Born on November 14th: Franz Treichler (The Young Gods) doesn't come from Mount Olympus, but from the Swiss mountains.

Franz Treichler was born in Fribourg in 1961. The only permanent member of the unclassifiable Swiss trio, he has presided over its destiny since 1985.

His full name (hold your breath) Francis José Conceição Leitão Treichler clearly indicates Brazilian roots, which, it should be noted, are hardly audible in his music. While his mother was a Swiss German speaker, his father worked for many years on international Portuguese-language broadcasts for Swiss radio.

As a child, he learned classical guitar (an instrument he still manhandles on stage in its electric version) but began, in the early 1980s, to experiment with sound collages on a small four-track recorder. At that time, and in much less abrupt forms, Switzerland had two other representatives of an electronic Deutsche Welle: Fehlfarben and Grauzone, Stephan Eicher's first band. Four decades have passed, and Franz Treichler continues to experiment with dissonance with the same relish. In this sense, he remains faithful to Michael Gira, the leader of the American industrial band Swans, whose song "Young God" served as his blueprint.

From the mid-1980s onward, with Cesare Pizzi (sampling wizard) and Frank Bagnoud (drums), the core idea was to create a rock sound in which traditional riffs were replaced by samples.

In 1987, their self-titled debut album laid the foundations for an industrial rock built on samples, a pounding drumbeat, and Franz's cavernous vocals. At the same time as their compatriot Stephan Eicher, now more mellow, was enjoying his first French hit with "Combien de temps," the Young Gods were also paying homage to the French language with somewhat obscure titles like "Fais la mouette" (sic) or "Nous de la lune." But the comparison ends there! Even though their second album for the Belgian label Play It Again Sam! In 1989 (their best album in my opinion), they also included a French track, "L'eau rouge," and some truly remarkable songs like the hypnotic "L'amourir." At the time, people thought Arno and the turbulent Franz had a few things in common…

In the 1990s, they continued to defy categorization, notably by adapting Kurt Weill's famous "Threepenny Opera" (1928) in a radically new way. In 2025, to celebrate their fortieth anniversary, the Young Gods released their thirteenth album, "Appear Disappear," and embarked on another tour, still as an apocalyptic trio that occasionally indulges in repetitive and captivating electronic flourishes.

Alongside his work with the band, Franz Treichler has quite a few other strings to his bow. He brought his unique perspective to French independent bands like Bérurier Noir and the precursors of Treponem Pal, and also lent his uncompromising remixing talents to Noir Désir and That Petrol Emotion. He also wrote numerous scores for contemporary dance performances (primarily for Gilles Jobin) and created soundscapes for avant-garde performances, cutting-edge exhibitions, and a few Dadaist-inspired films. "I've always wanted to make rock music with a different kind of technology, blending different aesthetic approaches that some consider incompatible," he explains. Mission accomplished, Franz!

On tour:

November 19: De Heling - Utrecht (Netherlands)

November 20: Botanique - Brussels (Belgium)

November 21: Trabendo - Paris (France)

November 22: La Vapeur - Dijon (France)

And also in Germany, in Eastern European countries and of course throughout Switzerland, including two evenings in his hometown of Fribourg on December 18th and 19th.

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Franz Treichler with The Young Gods at the Sinners’ Day festival in Ostend (Belgium) on August 25, 2021