Biography of Yello (Yello), the iconic electro-pop band

Yello is an electro-pop band from Zurich, founded at the end of the 70s. There are countless fabulous stories about this legendary band, and in particular about their frontman Dieter Meyer! So, for example, one of the most famous is a story from 1972. Years before the Yello project became popular, Meyer installed a plaque at the Kassel train station in Germany with the inscription "Dieter Meyer will stand on this plaque on 23 March 1994 from 15:00 to 16:00". And 22 years after the unveiling, Meyer kept his promise, to the delight of fans (at least one of whom had travelled especially from England) and the general bewilderment of curious passers-by...

Another is the story of Dieter being refused entry to a fetish club in London in the 1990s because he wasn't wearing latex clothing. Meyer reached into the pocket of his elegantly tailored suit and pulled out a pencil with a small rubber eraser on the end. And he was allowed into the club after all.

There are many similar stories, but they all illustrate one fact: Yello is an electronic act unlike any other, bringing a sense of style, character, out-of-the-box thinking and nonchalance... The humorous eccentricity of electropop has ruled the scene for over 40 years! And their latest video - for the track "Limbo", their first new music since 2009 - is the clearest example of this. Meyer and his bandmate Boris Blank show off their trademark sleek cut and moustache in the short film, which seems to combine industrial espionage and warehouse rave...

The collective's backstory ...

The history of Yello dates back to 1967: that's when Boris Blank started recording his first musical opuses on a tape recorder. As the novice musician had no professional instruments, he used... kitchen utensils! Yes, yes! Everything from glasses to knives and even trays took part in the recordings! Boris tried for a long time to adapt his unconventional solutions in bands, but everything was in vain... However, one day everything changed: Blank met Carlos Peron, who had his own professional studio! Soon Dieter Meyer, the son of an oligarch, joined them and Yello was formed....

The team released their debut album on the Ralph label. The record included dance tracks with rich arrangements, a fair share of humour... The most popular songs from the album are "Night Flanger", and "Coast to Polka". It is worth noting that when listening to Solid Pleasure! there is a clear influence of Pink Floyd, as well as Jean-Michel Jarre....

A little about the participants...

In 1983 Carlos Perón left the Yello line-up: by then they had already defined their signature style in 1980s Solid Pleasure. Two members remained... Guest vocalists are now commonplace in pop music, but Yello has been using them for years, collaborating with often unlikely but always truly great singers such as the charming Shirley Bassey.

Blank was originally a lorry driver, but by happy chance he turned - "without musical training or guidance" - into one of the pioneers of the sampling culture! The most remarkable thing is that to this day the musician never learnt to read sheet music! However, this in no way prevents him from creating truly first-class music... He started experimenting with tapes and echo effects as a teenager. He doesn't sample other people's music, but uses sounds he has personally found, starting with sounds he created as a teenager by splashing a bucket of water. Over the years, he has amassed a huge library of over 100,000 noises! Blank serves as the "musical heart" of the band: he composes the songs and is responsible for the distinctive sound, having a reputation as a perfectionist.

Meyer, in particular, has managed to turn his money into "a fortune estimated by a Swiss magazine at $175 million" through investments. We can only imagine the song playing in his head as he puts down his sunglasses with his mouth open in slow motion to view his account statements! The Yello frontman has quite a rich biography: marriage to an aristocratic heiress, running away from the family residence, working as a journalist, being a member of the Swiss national golf team... Meyer was born in Zurich. He began studying law at university, but dropped out before receiving his degree. After that, he worked in a bank and as a professional golfer. As the son of a successful private banker, Meyer became a millionaire as a teenager! Today he is known not only as a musician, but also as a conceptual artist: it was he who erected a commemorative plaque at the train station in Kassel (Germany) with the inscription: "On 23 March 1994, from 3 to 4 p.m., Dieter Meyer will stand on this plaque". And he kept his promise... Meyer is also the director of most of Yello's music videos. In addition, he produces his own wine on his ranch.

Their history is very strange. It seems that Yello was formed by mistake! Meyer had no plans at all to pursue a singing career or form a band, while Blank hated punk and didn't want to work with a singer. Their meeting, according to Meyer, was a "double disaster" for Boris. He felt like a sound engineer doing electronic music, and even a brilliant singer would have put extra strokes on his work...

Nevertheless, they continued to work together, discovering a shared sense of very dry, quirky humour that permeates their entire oeuvre, from track titles to album covers and videos:

"We don't say, 'We have to add some humour or people will be bored!"," Blank notes, "Humour is just something that happens when we're both together!"

Creativity

Yello, a Swiss band made up of two righteous guys, strike cool poses and dance in their studio as they describe how "Oh Yeah" went from just another track to one of the most iconic songs of the decade! The immortal "Oh Yeah" wasn't such a big hit, but became almost ubiquitous in 80's film and television! Blank explains how he wrote the instrumental, which began with a "funky bass line" before Meyer said: "I was totally uninspired by that song. I didn't like it at all..." To get enough inspiration to write lyrics, Blank told his bandmate a special story. "You imagine you're the King of Tonga, the sun is about to set, you're having a great drink, a cool breeze is blowing... What would you say in that situation?"

"Ooooh, yes," Meyer replied.

Their first two albums were released on Ralph, the label run by legendary San Francisco avant-garde musicians The Residents! Their 1981 single "Bostich" - a mixture of relentless synths, disco beats and Meyer's "percussive" vocals - was a huge hit on black radio in the USA!

"They thought we were two black guys rapping," says Blank, still stunned, "not music from the land of cheese and chocolate!"

Success came to the band in 1983. Their singles "I Love You" and "Lost Again" caught the attention of a wide audience! With the release of the album You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess for Yello, the collaboration with Ernst Gamper began. By this time, Carlos Perón had already left the collective.....

The Yellos soon became bona fide pop stars, even though they had no intention of doing so. They had a string of singles that were not particularly popular... 1985's "Vicious Games" was one of the top 10 dance and club singles in the US, and "The Race" reached number 7 in the UK in 1988... They also worked with Shirley Bassey on the 1987 album "The Rhythm Divine".

As for the albums of the 90's - while listening to them you get a feeling as if the musicians had difficulties in the studio to find new ideas and colours...

In autumn 2005, a documentary film about Yello called "Electro Pop" was shown at the Riff Raff cinema in Zurich. The film, directed by Anka Schmid, was shot in Switzerland.

In the spring of 2007, Yello worked on music for an Audi A5 commercial! And in 2016, the band released their 13th album entitled "Toy".

"It was a pretty strange experience," Meyer says. "It was the experience of two kids playing on the beach, moulding things out of sand or whatever else they could find... But then when the success came, it was like those two kids were suddenly taken out into a public place. We signed these contracts with a lot of zeros, when in the beginning nobody had spent a penny to promote Yello. We were eating the sugar of success, but also the sugar of responsibility. Suddenly we had these contracts and we were a racehorse competing in the derby. We lost our childhood as musicians, so to speak..."

"...Only then did we realise that artistically we were running around in circles a little bit. It's a real process to open a new door, to let yourself become a child again, to really let yourself fall, to get the opportunity to make a fool of yourself again... That's what development is about. That's the path we prefer to follow..."