As the band recently played their last gig for their “More Than Noise & Make-Believes” tour, they were asked what was their favorite song on stage. 6 different people, 6 different answers… Discover them!

Read the band members’ answers here

As they were on tour in Australia and Japan, supporting the album “Between Illness And Migration”, I asked the band members to tell us what was the song they enjoyed best live, and why… Here are their answers, along with a few live pictures!

– Stephanie

To play Between Illness and Migration live is so different from recording it or listening to the songs by myself…  At our last show in Tokyo on October 5th, I lived something so intense and fulfilling as we were playing the song “1-2-3 (One Step Away)”, It was as if I could not only understand it better, but live it in a whole new freedom, influenced by how everyone in the room embraced the invitation;
“At 1,2,3, I gotta let it go
At 1,2,3, I need to rise up on my feet… find some upper room”

Everyone had their hands reaching out high in the air, dropping inhibitions, rocking just like so many waves of one big current, carrying in itself so much passion, so many dreams and hopes, so much power also… I’ve been overwhelmed by this tide and even though I decided to keep my hands playing on my keyboard, my heart, my spirit and my emotions were elevated by our united movement. I felt this song was our declaration for the right to say “I’m alive, I’m free and I take a new step toward my promises. And this time, I am not alone, I step out surrounded by people just like me, struggling, imperfect, but willing to let go.”

– Miss Isabel

For me, it’s way too difficult to pick a single song… Every night is so different from one another, and every song means something different to us all! I love to play them all, especially that “Between Illness and Migration” is such a deep voyage in itself, representing all of what we’ve been through individually, as well as collectively!  But, I can chose a moment that really changed my life, and really surprised me, since it only happened once, and to be honest, I don’t really know how this really happened! lol! 

We were in Paris, and during the song “From the City to the Ocean”, Alex climbed on Moose’s kick drum… the communion we were having with our friends in the crowd was unreal. Seeing the people in the crowd with eyes closed, hands in the air, it was like a huge ocean wave, but so beautiful, you couldn’t take your eyes off of it. It was as if that wave came to the shore just for you. I then started to remember how we wrote that song as we were back in “Cow Land Studios” during one of the darkest period of the band, and when we simply decided to forget all of our problems and jumped without any safety net for that song to literally just come out of the blue, as a bottle in the ocean you pick up and see your name written on the piece paper inside… We played that song over and over and over again, remembering how great it is to play music together. As we played, we could see each of our own walls falling down one after the other… A moment I’ll never forget! As if Jesus came to me and said “Get up and walk”. 

It was the same that night. I just wanted to hug my brother Alex while that song was being played! That seemed to be the perfect extent of that beautiful wave in front of us… I was just crying and crying, being so thankful and realizing even more how precious our friendships and relationships are in our lives… This is everything we really have! Unfortunately, those moments have to end, but I know, and all of those who were there that night know, that this very exact moment will live forever, as it was simply perfect! I love you my friends! And there’s no where else I want to be in my life than around you!!!!

– Jeff

I think the song I enjoyed playing live the most throughout the tour was “Open Your Eyes” at the temple in Kyoto. This concert was such an intimate moment with the people. Playing in a temple for me was a vivid representation of this relationship we have with the Japanese people, living this communion by exposing ourselves in a place rooted in their history and cultural heritage. We gave life to this intimacy and this safe place all together, simply by being who we are! Open Your Eyes is a song we shared at the beginning of the band and to see the eyes of the people when Alex shared about the song and when right after I hit the first notes of the song… It was memorable! The new part we have created in the bridge is something really special for me to share. And that night was really magic! The high notes coming out through the intense noise, like a scream for freedom… And right after, during the ambient and peaceful part, some people had their eyes closed, there were all those smiles… we were all flying in a place where nothing could have stopped us from fully living this unique moment all together! 

– Sef

 
Just coming back from Australia and Japan, it’s very special to answer that question. I discovered that for all its different ambiances and dynamics, “1-2-3 (One Step Away)” was surely in my top 3… Yeah, it’s hard to narrow down to only one song! Wanna know which ones are the others? Come and write me we’ll talk about it. “1-2-3 (One Step Away)” evolved in its ending section, as we experienced it in Kyoto… That’s something we discovered about it not during rehearsals, but live on tour. I like the different angles on which we can approach “Between Illness And Migration” in a live setting.

– Moose

My favorite song to play live would be “Where Did We Lose Each Other”. It’s edgy, punchy and playing it live gives me that guts and intensity. I love all the natural dynamics of that songs, which are even more accentuated live. One of the great moment for that song was in Tokyo last October… The people were so into it, it was mind blowing… Seeing them take ownership of that song on such a level really gave me that holy fire inside! And we performed it like mad men! lol! It was like if the sentence ”where did we lose each other” was a common call for all of us, personally and collectively, a call to live.

– Ben

As for Alex, he took a very, very long time to think about it when I asked him. So much I thought he would find a way to avoid the question like he usually does… But no, this time, he came up with a very precise answer… His favorite song to play live is From The City To The Ocean. And he told me that the time the band performed it in Kyoto has been very special. He was unable to explain exactly why. But it seemed to be very clear in his mind… Everything that should absolutely not be done in a temple in Japan has been done on that night… In a vivid and vibrant type of let go…

For everyone of you who already attended a YFE concert, you know that the songs performed live are different from their original album versions. Discover why it happens, how the changes take place, and how they’re inspired in this interview with the band members!

Read the interview here

It truly is an experience. And one that you will never forget. To describe with words what happens is actually impossible. The connection with the band and the crowd is very strong and incredibly intense. So much that at the end of the night it is hard to believe it really happened, yet you can’t deny it did. It is probably because every night they play, the band members die on scene and are reborn again. Because what we live in the crowd, they also live it on stage. Because as we smile in the crowd, they smile on stage. Because when we cry in the crowd, they cry on stage. We arrive at the venue not knowing what will happen, and they don’t know either. Because one song is never played the same way.

“It’s quite funny to say, but we never actually play our songs the same way from a concert to another. We are one of those bands who believe that we are not an iPod playing the songs the same way all over and over again. It’s an all-in type of freedom. It’s imperfect, it’s noisy, it’s sweaty but it’s real. Some nights are on the edge of being a fabulous disaster as much as some nights are a magnificent uplifting epiphany. And the connection with the real people attending the concert is the soul of the night. It’s all about the moment we embrace on stage and the communion we share with the people that shape the songs. This creates incredible moments with the people and makes the rest of the band go completely crazy when I’m going way away from both the form and structure of the songs! ” – Alex, in a recent interview for an Australian magazine

The hardest in all this improvisation that takes place on stage? Ben finds it’s exciting in all its aspects, Jeff finds letting go difficult, Moose sometimes fears his muscles are going to give up, for Sef it’s staying aware of the subtle changes that take place and that he needs to follow, Miss Isabel sometimes wishes she could go back to these moments through recreating the songs. But that’s what a moment is all about. Once it’s over, it keeps living within you and won’t fade away as you’re left with the undeniable impact it had on you. But it can’t ever be recreated again.

Some of their favorite moments?

Jeff: Ti-Guan Bar, Guangzhou, China – May 14, 2011
It was so intense, as if it was the last day of humanity, and that tomorrow would never come! I surprisingly got very close to them while playing, and started to simply scream, like I had never screamed in my entire life. They started screaming back with me, and we had such an awesome time allowing freedom, as nothing else mattered than knowing we were alive!

Sef: Concorde 2, Brighton, England – May 17, 2013
It was during the Empire of Sorrows song just before a crazy and noisy lead. I decided to come to the front of the stage to get closer to the people and live something crazy with them. I don’t have words to describe what I lived inside of me, but I know it was powerful enough to say that I have never been the same on stage since that specific moment…

Moose: Les Mains d’Oeuvre, Paris, France – May 24, 2013
It sometimes happens that Alex climbs on my bass drum and sings his heart out, and it’s always very special to me. There’s this one night though where he suddenly put one foot on my seat and put his head against mine for us to scream together. I’ll never forget this moment. It’s as if in a split second I could feel the years we shared and the walk we walked together to live our dream. Absolutely priceless and eternal!

Ben: Midi Festival, Shanghai, China – May 8, 2011
Alex was talking to the crowd about letting go and dreaming. There was a girl that was so touched by those words… she was screaming and then started crying. I was able to see and feel how liberating that was for her, as if it was the first time she allowed herself that freedom to let everything out. After that, she was so exhausted she couldn’t stand on her feet, and it’s the rest of the people who lifted her up in the air and she left doing body surf. 

Miss Isabel: Red Sugar Jar, Shenzen, China – May 12, 2011
The first time I witnessed such a connection between everyone in the concert room was so intense that all of the sudden there were about 15 people on stage with us dancing and playing with us on our instruments, to realize shortly after we were ALL off stage still playing, creating OUR moment.  I ended up playing a whole song holding the hand of a girl, totally united with her in such a special way, very spiritual… 

A show with Your Favorite Enemies is an experience.
It’s passionate. It’s real. It’s life-changing.
In every daily situation. In every recording. In every show.
Because it’s only a matter of being.

While on their European promo tour, Your Favorite Enemies performed the song “A View From Within”. Here is a video excerpt of the song, filmed both during a rehearsal at John Henry’s studios and during their live performance at the Concorde 2 venue in Brighton, UK.

While on tour in Europe to support the upcoming release of their EP “Youthful Dreams Of An Old Empire”, Your Favorite Enemies had a few of their shows covered by the local medias over there. Here are a few of these reviews, that will also allow you a peak into the band’s latest songs, in a universe of their own!

Read the reviews here