The Haunted Youth's front man is learning to let go.
During his interview on the Sam Steen Show, on Today Radio, Jauchim opened up about his music making process, learning to love music again, the surprises of performing, and the magic of giving up control.
Jauchim loves analogue. He began making music by playing around with his grandfather's recorders in his small at-home studio. He knows, though, that recorders and tapes are not reliable ways to produce music. His typical song writing process consists of recording a demo digitally, messing around with the demo on a stage with an amp and recording on analogue, and finally combining the two versions digitally. From there, the rest of the band gets the track and it continues to be worked on.
He admits he has always been a bit of a perfectionist and "trapped in his own head" while performing and even just messing around on a guitar. That was until he met Tom Stokx, the guitarist of The Haunted Youth. Tom was able to play without being concerned with perfection. He could find something to love in a track, no matter what it was, while Jauchim struggled with hating a song if it wasn't flawless in every aspect. Tom's love of music rubbed off on Jauchim and he began to like picking up a guitar again.
Jauchim is always nervous when showing a demo to the band, or playing a song on stage. But the reaction from the audience is worth the initial anxiety, saying "when you get a positive reaction it's like, "Oh I'm not the only one who feels like this and it's seeing people get into my music and react the way they do and on YouTube and stuff, I could really feel like I'm not the only one with these feelings, so I shouldn't feel alone on stage when performing them."
Tom and the rest of the band have also started writing music and editing Jauchim's original demos. He says they know exactly what needs to be preserved and what needs to be changed.
Despite the positive changes he's made to his life, and the influence of the other band members, The Haunted Youth's dark, angsty sound is not going to change. The band fully grasps The Haunted Youth's mission, and while Jauchim may be happier, he still refuses to write about "sunny days" because they are not interesting. He believes "if there's no struggle in the story, there's no story."
The Haunted Youth will be playing at Siren's Call this weekend and will have their own show at Rotondes in December.
Their newest album "Dawn of the Freak" is out now.
To listen to the whole conversation on RTL Play, click here, or listen via the player below.
