Name: The Haunted Youth
Members: Joachim Liebens, Hanne Smets, Stef Castro, Tom Stokx
Interviewee: Joachim Liebens
Nationality: Belgian
Current release: The Haunted Youth just finished their European tour. Their  debut album Dawn of the Freak is still available via Mayway.  
Recommendations: Francis Bacon – three studies for a crucifix; Van Gogh – crows over the corn field

If you enjoyed this The Haunted Youth interview and would like to keep up to date with their work and music, visit the band's official homepage. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter. 



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I too perceive music and other things in multisensatory ways. I always have either some abstract visual or a film snap in my head when I listen or write music.

I used to paint music when I was younger, or at least have the music be reflected in the painting. I don’t know, it just feel like a tool I can use.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

It was hard. I listened to technically complex music at the time and I just couldn’t play anything I was into.

I tried though, and some of the chords I would play then, I still use every day. But it was just years and years of fuckarounds.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Nothing really, I'm still that emo kid with the skateboard, that also goes to raves, and is looking for emotional experiences through art.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

Drums and guitar for sure, they help me get into the skeleton of what later becomes a song.

It all starts pretty basic, just me and a guitar and the amp, just fucking around with sound.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

What I feel inside.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I wouldn’t define it cause I know how many ways it can go. We’ll see where it ends up.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Well, to me everything is music, cause everything has a frequency on which it vibrates, even things that are not even sound have a frequency. So to me everything is sound in a way.

Let me put it this way, there’s a song playing on the radio, and the pitch of a honking car happens to be in the key of the song, it's almost like it was in the song in the first place. Those things are magical to me.

I also learned that different types of whales have certain types of melodies they sing, some of them actually have “songs”, that grow overtime, and get new pieces added to them, while others are more improvisational, like jazz whales or something haha. I think it’s very cool.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I either feel something or I don’t.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

So far I’ve been leaning on the verse chorus verse chorus bridge outro kinda vibe haha.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I can’t really explain it. It’s always a mess, like a ball of wool I have to unwind.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I generally find a good idea to be the final goal, once I have that, there’s nothing in my way. But the process of getting there sonically is always different.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

It’s like a diary teaches you to reveal things to yourself, really. In that way it helps us understand ourselves and each other.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

It’s about expressing the things you can’t mundanely talk about. And about tuning in to the same frequency.

It's as if you’re tuning people.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Lifelover - “Lethargy”



If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I feel like I’ve only shown so little of what’s inside. So I don’t like to say what’s still on my list, hehe.