Interview with Yello, the techno and synth-pop music pioneers from Zurich
Published 2022-06-07
Boris Blank is the musical brains, but he confesses that he can’t read a score. Dieter Meier is the singer who learned how to sing on the job. Together they are Yello, probably the most globally successful and influential Swiss band in history. These two assumed dilettantes couldn’t be more different from each other – Boris, the shy genius behind the group's unique samples, and Dieter the lyricist and front man, who also doubles as a business maverick, bohemian, conceptual artist, and gambler.
Yello has so many contradictions in its DNA that it’s hard to fathom how the duo became a sudden global hit right from their beginnings, in the early 1980s. Maybe the reason lies in the fact that they have always been outside of all trends and movements.
Blank and Meier welcomed SWI for a chat in their studio in the noble hills overlooking Zurich, but they insisted on being interviewed one after the other rather than together. We asked their manager whether they were no longer on speaking terms, despite displaying genuine brotherly affection and cracking jokes at each other. “It’s a marriage of 40 years,” replied the manager, “and each one of them has his own style and personality”.
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All Comments (10)
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we should also not forget that how clear the sound is. so they do have a very good understanding of where the sound should be in the mix. They have so many samples that they can work with so looking forward of new albums coming out.
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One of the amazing and extra ordinary electronic bands in the world. Boris Blank - is Music of YELLO and Dieter Meier - is Voice of YELLO! OH YEAH! #yello4ever
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Pure Legends
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1987-88 i was a metal head (in México) start dating a dark girl, she introduced me to Yello and i introduced Yello to friends, everybody liked them as much as i... when music was something...
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I think, it's not too much techno and synth pop in Yello music. I think, it's an electronic fusion. They mixed everything,jazz,pop,electro,latina, funk... And of course those wonderful burping and sniffing samples,what add fun in music. But those gentlemen always creates with style and great taste.
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The only West Coast rap vibes i do get is from the song "Oh Yeah" but thats because of the that one synth that went with the funky bassline.
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Würd gern mal die beide Jungs träffe, aber ebe.....unerreichbar au i de schwiiz 😂😂😂❤❤❤
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"The Beginnings of West Coast Rap" ... voellig laecherlich.
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They're great but not pioneers of teccno.
