Youth Avoiders - Parisian Hardcore Punk with Bloody Feelings

I learnt about these guys in 2018. I was discovering the French Post/Punk/Hardcore scene, and on one of those YouTube playlists I saw the “Spare Parts” EP. The cover got me curious, so I decided to jump into it. I have always been a fan of the French language – love me some French Old School Rap – as it has always felt extremely melodic. This time it was not French, but English. Do not fear, for quality is still here! It’s Punk, but it’s something more than that. It is not your standard, basic, plane and one-single colour Punk. Well, that is one of the most positive aspects of French Punk: it’s something more. Be it the melancholy one extracts from French language and culture, the beauty of France, there has to be something in the water, or maybe in the croissants, uhm. After that, “Relentless” came along, and everything else followed.

E-mail sent, questions placed, answers down below. Youth Avoiders.

"Demo" (2010Middle Class Zombies Attack !, Give Us A Chance, Negative Youth Records)

Bienvenue, messieurs! It is a pleasure to have you in my small zine. Well, first and foremost: tell us a bit about the band, its early days and how fun the ride has been, so far.

Chris (vocals): Olá! Youth Avoiders started in October 2009. Our bass player, Bastien, from Normandy and our guitar player, Christoph, from Germany moved to Paris to study. I also came back to Paris at this time after studying abroad. I met them at local punk shows in Paris, we’ve been introduced by a common friend because we all were looking to start a new band. I knew Marlon, the drummer, as we had together in the past when we were teenagers. After a couple of practices, we had a proposal to open for a local show in November, so we quickly wrote 7 songs to play like 15 minutes and that was the start. We released our first demo early 2010. After that, we got more and more proposals of shows, and we haven’t stopped for more than 10 years now. We’ve had so far many crazy experiences, and we definitely have great memories of places we went to, people we met, things we’ve done that we couldn’t have done if it wasn’t with the band, so it has been definitely a fun ride.

"Time Flies" EP (2011 Build Me A Bomb Records, Destructure Records)

Your name is probably one of the best I have ever come across, in a band. Can you please tell me where does it come from?

Chris: It is both hard and simple to answer to this question because when we found it, for us it was just a dumb name that sounded cool, but the idea behind it is about generational conflict. It is especially related with any subculture, alternative ways of thinking, doing things outside of mainstream, standing up against established institutions of the society we live in.

"Youth Avoiders / Zombies Are Pissed" (2011Destructure Records, Emergence, Wee Wee)

I try to read everything I can about more recent French Punk scene, but still one does not grasp the reality of it, I dare say. Can I ask you to guide me through an overall perspective of it? Bands, cities, attitude and whatever you feel is necessary to understand it!

Chris: There is definitely an attitude and a sound that is tied down to different areas from France. In Lille, north of France, the punk scene is quite big with a lot of active bands that share for most of them an “Oi punk” sound, like Traitre or Douche Froide. They have also tons of other active cool bands at the moment like Short Days, Gutter, Jodie Faster or Chiaroscuro. There is Brest, in the west of France, which is also an industrial city like Lille, where you have amazing bands like Syndrome 81 or Litovsk. Lyon or Saint-Etienne have their good shares of bands like Litige, Bleakness or Zone Infinie. I would say that every big city far away from Paris has its influence on the attitude and sound of most of its bands. In Paris, we are used to having all the touring bands from the US or anywhere else, like popular bands on a European tour, and the city is so big and diverse that we take our influences from other cultures. I would need several pages to write about all the places and bands because the French scene is pretty active at the moment, and there are also some cool spots where we can play at, that are located in villages and small towns.

"Youth Avoiders" (2013 Destructure Records, Build Me A Bomb Records)

Can you tell me a bit more about band members’ previous adventures in music?

Chris: Our bass player, Bastien, used to play in a fastcore band called Youssouf Today. It was a cool band that you should check out. We’ve had other projects in the past not worth mentioning, however, we do play in another band as a side project called Stalled Minds. It’s a 3-piece band with Christoph, our guitar player, doing the vocals and also playing guitar. Marlon plays drums and I play bass. It is still fast-paced punk but with more of a garage punk vibe, influenced by bands like The Marked Men or Royal Headache. There is only a demo out at the moment, but we are working on the first album.

"Spare Parts" (EP 2013 Destructure Records, Destructure Records, Build Me A Bomb Records)

How is it to be Punk, in the 21st Century, in Paris?

Chris: It is less violent that it used to be in the 80’s or 90’s. I was too young to experience it but there are some books and articles describing it, with a lot of fights all the time. At the moment the right-wing fascists are not doing much in Paris, but are sadly more active in other cities like Lyon for example. The rents and cost of living skyrocketed, so it is more and more difficult to keep squats. There are only a few left, and they are not all having punk shows because of neighbour noise complaints that would end their existence. Generally speaking, there is a politics from the city to push the alternative/underground scenes, anything that sounds noisy to them, outside the city centre. Anyway, we continue to be active, we still have some cool venues, and we won’t give up on them.

"Relenteless" (LP 2018 Destructure Records, Build Me A Bomb Records)

Whenever I recommend a French Punk band, to friends, I end up saying something like: it feels like Ian Curtis moved to Paris, and started a new Punk band. In the beginning of my endeavours into French Punk, Joy Division always came to mind. Is this close to reality or is it just me (and with this I am not implying that all French Punk bands sound like that)?

Chris: Actually we have a huge history and culture of Oi! punk, post-punk and new wave, which is probably why you could think of something close to Joy Division. There were many popular bands like Camera Silens, Guerre Froide, Asylum Party, Taxi Girl etc. Nowadays we sure still have some active bands with this vibe but it is far from representing all the different sounds from the French punk scene.

Youth Avoiders - Bandcamp

You are aggressive and dynamic, and your music has plenty of energy. What is that makes you blow up everything around you? What inspires you to play the music you play?

Chris: We like to play fast songs that are both melodic and violent. It comes from our two main influences at the time we started the band, and which are still true today: 80’s hardcore bands like Minor Threat and more melodic stuff like Masshysteri or Red Dons. The lyrics are critics about the society, sometimes there is a message of hope, but it is mostly angry stuff that drives us to blow everything up.

Build Me A Bomb Records - Bandcamp

A bit in line with the previous question: what are the bands, records, scenes, books, films and whatever, that work as a source of inspiration?

Chris: Originally, we were inspired by the bands we were listening to. After some years, our sources of inspirations diversified. As mentioned before, the texts are mainly critics of the society, which is sadly our first source of inspiration, but also fictions inspired by films. Two songs on our latest record are allusions to Akira Kurosawa movies ("Rashōmon" in particular) and more generally to samurai films in medieval Japan. I find this theme epic, with its share of weirdness and beauty from their culture, but also a terrible time to be alive for most people there. It makes it a good blend to write lyrics, that are also sometimes metaphors to what we live now in our European countries.

"Watch Me" (2018)

Your last album, “Relentless”, is from 2018. When can we expect new music from you?

Chris: We are kind of lazy, but also really busy with our work and playing shows, and also difficultly satisfied, so the process of writing a new song is taking a while. We are working on 3 new songs at the moment. We will see next year when we are at in the progress, so we might record an EP if we feel like it, or maybe wait a little more to write enough songs for a new LP.

Youth Avoiders - Full Performance (Live on KEXP, 2015)

Have you ever played, as Youth Avoiders, in Portugal? Do you know anything about our Punk/Hardcore scene?

Chris: We have never played any show in Portugal, I can’t remember if we ever had the opportunity to, maybe an email or two some years ago. It is quite far away from Paris, we can’t just drive there for a couple of shows, but if flights are not too expensive, we would love to come and play there on a weekend or something. I know Pointing Finger, I used to listen to them a lot when I was hooked on “youth crew” / “positive hardcore” like 13 years ago. I feel bad for not knowing more about Portuguese hardcore punk scene, please write us if you have any suggestion of bands we should check out.

"Manchester Punk Festival 2019" - Full Set - MPRV News

If I asked you to describe your music, to someone unaware of it, how would it turn out?

Chris: We play fast hardcore punk with a blend of melodies and almost a clean guitar sound. Someone wrote in a review that our music sounded like a mix between Minor Threat and The Hives, we feel it’s a good description.

Thank you very much for your time and your words. Hope we get the chance to talk, again, once new music is released. Cheers from Portugal!

Chris: Thanks a lot, we will definitely have a new release at some point, so I’m sure we can talk again and maybe meet in Portugal if we can play there. Salut!

Comentários

Mensagens populares deste blogue