Neu Youthless

The first signing to new digital-single-focussed indie label One Bird Records - run, actually, by two birds (if you’ll excuse the awfully bad pun) Laura Scott and Natalie Shaw - is based-in-Portugal duo Youthless. The single, their first in the UK, is called ‘Golden Age’, and it came out this week. To celebrate, we’ve had a chat with the boys to find out a bit more about them.

So, where are you both from, and how did you get together?
Alex: I was born and raised in New York City. When I was 14 I moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and went to a Spanish speaking high school because I already spoke a little Spanish and no Portuguese at the time. That’s where I met Sab and we started jamming and skateboarding pretty much from the start.
Sab: My whole family is English and mostly live in London right now, but I was born and raised in Lisbon. I went to the same Spanish school as Alex ‘cause I have some Spanish roots in my family and their educational system was supposedly better than the Portuguese one. But that school was a total jungle! There was a bar that served alcohol in the school cafeteria, and kids used to sneak out of the windows of classrooms on the second floor just to ditch class. Total chaos.

For those who won’t have heard you yet, how would you describe your music?
A: I’ve heard us described as ‘Black Sabath playing Blondie covers.’ Not that we sound like either of those bands, but I like the idea of that… the way The Contortions manage to make James Brown licks sound like No Wave ecstasy.
S: I would say: some old biker rock riffs and pure noise all hanging out in a 70s disco after catching a bunch of sun on holiday.

Are you ever tempted to sneak bits of Spanish into your songs, since you can both sort of speak the language?
S: We did that in our old band once… but it felt a bit cheesy. And then after a show once someone said Alex sounded like Ricky Martin so we never tried it again.
A: Maybe in the future, who knows. Sab’s Portuguese accent is pretty tight, and I speak Russian (although its kind of rusty). Maybe a song in Esperanto?

What did you listen to growing up, and what are you into now?
A: Weirdly enough I heard a lot of experimental composers and jazz when I was a little kid ‘cause my parents played a lot of that. Later my older brother bombarded me with the classics - lots of Zeppelin, James Brown, Marvin Gaye and heavy doses of Public Enemy and Digital Undergound. Then came punk and noise bands. Now at home I listen to mainly the techno my upstairs neighbour plays, but only cause he blasts it so loud all day.
S: My Dad used to play a lot of vinyl. Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross… it goes on and on. As I have four brothers and two sisters I got a bit of everything - a bit like those festivals with four stages playing different music at the same time were you hear everything yet nothing at all. The Pixies was one of the first bands I got into and became obsessed with on my own. At the moment I am really into the Eels. I only got into them this September have a lot of catching up.

If Youthless had a mission statement, what would it be?
A: ‘Do what that will and that shall be the rule,’ but in the ‘Never Ending Story’ sense and not the onanistic greed or satanic sense.
S: Work hard or hardly work. Enjoy life, I guess.

Your new single is out this week, with a limited edition screen print. Are you a bit of a do-it-yourself band?
A: So far we always have been due to necessity. We love being involved with all the different creative elements in our work… videos, poster, cover art etc. But it’s also really fun to
collaborate with artists and friends whose work we love, and watch them take our ideas to completely different territory. That’s been happening more and more lately and we feel really lucky to working with these people.
S: The annoying part is dealing with the whole business and bureaucratic side of organizing things. The more time we are at our computers the less time we’re playing. But we’re hoping that stuff gets easier and quicker as time goes on. Natalie and Laura at One Bird have been really great to work with as far as that side goes.

Do you have any other releases or interesting projects in the works?
S: We have a couple of new videos coming out - two for our EP ‘Telemachy’ and one for the ‘Golden Age’/’Casper Butter’ flip single with One Bird. We’re also working on a new EP right now and we have enough material for an LP after that so we hope to get that started soon.
A: I also really want to make a comic book out of the story told in our last EP ‘Telemachy’. It’s pretty much written and just needs illustration now.

And finally: What other up and coming bands should we be checking out?
A: My little brother is playing keyboards in Thunder & Lightening, the new solo project from Harlem Shakes drummer Brent Katz. I haven’t heard them live yet (they are playing their first live show this week but I can’t tell you where cause it’s a secret practice show… shhhh) but I’ve heard their record, ‘Kangaroo Court’ and it’s really awesome! Great songwriting, kind of like bizarro Harry Nilsson stuff.
S: Also our friend Rory Atwell (ex-Kasms, ex-Test Icicles) has a new solo project which will probably kick ass as soon as it’s ready!
A: In Portugal our friends Octa Push and PAUS, and actually all the other projects that the label Enchufada has been putting out, are really awesome.

Youthless play The Victoria in Dalston, London on Friday 22nd October, and RoTa @ Notting Hill Arts Club on Saturday 23rd October.