Youth Group On Twenty Years Of That Song ‘Forever Young’
Youth Group’s Forever Young has taken on a life of its own across two decades, evolving from a one‑off TV commission into a song that’s become woven into graduations, funerals, and countless personal moments. As the band marks its twentieth anniversary alongside the twenty first birthday of Skeleton Jar, Toby Martin reflects on how a cover unexpectedly took on a life of its own and the chemistry that’s kept Youth Group creating for nearly thirty years.
Twenty years of Forever Young is an incredible milestone. Did you ever think it would have the longevity, impact, and continue to build its own legacy?
Not when we first recorded it, definitely. When we first recorded it, it was just literally a commission for The OC that we thought was going to be literally for the TV episode, and probably would be a bit of a curiosity, like a bit of a one‑off. Then one thing led to another, and I guess by the time it was number one in Australia for all that time, and then at the end of that year, maybe it was becoming a bit clearer that it was going to be sticking around for a while. But I guess when you’re in the middle of the hot, hot heat of being in a band, you don’t really stop to think, like, is this going to be around for a while? After a couple of years of it being out, I guess it was pretty clear we’d be playing it a lot.
Was that the only motivation for doing the song was for The OC, or was it something that might have made its way onto a B‑side or a covers album?
No, definitely, we never would have recorded it if they hadn’t asked us to. I’d never even heard the song before they asked us to. Well, maybe I vaguely heard it, but I didn’t know it well. Yeah, no, totally. I mean, The OC had already put Shadowland on an episode in the previous season, and that was really great for us and helped a lot in touring in America. When they asked us to do the cover, I was like, yeah, well, why not? This is a fun challenge, and it’s great to be on The OC again. But yeah, it was only because they asked us.
When you reflect on it now, do you see it as a blessing or a curse? Some bands have that one song that isn’t necessarily theirs, but it’s the only one people identify with, even though you’ve done lots of great things since.
It feels like it’s sort of dividing people who know us a bit. I think there are some people who probably just only know that song and then there are other people who probably like the albums more than that song, and probably don’t care so much for Forever Young. So it feels like this weird sort of… almost felt like our audience went split in two a bit, and we could sort of tell that was happening when we were playing gigs. I think it’s still the case, in a way. People who are not massive music fans, maybe don’t listen to heaps of music, would never have heard the band name Youth Group, but they will have heard that song. But then there’s others who are like, yeah, I’m not interested in that. So yeah, it’s kind of like a weird split, I suppose.
Even now, did you ever think it’ll continue to blow up? It seems to go in phases and have its own little resurgence at different times of the year.
That’s true, I think there’s some element, I don’t know when it happened, probably quite early on where it really stopped becoming us in a way, and it became this thing that… this song that was, like, sounds really wanky, but sort of for everybody, and would be used in a variety of ways. It wasn’t really even about us anymore. I know it’s been used quite a lot at people’s funerals, which is a really beautiful thing, that version of that song is resonant enough for people to want to play it at such an important moment. But also, I think high school and primary school graduations, and other kinds of occasions like that. So it’s become this thing in the air that really doesn’t have anything to do with us. I mean, I know we recorded it, but it sort of has its own life now.
What did you think of the original version when you played it? Did you think, “How are we going to put the Youth Group spin on this?”
Oh, well, it was good, I mean, because the original is so different to how we did it. I think doing a cover, you want to be able to put your own spin on it, without changing it ridiculously, that would not be the point. But because the original’s so 80s, and so synthy, and the singing style is sort of quite 80s as well, it was quite an open slate. For us, that was a really beautiful moment for us as a band. We’d just released Skeleton Jar, and at that moment of releasing it, the whole line-up of Youth Group completely changed. Patrick and Cameron, bass and guitar, had just joined the band, and Forever Young was one of the very first recordings we did as that particular group, which then went on to be the classic Youth Group line-up, which still exists. So in some ways, for us personally, it’s like a document of that moment for the band sort of restarting, in a way. I can really hear a template of how the four of us interact with each other and play on that record. It’s very much the product of the four of us, with all our own parts.
Sometimes I ask myself why we would still make records and tour when it’s a band that formed almost thirty years ago. We played our first gig in 1998. So why would we keep doing it? The answer I tell myself is that when the four of us are together playing music, there’s something very special. The chemistry between the four of us and the way our parts interact with each other really doesn’t exist anywhere else and for me, Forever Young was the first time that happened, and in some ways has sustained us till now. We keep putting out records and still loving it, so that’s a very personal thing, a nice thing to have.
Thirty years is nothing to be sneezed at. That’s an incredible milestone.
Yeah. I suppose twenty eight years, but there’s been a lot of changes. Me and Danny were the founding members, with Andy and Paul who played bass and guitar then. People came and went, Jono played bass between, and then this line-up came together in 2005? 2004?
With the remixed and reimagined versions, were the collaborators obvious choices in your mind?
Yeah, well, it started with Paul Mac. Paul Mac did the remix which appears on the War Child compilation, the charity for children in war zones. That’s the Australian version of War Child. Paul was someone I’d wanted to work with for a while. He’s a mate, and I work with him at the Conservatorium of Music at Sydney Uni. We’re colleagues, we hang out a lot and talk about music. He’s an amazing electronic dance music producer and musician, so it was like, well, I’d love Paul to do it. Paul’s take on it was really great, he changed a lot of the chords to make them quite minor chords. It’s one step again: the original Alphaville version, then our version, and then Paul’s is one step again in a different direction. It’s quite dark, minor chords, dark synth. I really loved that take on it.
And the other remixes?
There are three other remixes, and they were people we knew, we liked their music. One of them is Danny from Youth Group, he remixes under his name Soft Focus. Everyone put their own spin on it. I kind of like it because when I used to buy 12‑inch records of dance tracks, there’d always be about four remixes of the same track on it. I’ve still got a few 12‑inches like that, which I love. I kind of like that idea of having a bunch of different remixes, and you can have your favourite.
Were you surprised by the results?
Yeah. Well, I didn’t know what to expect at all, because I’d never been involved in a remix before. Oh, no, that’s not true! I’m always surprised by the results. It’s never what I expect. Yeah, I was super surprised by Paul’s when he played it to me for the first time. It was like, my god, all the chords have changed! Did not expect that at all. But it’s one of the beauties of being in a band and collaborating with other people. People’s guitar parts surprise you, and their drum parts, and we’ve had artwork done by these artists Sunny and Biddy for ages, and every time they do a cover for us, it’s always a surprise, but it’s always kind of right, you know what I mean? So yeah, that’s kind of the nice thing about being in a band for so long, collaborating with different people, and trusting them to do something cool. Being surprised at first, and then going, yep, well, that was right.
Also, it’s a double anniversary, Skeleton Jar as well. Creates a lot of great possibilities with the upcoming tour dates?
Yeah, well, we can’t play Forever Young twenty times, so what else should we do? It felt like Skeleton Jar’s twenty one, that’s a pretty good birthday to celebrate. A good time to revisit it. We still play songs off Skeleton Jar a lot, like Shadowland and Skeleton Jar itself, but there’s quite a lot of other tracks on that record which we have not played as a band for a very long time. So it felt like, well, yeah, let’s do that. It’s not like we’re always nostalgic, last year we did a tour for the new record Big Whoop, pretty much played all the stuff off the new record. But this time it was like, yeah, let’s make this a package and for us, it was all part of the same moment. When we recorded Forever Young, it was around the same time that Skeleton Jar came out internationally, a year after the Australian release. Weirdly enough, in that world when everything wasn’t instantaneous globally. So for us, it’s all a bit wrapped up. I remember recording Forever Young, and re‑releasing Skeleton Jar, and still touring Skeleton Jar, so it’s all part of the same kind of moment for me.
What’s next for Youth Group? You’ve got these tour dates, celebrating Forever Young and the twenty first anniversary of Skeleton Jar. Beyond that, what’s the plan? Do you look to tour around the country?
Just make twenty more remixes of it! Well… probably not too much more touring. We’ll do this tour which will be enough for a while, I think. I don’t know we’ll do another record, I guess. Just have to write some songs, but I’m sure that’ll happen. Well, let’s see… what was the gap between Australian Halloween and Big Whoop? It was like five years, somaybe in four years time for another album.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch Youth Group on the following dates, tickets HERE…
