After the release of their critically-acclaimed album 'Only Heaven', the Young Gods re-establish themselves as figureheads of the Industrial scene. Malcolm spoke to frontman Franz Treichler.

How's the tour going?
It's the end of the tour now. Tomorrow's the last show, and then we go back home for two months. We just do a Christmas show in our home town. It's been going pretty good. There is a very good response. There's a little less turnout than the tour we did for T.V. Sky, due to unknown circumstances. You never know, actually- but the response is very warm, and it's a good feeling.

Does it differ from country to country?
Not really, actually. We see the same evolution everywhere. I think it's just generally, people are more broke, or they're saturated with bands, or they're more into techno, or something like that. But it's the same kind of feeling everywhere, except in a few countries where we have a massive amount of people, much more than on the last tour, for example in Portugal.

Do you see your audience changing, or are the same people coming along?
I think we have some kind of a fan base, but it's mixed: T.V. Sky was controversial, we got more metal fans because of that record, who don't want much to do with our last record, because they also didn't know what we were doing before that album; and older people who knew us before TV Sky, they thoughtTV Sky was ok, but the new one is back to what we were before. I personally like every record we ever did, because I think that T.V. Sky is a great, straightforward rock record. It's just good to do something different all the time, though I don't think it's that different anyway. I like the audience to be open-minded, and it's funny to see that the more open-minded metal fans still like it, and they come anyway. We even have d.j.s sometimes, who are interested because we are a rock band but there's an ambient thing in there. So it's pretty mixed, and I think that's good.

You did an album of Kurt Weill covers. What affinity do you feel with him?
Well what I would like to have in common with him is that he could combine avant garde- it was very dissonant and weird music that he did- and it was very popular, also. So he's some kind of forerunner of what I consider good pop music, which is innovative and risky, but you can see it as songs as well. Because of Bertolt Brecht writing the words, it also had some kind of political meaning as well, which was important at the time- the Nazis were getting more bold, taking over. If you look at the Threepenny Opera it's not about that, but you can feel it in the air, and it's about hookers and pimps and murderers, it's some kind of strange world, and I think that's what we would like to be, because we play avant garde, and we play with technology also, and we still want to be accessible, not just arty, you know. We like to play Saturday night in clubs and stuff. We like to evolve in rock surroundings, rather than pop: rock is something different now... pop is done in Britain.

Your music always seems very atmospheric. Have you ever done film soundtracks, or would you wish to?
Well I've been asked to do that a couple of times, but I've turned it down, because I think that if you want to be efficient, you have to evolve with the movie- you have to be there a long period of time. You can't just write some music and go. You have to work with the people, and that's the interesting part of it, and so far that's impossible, because you have to tour to survive, or we work the studio; and actually I prefer to write for the people we are, and the career we are following. It's maybe something I'd like to do if there is a change, if the band doesn't keep up, or something like that, like production... I would keep writing music. But I like the medium aspect of bands, like when music brings you to different places. It's not escapism but it's imagination, and I think music has the power to suggest lots of things, emotionally. I like it when music takes you somewhere and makes you discover things. Specifically on this album, there is a lot of a dreaming atmosphere, and the world in pieces: things coming from nowhere, and sometimes, lines which have nothing to do with each other. It relates to how, in dreams, you can jump from one thing to another without a real link, though there must be one in your subconscious. So it's an attempt to have a language in some way close to the way the subconscious works, more instinct than logic.

On the new album, the song 'Child In A Tree' seems different to other Young Gods tracks, in that rather than creating a world of its own, it's based on a real incident where a drug addict took refuge from police in a tree in a park...
Sometimes there's a shock, and you want to... not get rid of it, but transcend the whole thing, because I don't think you have to know the story. It's kind of a sweet song: there's only a few words, like "when the poison gets inside," where you can ask yourself, "what is he talking about?" But if you don't pay much attention to lyrics, it's a kind of dreamy song, which fits with the rest of the album. I think I'd like to leave it open, and have different interpretations of it coming in.

You've been quoted as saying that, in writing, you want to find a perfect balance between words and music. Which of the two normally comes first?
The music always triggers me to write the words. Even with our music, it might only be a couple of words that come with it. I'm more of a musician than a lyricist, I would say.

Your albums always seem to attain a certain freedom by breaking down categories, as when you sample classical music into a rock song...
I think that there should be no boundaries in music. You can't escape the fact that people want to stick to a trend, or a style, and become trainspotters, like in techno, or whatever. It was the same thing with metal, it's like there is one thing going on, and it has to be this kick-drum or whatever, blah blah blah. And music evoves, down the centuries, with instruments and technology. But if I want to pay a tribute to music, I do it by trying to find a link... and it's always kind of funny, you know, it's a challenge to have a really fast punky song with classical violins. I like question marks in music, I like it when music kicks your ass. I went into music because when I was a kid, it was the only way to get out of conservatism, it was a cool world, very free. And now I've been developing with music, and sometimes I think music is more conservative than anything else. I'm not judging: I'm just choosing my way to do things. In the west-of-centre area of Europe where you come from, we've seen so many innovative bands emerge over the past 15 years, like the Swamp Terrorists, Front 242, and yourselves. Why do you think it's been such fertile ground for experimental music recently? Well we have pop bands and grunge bands in Switzerland too, but noone pays any attention to them, because they're not as good as British or American originals. But we all stuck out because we were doing something on our own. It's the same in Germany for Einstürzende Neubauten. Maybe it's a continental thing, but I don't know about that. You've got to understand that it's a different tradition. I grew up not understanding the lyrics to British and American stuff. When your younger, it's a much more musical thing. I think also we got our chance because at the time we started, noone was doing anything with the sampler. At the time it was a lot tougher than it was now, because who cares about a Swiss band? The British press were much more concerned with what was coming out of Britain and America.

Do you think religion has been an influence on your music?
I don't think so, no. There's maybe a touch of mysticism in our lyrics, but not any religion. I'm not a religious man.

A silly question now, just to ruin what had looked like turning out to be a respectable interview, and end it on a low, base and indecent note. If you were a god from any mythology, what god would you be?
Oh... I think I would be something like Prometheus, you know? No, actually, I think I would be a goddess, you know what I mean? They get to make more mess.

The Young Gods were talking to Malcolm, in December 1995.