King Yosef burst onto the scene about five years ago with the album A Skeleton Key in the Door of Depression, in collaboration with Youth Code. His name evokes apocalyptic chaos and outbursts of rage on a biblical scale. Yet, over time, the Oregon-born artist has increasingly revealed a taste for melancholic atmospheres in his experiments, grafting more fragile elements onto his explosive mix of industrial metal, hardcore, and trap, offering a glimpse of a deeply personal sensibility. Not even thirty years old, Tayves Pelleter is breathing new life into the genre in his own way, with authenticity and, as is often the case with young artists, a desire to shake up the rules to offer a unique vision that reflects who he is.
During his stop in Paris alongside Youth Code and Street Sects (we covered it here), we sat down with him for an interview. He reflects on his relationship with his art and with life: do we remain just as angry when we grow up? Do we learn to stop being afraid to speak in front of others?
When you released the single Via Coactus, it was presented as a song about empathy and acceptance... and when I listened to it, my first reaction was "what the fuck ? Is that what empathy and acceptance sounds like for him ?"!
Yeah! I wrote that song when me and my wife were on a trip. I was just thinking about how your dad, your grandpa, your grandma, everybody before you, they all influence what's going to happen for you. Things are not always good and even if you do really great, your sister might not do great, your cousin might not do great. It's about the acceptance of that and saying "that's ok because I love them". Knowing it's ok and that happens, me loving them through them might be the thing that breaks this bad situation. That's the idea of the song, when I say "What I can't pay my blood will". I'm not in trouble, I got off scot-free, but my family members still struggle, they still fight. As long as I'm aware of them and I love them, maybe they'll win too !
What makes you want to write a song in the first place? Is it a sound you want to work with or an emotion you need to express?
Most of the time it's a sound. For Molting Fear, the second single of the album, I knew I wanted something pummelling. That's what I started with, very simply, and that song just happened because of that. It's definitely a feeling and a sound choice. A pummelling sound wouldn't be soft, you know, you don't say "I want something pummelling in a sweet way". The sound and the feeling inform each other.
Your music is a mix between a lot of things and old fashion "industrial bigots" can feel a bit lost. When you're an artist, do you have a duty to disobey the rules and the codes in order to find your own identity ?
I think whatever happens next in music isn't gonna happen from just stealing from the past. It doesn't always work for me, it doesn't always pan out well because many older people in the genre that I'm a part of don't the way that I do things, which is fine. But how do we invite new people to participate and bring new ideas? I don't think I'm the best in the world but I really try to have new ideas. My hope would be that there's a kid out there who is hearing my ideas and his ideas will be a thousand times better than mine! It is my job to carry that... You know, I love Skinny Puppy. Do I need to make an album that sounds like Skinny Puppy? Too Dark Park already exists! I'm not gonna beat them, they're already way better than me! To me, it's important to wear my influences and be honest about them because it's gonna get me to new places and hopefully the next person that follows the same steps goes way further than I ever was.
Is it still relevant to try to label music as "industrial" or anything else, or do you have the feeling that younger artists today may be more open minded about music and don't really care about those genres?
The internet changed all of that. There's no boundaries anymore. I didn't grow up in a major area or a big city. There was nobody older than me to tell me "you can't like those two things!". You know, like, "you're an industrial fan? Well, you can't like this type of things!". I didn't have anyone to tell me that. I think I'm part of the first generation to feel that and I'm excited about the new generation because I think they'll make a thousand times crazier music that what has been done before. There's a ratio of bad music that is coming out, of course, but that never stops. I'm hopeful that new things that happen will be even crazier because there are no rules anymore. When there are rules, people should know how to disobey them. You've got to honor the tradition, to know where you come from, but also, very respectfully, be able to say "I'm going my own way now".
Your last album was named Spire of Fear. What is fear to you? What are you afraid of?
The Spire of Fear, to me, was like an alter. On the previous album, I sorted through a bunch of stuff. I'd gone through my personal trauma, my history, all those things. When I finished it, I wasn't better. I wasn't like "I'm a brand new person and I'm just fine". So what am I left with? What do i need to do to be happy when I'll get to the end of my life? That's fear. I think fear is not only "oh, I need to talk in front of people and I'm scared". Imagine it's gonna be the last ten minutes of our lives and it's when you think of all the things that you could have done. Are you gonna do them or not? To me, this whole album is just about "I can only do that" because any other way it's gonna fail me and I'll be so sad to see it go. That's fear. The Spire of Fear is kneeling down to the altar : it's ok to be scared, it's ok to be terrified. That's also why this album ends positively to me because it says that you have to deal with that, we all collectively have to accept that. And that's terrifying, we don't talk about it.
So in the end when you're asked what scares you, your first answer is... talking to people?
Yeah! Public speaking, singing, public bathrooms!
How do you put fear into sounds? In general are you working more on instinct or so you think a lot about your creative process?
It's the instinct for me. I think about music a lot, about what's in the back, in the front and in a bidimensional way. In a lot of King Yosef's songs there will be white noises or a terrible sounds very quiet in the background of everything but only on the right side because I put nice things on the left side. It will be so quiet you won't even notice it but I'll make it go up a little bit the whole entire song. It's things like that, when you think about the dimensions of the sound. I want things to feel like you can picture the world that you're listening to if you close your eyes. There are certain things you can do that are just terrifying. It's really easy to use bad chords, big reverb far away in the back, spooky and ominous things. I also love film scores and I think all those things gave me the tools to be able to think about all that.
Previously, you said that, basically, musical therapy is not working. Does it feel better talking about all this fear, letting all this rage out, or is it trapping you in a loop of anxiety and anger?
I used to worry about that a lot, actually. But once you trap this negativity in a song, you get to decide when you visit it. For example, when we perform some songs, they will make me emotional at times. But it's not because I'm feeling all these bad things. It feels more like winning! It's like when you see a friend for the first time in a long time and you want to give him a huge hug and it makes you want to cry. I think my music positively affects me, your emotions start shifting against it. I think the most important thing is to not get mechanical about it because when you play songs over and over again it's really easy to fall into a routine like "in two seconds I'll take a breath and I'll walk to this side of the stage"... I try to avoid that. I'd rather hurt my feelings with my songs and have to fight tears than be mechanical. I think I don't even recognize how much it affects me until like a year later when I remember I wrote something in my notebook and all my feelings about it... Well, I guess it must have worked but when there's a million small changes over some amount of time, you'll never notice them until you're on the other side and you've climbed the mountain.
Your music has more melancholic and atmospheric parts. Is it what happens when you live long enough to pass the age of 27?
Yeah! It also became that way for two reasons. First, I didn't want to always be the angry music guy. I don't want to be one-dimensional. Wouldn't it be so lame to be 50 and still be mad about the things I wrote when I was 20? That sucks! And two, I couldn't express everything I wanted to feel. My favorite records and my favorite songs on every albums are the one that just make me want to cry. I'll never get to write those songs if my music is always mad. The melancholy came out that way too. If I write a song about someone passing in my life, will it be an angry song? No. It came very naturally but also by design because I didn't want to trap myself into a box. I want to go down any road I want to. If in two years I release an album that is mostly soft, I don't think anybody would be that surprised because I already laid that groundwork.
Are you finding some peace or is all this rage evolving into something else?
Yeah, maybe... I think everybody's born with a set of problems. You try to solve them and it shows you new things. The problems always change. The problems you have when you're 20 change when your parents get older and you suddenly think about how they're gonna die someday. Then your grandparents leave you and your siblings around you get older, the problems continue to change. It's like a rubik's cube that you can only solve one side. But I don't think that's bad. I think that's life. I try to find peace in that and just accept it : I'm still gonna have problems, you know? That's it, it's what we've got!
You released the album on your own label and you invited some friends to be on it. Is it important to be surrounded by friends when you're doing everything yourself?
You know there's a saying: "it takes a village to raise a child". It also takes a village to raise an album! It is emotionally important to me. My music is weird, so that's why it exists on my own label because labels don't understand it and I would rather be on my own terms. And every time someone buys a record, everytime a record is shipped out, at least in the US, that record is being shipped by me or my wife or one of my best friends, no matter what. Everything's handled with care. And it's so important to me. Having people on the album as well. It's the first album where I recorded vocals in Portland, where I live, and all my friends were able to stop by in the studio. They would tell me they don't like this but they like that, etc. It's important because they're honest to you. You don't want a bunch of people around you saying "oooh you're the best!". All my best friends are super honest with me, they give me ideas...
So when they say they liked your music, does that make you want to change it or to keep it that way?
Haha! You know, what's funny is that you often show certain people certain things because you know their taste. What I do is showing for example Glimmer, that has more goth influences, to someone who doesn't know anything about goth music! I have to think about the people who don't understand that type of music and don't have the references. If they like it, that might be good! But I also have friends who only listen to hardcore and death metal and I'll send them the heavier song to see if they can hear the breakdown and the two-steps part because industrial people might not get that. They won't understand the mosh aspects of a song like that. It does depend. If certain people say "oh, I like that", I might change it, yeah!
Does it feel lonely to write music and do your things on your own ?
It could be sometimes. I think it's like when people talk about running. They can't think about anything else in the whole world in that moment! The only thing I have is myself, I think it's what it is for me. It's an entanglement thing where the thing I am creating is so mine! It's not a sad thing, it's a really pretty thing, it's my gift! Nobody can change it, nobody can make it different, it's solely my thing. In a world where it sometimes feels like nothing belongs to you, to be by yourself and create a piece of music is beautiful. I work a lot but I also love the mads scientist aspect when you're just by yourself, days writing and twisting things over and over again. In the end you're like "oh I did it!".
When you collaborate with other artists, are you the kind of person who stays in control of everything, or do you let some space to receive new ideas?
It very much depends on who I'm working with and in what context. When I asked Ryan from Holy Fawn to be on the last album, I knew exactly what kind of voice I wanted. The same way I hope people think of me when they ask me for features or things like that : that person is like another instrument and do things I can't do. You're asking a specialist to do a specialty thing. You should alway try not to control them but their interpretation of your vision is gonna give you the way you want to go. I would say most of the time, if I work with somebody, I have an idea in mind. They do something I can't and that's why it's so cool.
What are the most important things you've learned the past few years?
Trusting myself for sure! The last album's the fastest I've ever written. Which is pretty hilarioous to me because it's also the most well-received record I've ever made! I wrote it in nine months and the actual production time was very short. A lot of that is possible because I trust myself. What I do is my music. We've toured a lot during the last two years. Finding a balance, finding our crew, figuring out how to communicate with my friends when I'm on tour, learning how to rest, how to engage with people, try to show on our best all the time. I don't know if you guys have that in France but I feel a bit like football players on interview, you know : "oh it's all about my team, every match is different, etc". Classic american sport conference! But yeah, a lot of what I've learned would be trusting myself, how we operate in a context of live music and really learning how to rest. It's hard to write music if you can't absorb things. As lame as it is, we are reflections or everything that we intake. So learning how to intake more things and feeling ok with not working all the time!
Do you enjoy touring? It can be really hard.
The two things can be true: it is the best thing in the world and it is the worst thing in the world! I think the older I get the only thing I really care about is going to new places and talking to new people about where they live and what they experience. It makes the world not so scary. I get to do that and it's one of the coolest thing. But there also is the lack of sleep, you miss people's lives, But also when you play a good concert, when people show up and participate to your art is one of the greatest gift in the world. Yeah, I love it and I hate it!
Is it easy to play your music in front of people?
No it's not easy. It took be a long time to learn how to talk to a crowd and to be better on stage. It's starting to feel good. For a long time it was really hard.
What kind of music do you listen on tour?
I listen to so much ambient music. If it doesn't have words, the better for me. I listen to this artist named Abul Mogard. He's italian, he was an industry worker who makes ambient music now. That's my wake up in the morning music, my cooking music, my airplane music, that's my everything music! And Boards of Canada is my number one of all time! It's my main listening. I've listened to so much music in my life music that I respectfully illegally downloaded as a teenager... It takes a lot now to feel the rush, you know, that feel when you buy a record and it seems made for you. My standards have got too damn high! It's super annoying! So I don't try to chase that dragon all the time. Nowadays, if I want something like death metal, I know I want to listen to Bolt Thrower because it's gonna scratch my itch. I'm trying to find new music all the time but I mainly listen ambient music. It doesn't influence me much either, you know? If I just listen to Alec Empire or Youth Code all the time, I would just probably end up sounding like them.
The situation is a bit weird nowadays between the United States and Europe. You're currently touring with american artists... Is it something that you can feel, that you have in mind or that you're talking about between yourselves?
It's very strange because I would like to think that I'm on the correct side of things politically, as someone who reads and tries to pay attention to the rest of the world. But sometimes I feel like I'm walking around like a clown. You know, because of my country, I'm some kind of an ambassador for this thing that sucks really bad and it sometimes feels like everything that I do influences that. We can't be freed from the chains of participating : I pay taxes and it goes to fucking everybody around the world, I go to the grocery stores to buy something and it goes to paying a corporation to fuck more people all over the world... So yeah, it's really strange. It feels very weird to be here and be welcomed with so much kindness by so many people and my country to be something everybody laughs at. Of course, we are funny, that's true, but we also are so fucking terrifying... We are basically constantly threatening the world and that's not what I want! We talk about it all the time. Everytime someone says to us "you guys said that..." talking about my country or our president, I need to answer "no, HE said, not me!". It's like touring : two things can be true, we can be the best in the world but we can be the worst!
Let's hope we won't have to kill each other next time because "someone" said we must!
Yeah!
