Presented here on IDIOTEQ through “Rite Of Passage” video premiere this past Summer, German post hardcore act YOUNGER US and their debut 12” EP “Graustark” were one of the most reflective and conditioned post hardcore EPs this year and you can literally hear these guys took exceptional care in crafting their debut recoding. Ultimately, we have received a slowly burning, fluid listen that builds up to quite powerful conclusion. “Graustark” proves that you don’t need a super fast hardcore record to rate it incredibly striking. This band deserved a follow-up entry on IDIOTEQ and here it is. Read my interview with YOUNGER US below.
“Graustark” Ep was released on September 18th via Through Love Rec, Day By Day Rec., Koepfen,Tief in Marcellos Schuld Records & Teenwolves Records.
Hey guys! The last time we spoke, “Graustark” had yet to be released. Now that the record is out and the kids out there are more familiar with this great material, how does it feel receiving some more reviews, feedback and I guess playing these tracks live?
Hey Karol! First of all, thank you! The reception has been beyond our imagination so far, people really seem to dig the record a lot. We are receiving good and honest reviews and are blown away again and again by people telling us how much they like it. By now we have only played our release show which again was completely insane, so many people showing interest in what we do is just crazy to us. We have played some of the songs before we released Graustark just because we were too stoked on playing them but now that the record is finally out we are really looking forward to playing more shows and being able to play the EP in its entirety.
Cool. By the way, how was your record release party? Shoot us some more details. Who did you share stage with and how was the gig?
It was amazing man, just the perfect way to celebrate the release. We asked our friends in GUIDELINES, LIKE LOVERS & START A FIRE to share the evening with us & luckily they were all up for it. Everyone really seemed to enjoy all the bands and the different vibes they all created. The show itself was sick, even though we had around 8 months without any rehearsal we spent the entire week before the show in the rehearsal room to make sure we would do the best we possibly could. We are also very happy that we could have this night at our homebase Juha West because this place means quite a lot to all of us and is basically the last good location for shows like that in Stuttgart.
The record is being supported by the amazing labels Through Love Rec, Day By Day Rec., Koepfen, Tief in Marcellos Schuld Records & Teenwolves Records. How did you team up with these guys and how did you decide to work with these particular labels?
Yeah we’re really happy to be working with all of these amazing labels. Koepfen approached us roughly a thousand years ago when we had just released „II” & said they really liked what we were doing & would love to get involved in future projects so we have always kept in touch with Peter & he was always up for releasing „Graustark“. We met Dennis who runs Tief In Marcellos Schuld when we shared the stage with his band always wanted war earlier last year. We got along quite well immediately & when I shot him a message saying that we wanted to release an ep he was interested right away. Both Through Love & Teenwolves were recommended to us from various friends so we basically just wrote Paul & Mario an email & told them what we had planned & asked if they were interested in working with us at all. Lastly, as day by day is run by me it was just an obvious decision to release it through my own label as well.
It was really cool to see a nice visual for your track ”Rite Of Passage”. Any particular goal in mind when creating this video?
We got together with some people form the HTWG in Constance that had to do a music video for their semester project. They asked if we would be interested in working with them and we happily said yes. We met up with them and talked through various ideas we as a band had but basically told them since it’s their project they can basically do what they want. They developed a story that would go together with the lyrics, presented it to us & we really liked what they had come up with. We just wanted to make a video that has a certain weirdness to it & that’s not just a simple performance video or something like that.
Will there be more music videos coming up for you guys soon?
We have a few things in mind, but we have been quite busy with the release itself so that we didn’t manage to follow up on any of these ideas. Hopefully we will find some time towards the end of the year to work on another one.
Ok guys, so let’s dive into the depths of this new record. Where did you get the idea to come up with the lyrics for this EP? Is this more of a personal release?
We are not a very political band, that does not mean we all do not have political opinions, they are just not represented in our music or our lyrics. Most of the lyrics are written by our singer Jan and me. Jan usually comes up with a rough idea and a certain theme & we then work on them together and bounce ideas off of each other. Therefore the lyrics are very personal but not always autobiographical, I personally see it more as a story the we tell but that we can definitely relate to.
Ok guys, so how did you get your start into hardcore? Please tell us a bit about your background, local music scene and other possible projects you’ve been working on.
For me personally, I got introduced to hardcore through some mates. I started working at Juha West, one of the last resorts for hardcore music in and around Stuttgart, where I got the chance to see & meet some incredible bands. We don’t have any other projects that we work on as we are all very busy with work or uni and it can get pretty difficult to manage YOUNGER US and uni from time to time.
What are your next steps as a band? Is there already an estimated timeline for your full length record?
We are trying to play as many shows as possible, which again can get quite difficult due to our busy schedules. We started writing again a few weeks back but we don’t want to create any pressure & just see where it leads, even though we all really want to write & release a full length record.
Ok guys, thanks a lot for your time and once again congratulations on the new record and much continued success! The last words are yours.
Thanks so much Karol, we massively appreciate what you do. Thanks to everyone who cares about what we do, we are forever grateful!
