YOUTH CODE’S SARA TAYLOR ON INDUSTRIAL, INFLUENCES AND AUTHENTIC ADVICE

INTERVIEW | SARA TAYLOR – YOUTH CODE by Morgan Hermiston

I recently sat down with one half of Los Angeles industrial duo, Youth Code. As the vocalist, Sara Taylor brings each lyric to life with easily identifiable grit. Accompanied by Ryan George, whose multi-instrumental talents provide a backbone to each track, the pair are securing their place in a combination of genres from industrial to electronic, with an aggressive angst. In this interview with Sara, we discussed musical influences, performing with My Chemical Romance, and the necessity to remain authentic.

Youth Code have recently finished a tour with King Yosef and Street Sects, a three set show that has amassed impressive UK traction. We discussed what fans could have expected to see at these shows. “With this tour, there’s definitely a celebration of a camaraderie that we have accrued across the newer scene of American industrial“. Sara continued, “Prior to Industrial Worship US, we had put out a collaborative record with King Yosef, but we had never played those songs live with King Yosef before“. She also added that, “the audience is going to get a very wonderful serving of what the current aggressive American industrial looks like.“

Offering a comparison of all three groups, Sara said, “you have Street Sects, who are bringing this absolute chaos and mess to everything. You have King Yosef, which is like succinct, thrashing metal turn of it [industrial]. Then you have us [Youth Code], who sort of come up from the punk side of things“.

We also discussed whether influences and creative processes have changed from the release of Youth Code’s 2013 self-titled album, and 2025 EP “Yours With Malice“.

“Absolutely,” Sara began, “there’s a certain naivety to everyone’s first record. For some people, maybe it’s a little bit more focused and a little bit more harnessed“. In terms of Youth Code shes says: “when we were starting way back when, it was like we didn’t have a lot of gear, we didn’t have a lot of stuff in order to make all of this work. We were left to our devices and what we could make with the resources that we had. The goal we had in 2013 was just ‘let’s see what happens’, I don’t think there was really any sort of thought that this would push forward in the level that it had“.

Continuing, Sara explained, “I think that as we’ve grown as artists, and as we’ve found the things that inspire us and change us or mutate, I don’t think any record of ours sounds the same. I think you have the first record, which is a lot more body music driven, but also with influences of power electronics“. Ultimately, “there are so many different types of ways to do this and so many different beautiful slices of the cake…in order to grow in life, you have to shed your skin and keep experimenting with your sound. I don’t want to make the same record over the course of 14 years, or however long we’ve been a band. That would be fuck off the most boring thing in the world to me“.

We talked about reflecting on a different period of our lives with each piece of music. “I listen to such a vast array of music…I’ll go back and listen to the records and think about the emotional situations that I was in at the time that I was writing lyrics. I was sitting with a musician that I respect, and I didn’t know him very well, but he’s a very intuitive person. He told me that I needed to detach from what I’m writing about because he can see that a lot of the things that I’m singing about thematically still have latches in on me. It was a really powerful and interesting thing to hear, because you write from personal experience, or maybe you write from fantasy.“

“For me, I write from personal experience and try to weave it into a poem, so that nobody knows the specific thing of what I’m talking about…I’ll sing some of the songs from ‘Commitment’ and I’m thrown right back emotionally into the same place that I was [at]“. She said, “if there’s chaos going on in my personal life, at the time I’m doing the shows, the emotional response based on what song I’m singing or what box it ticks can be different“.

Following on from what the other artist told her, we spoke about advice Sara would give other people. “I feel like the only thing that I can tell to any one musician…that I hope that they listen to is to be authentically you. There’s so may times where people are going to, if you get a little bit of success, butt in and say ‘what do you think about trying this’“. She continued, “those sorts of small voices are what sometimes makes a creative person go crazy… I think that if you are authentically yourself at all points, you stand behind what you do and back it with everything…I don’t care if you’re making a pop record or a classical record, if that’s what you want to do and you feel it in your heart of hearts, fucking send it“.

We also discussed balancing virality with making what you want. “It depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to blow up and make money and live under the fist of capitalism, then fucking do whatever you wanna do to do that. For me, I never went into making industrial music, I never thought it was gonna be anything more than somebody playing for 50 people in Los Angeles and then throwing it away“. Sara added, “Youth Code is not a very heavy content band. I think we maybe have six or seven photos on our Instagram. I don’t want to see what somebody’s had for lunch, I don’t give a fuck…I sit there and you see all this stress of performance numbers…I know I’m funny, you know, but that’s not why I have this profile. This profile is not to tell you that I personally am funny, this profile is to notify you that this is a band and here are our shows, and here is our merchandise, and here are ticket sales“.

Sara continued by talking about engaging in person. “I usually try to go out to merch [at shows] as much as I can. I did notice that the last time I was on tour, I was at merch every single night and it’s difficult for my throat to scream and also engage in so many conversations. I love engaging with people, I feel so fortunate that people even want to engage with me. How often does one have it in their life that they get emails from other people saying ‘oh a person from across the world wants to pick your brain for half an hour’, it doesn’t happen to the normal person“.

My Chemical Romance are a huge band for fan, and even other groups. Sara performed with them in 2019. We spoke about how this came about, and how friendships last for long if they’re nurtured properly. “I’ve known those dudes since before three cheers. I’ve been friends with them since…Frank [Iero] and I met, I think I was 17, Gerard [Way] and I met when I was 18. The timeline is that I’ve known these people for 20-something years of my life, I’ve known them a very long time. When all that stuff came together about the show, I laughed and was like ‘let me do the verse in person’, and they were like ‘ok’. And then that’s what happened, there’s no depth to it, just me talking shit around my friends“.

The Industrial Worship Tour continues across Europe this month with remaining tickets available here.