like us : going forward and try to propose something more interesting than punk-crust riffs. We had a hard time putting everything back on track but we succeeded and, after having released the Feed the Masses EP in the end of 2004, we quickly recorded a new bunch of songs. Basically, we had only 2 new songs but we recorded all that we had at that time because we wanted to hear it with this new band layout. It sounded cool, so we picked the 2 new songs + 4 unreleased old tracks and released it as the “Grindcore Deluxe” EP, in the beginning of 2006. We never hired a second guitarist and kept this way : it was the best band layout we had ever had. Working hard, we set up enough new songs and hit the studio in the end of 2006 for the recording of our first full-length “Years of Nowhere”. The motivation and common will to accomplish something was so strong with the new team that we got much more productive than we ever were before. The album contains songs composed over a period of almost 4 years and I think anyone can notice that. Meanwhile it surprisingly brought a touch of variety that we really love.

How did you come up with the band name ‘Yog', and what is the meaning behind it?

Fabien: It was one of our early guitarists that found this. We were looking for a name because the first gig was approaching and really had no idea. He came with this as some kind of a joke. At that time, a Swiss milk company sold a liquid yoghourt that they had called YOG. He saw an advert, and he also found that it was sounding kind of “barbarian”, if you said it with a “growl”. We kept it.

[CURRENT RELEASE]

Your latest release ‘Years of Nowhere' was recently released on 187 Records in North America. It was recorded at Studio Mecanique with Julien Fehlmann and mastered at West West Side Studios. What was the recording process like?

Fabien: Really awesome. Julien pushed us very far, requesting the best of us. I guess he exaggerated here and there because he likes to piss people off a bit. But he really had us do things we did not think we would be able to do. His studio is on the highest floor of an ancient fabric, in a town that at 1000 meters. It is surrounded by windows so you have a beautiful view on the outside. It was November and the sky was blue everyday and there was tons of fresh snow all around. Kind of perfect environment. We had a great time. We did everything separately and really pushed to have things played perfectly. You know, do it and do it over again until you have it the way you want. We did the takes over 2 weeks for drums, bass, and guitar 1. The vocals were recorded separately in Kehlvin’s practice room, which is also a little record studio, by Zen (Kehlvin’s drummer). The second guitar was done during the first half of the mixing process.

What are some of the lyrical themes for this record?

Fabien: We usually try not to be too “destructive” or “negative” or “revolted”, like too many bands. Of course, you can’t help yourself talking about subjects that touch you, and a lot of times you end up criticising something that annoys you. Here and there we rather try to either ask questions or project ourselves into something. MOUTH FULL OF SHIT CANNOT BITE is a song where we ask about what should be said in songs or not. LOVE PROCESS FAILURE is a sort of “post love story” hallucination. KAL-EL is about Superman’s loneliness. SECRETS is about the ugliness of keeping too many secrets. MERGE is about melting things and people instead of “individualizing” too much. Etc…

Many reviewers have compared ‘Years of Nowhere' to early Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, and Pig Destroyer. How does it feel to be compared to bands such as these, and are you happy with the way people are reacting to this release?

Fabien: We are very happy about it, it is an honour. Also, we keep listing our influences clearly all the time, we are true admirers of these bands and they do influence us a lot, and we say it. The very good thing about it is that reviewers keep saying that yes, everyone can clearly hear our influences in our music, but they always underline the fact that these influences are digested. That is a great compliment.

Since its original release, you have had a lot of time to listen and play selections from the record. If you were to record this release over again, is there anything that you would do differently?

Fabien: Yonni told me the other day that he found the voice was not loud enough in the mix. I would do the snare differently, not hitting it as hard as I can all the time, but controlling it more in order to have a more “regular” hit. Because the way we did it, it does not come loud enough in the blastbeats. But these are small technical issues. For the whole process, we would not do it another way, we gave 150% of ourselves and it was just awesome.

[UPCOMING MATERIAL]

Earlier this year, you announced the addition of a new bassist to your line-up. How are things progressing with him?

Fabien: Brilliant. This guy has such a high level of bass playing. Really awesome. He’s gone through severe health problems all winter, which hindered him from learning the songs quicker, but now he is almost up-to-speed, and he is a nice perfectionist, exactly the kind of guy we needed.

You have recently contributed a brand new track entitled ‘Breaking the Spell' on the Falling Down Compilation, released September 2008, also featuring bands such as Kehlvin, Zatokrev, Time To Burn, and Pelican among many others. Will this be one of the songs featured on your new record, and does this song set the tone for the rest of the upcoming material?

Fabien: Yes, we’ll have it on the album. This song is the first song we composed after having finished the Years of Nowhere album and it is clearly “the new thing”. Still, saying that it sets the tone, I don’t know, because we have gone into all sorts of directions since. It does, considering the craziness of it, but meanwhile it doesn’t, because we have experimented a lot of other stuff in the other new songs, there will be more songs without blastbeats than in the Y.O.N. album, we use a lot of new chords and harmonies, new drum tricks, we plan to try different stuff on some vocals. We really want to propose new things.

How far along are you with the writing process of the new record?

Fabien: We currently have 9 songs for about 23 minutes, only 4 of them having the vocals yet. We want this second album to be a bit longer than the first one. Possibly 35 minutes of music, and additional intros/ outros/ post-prod if we can. Not everything is set yet.

It has been a few years since you've recorded a full length. What are some of your influences this time around, both lyrically and musically, for the material you are currently writing?

Fabien: Well, the album was recorded end of 2006 but yes, it contains songs composed over a period of almost 4 years in it. Things like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge remain main influences today, still. But yes, a few other things have come along, others have left. Matthieu has brought more material this time and he has that weird way of composing music that you can never exactly say where it comes from (well, that’s my feeling about it). Which is a good thing, pretty personal stuff. Sometimes difficult to bring to life with the drums. He listens to various stuff that is not often in relation with what we play, in opposition to me. Lately I discovered a few things that have brought some new blood in my composition process, such as The Crinn, Destroyer Destroyer, Hella, very extreme and interesting bands. Lyrically, Yonni has come with a lot of new ideas. I used to do the most lyrics but this time he’s shown up with a lot of material, hectic stuff. He’s been reading a shitload of books and has brought some very interesting subjects and original concepts. The way it is now, he is probably going to write more than 80% of the lyrics this time. Which I am very happy about !

How will the new material compare to ‘Years of Nowhere'?

Fabien: I think I should say it will be “in line” with Years of Nowhere, but going further, in more different directions. New chords, new harmonies, some new things with the vocals, the speedy things will be played quicker than before, but it will contain more slow stuff than before as well. Probably more technique here and there, but still without exaggeration. More chaotic stuff also. The more we compose, the more we try to “isolate” this or that technique/ harmony/ chord/ principle into one specific song, if you see what I mean. Try not to repeat the same things all along the songs. I am not pretending we succeed, but that’s what we try to do !

When can fans expect a new release and do you have any ideas on what it might be called as well as how many tracks you plan to include on it?

Fabien: We plan to record it end of 2009-beginning of 2010. We would like it to be released before spring 2010. No idea yet about the title, we do not have all the lyrics and have not yet thought about a concept.

[LIVE]

How would you describe the scene in Switzerland?

Fabien: Ha ! Not a big one for that sort of music we play. Still, I have to admit that it has improved in the last 2-3 years. There is a bit of a “rock is back”. More bands, better bands with higher level, and the public seems to follow a bit. The problem is that Switzerland is a small country (less than 7 million citizens). This means that, if you imagine that the proportion of the population that loves this scene is around 5%, it does not make a lot of people… which does not help build big scenes and motivate the kids to move their ass to this or that gig. They seem to remain interested in the bigger and “commercial” bands, the ones they “understand” what it is about musically. There are very few people that really appreciate the sort of stuff we do. But then when they do, they really do. Another thing is the fact that our country is divided in 3 regions : the West-French speaking part, where we are; the East and German speaking part, and the South-East, where the speak Italian. All that is Switzerland, but there are differences in the mentality and then also in the musical tastes. I’m not kidding. The heavy-metal-thrash-death scene is rather on the East side, while the more modern hardcore scene is on the West side. Weird. That makes even less people for each scene…

You have been playing shows since 2000. Are there any shows that really stand out to you, which ones have been your favourites?

Fabien: I would mention 3 : the first one was in a punk basement. It was so small, we were drunk and played like pigs, but it fucking kicked ass. I think I saw Yonni 3 times during the set, he was swallowed in a crazy mosh pit. Crazy. The second time was the dollhouse thing where it was all very relaxed and strange in the same time. The third one was at a festival in the region (organised by friends of ours) called the “VNV rock altitude” (Neurosis played there in 2008). The biggest stage we had ever played on, with perfect sound, huge light show. And the guy that was doing the light for us was just awesome, he did something crazy. A great show.

With certain shows you have played in the past, you have all worn different costumes. How did this come about?

Fabien: This only happened twice in fact. And the second time we did only upon request of a gig organiser because he had loved the first “costumed” show so much. The first time was that dollhouse thing. It was part of an outdoor art exhibition that lasted about 3 months during the summer of 2007. 2 artists had built that human size dollhouse and had invited bands to play there every Saturday afternoon. We had the chance to be on the list. And because it was so weird to play in a dollhouse in the middle of a field, we thought it would be funny to add even more to the event, something that would somehow fit with the environment. That’s how we came up with the idea of the animal masks, playing also in underwear. Really funny. The people loved it and the youtube videos had a nice success.

[MISCELLANEOUS]

What are some of your hobbies outside of ‘Yog'?

Fabien: We all are movie lovers. Matthieu and I are pretty much into sport things. Matthieu loves skiing, I love biking very much. I’d say that Yonni loves smoking pot on top of everything !!! But our passion number 1 remains music, clearly.

Do you have any final thoughts or comments?

Fabien: We hope this scene will continue develop everywhere with interesting bands, and that it will convince more people to get interested into it. This shall happen with the help of motivated and serious people like 187 Records !! Thanks very much for your support guys !