"Yello" Top: November, 1988 by Anna Martin Have you heard the one about the two gentlemen from Switzerland and their post-cuckoo clock pop? Anna Martin rolls with the punchlines. Swiss creative cohorts Dieter Meier and Boris Blank finally appear to have hit a winning streak. Of course, for a 'group' (in the broadest sense of the word) already well into their eighth term, Yello have experienced past glories, too numerous to mention. This year's most unusual, and perhaps most surprising, hit single, "The Race", was to be the one that skidded effortlessly through clubland and roared up the nation's [England] charts in the process. The eagerly-awaited album _The Flag_ (Phonogram) is quite definitely poised to signal the start of a colourful new pop career. "The Flag has gone back to our roots of sound-making," begins dapper Dieter Meier -- the 'visual' half of the pioneering electro-pop duo. "It's like a fantasy trip around the world in fourty minutes. It's like the picture you have in your head of Cairo -- and you haven't ever been there! Over th years we have become more figurative ... Our last album (_One Second_), for me personally, became too song orientated and too polished. With 'The Race' we combined the craziness of the beginning with the more figurative way of our approach now. It is a very good example of Yello's new direction." "Of course I'm Lying," "The Race" and the latest release "Tied Up" prove to be tempting tasters of an accomplished album, but don't read too much into the words: "I hate 'meaning' that can be translated into words," explains the modestly pony-tailed and immodestly mustachioed Meier. "There is no need to transport meaning with music. I'm not a politician -- I'm a musician. We approach songs very differently ... "Boris will play me his sound-picture and I will invent a character that could appear in that kind of movie scene. I see the lyrics as a monologue or dialogue for this character, and sit by the typewriter with a microphone until I have finished it. I rehearse it like a movie actor. But when the scene is over the dialogue is totally meaningless to me. This is the only way for me to work." But this is not the only path Dieter Meier has followed. Born into a wealthy, aristocratic family, he had ample opportunities at his disposal form an early age, but opting instead for a gamble. Meier did just that. Five hugely profitable years as a professional gambler eventually led him to take up golf. Not one to do things by halves, he soon secured a place on the Swiss National Team! A succession of swift and successful career moves followed -- performance artist, scriptwriter, fashion designer, video and film maker, journalist... anything that was vaguely artistic. You'd think that by the time he'd joined forces with partner Boris Blank in 1980, all musical inclinations would have long atrophied. Thankfully, it's not been so. "Now that I'm successful as a writer, a musician or as a film-maker, people come to me -- not because they like what I am doing, but because they are impressed with the success of it. They always try to tell me that I am now a 'good boy' and want me to admit that the early things I did were stupid. I slap their faces and tell them to get out! They always try to separate the successful Dieter Meier from 'his way'." This successful entrepreneur has impeccable taste, manners and English; two adorable young daughters (one of whom starred in 'The Race' video); numerous prestigious awards to his name and a considerable fortune stashed away in a Swiss bank account. Enough for the average pop star these days, perhaps, but not for Dieter Meier. "England has always been a difficult territory for us. We'd never had a hit album or even a hit single. People can now accept what we're doing even if it's a little bit different," he says. "We started out very strange, with just two cassette recorders, not being able to play instruments. It was a very avant-garde way to do it. When we first played our music to people we knew, they liked it but wanted us to play them something that they could hear. They wanted to hear something where the noise of the tape wasn't louder than the music! "Our first snare drum was a piece of wet cloth being hit against newspapers! We could not help but be different. I am still trying to find some identity in what I am doing -- wherever I am, there is still this invisible rock in front of me, that I am constantly pushing." Dieter Meier, it goes without saying, is deeply impressed by beauty and truth. Yello therefore, has become the perfect music vehicle to accomodate the duo's vivid storytelling and restrained madness. "Boris and myself work so well together because we are so different... I'm lazy and Boris loves to work. I have this Jackson Pollock approach to songs and Boris is the sculptor in marble! But we never have any problems. I'm more like a golfer -- I like to have one swing of expression and then watch the ball flying and get a result. And Boris, he is the sculptor who is chipping away at his block of solid marble. I could never do this. I would probably throw it up into the air and watch it land and break into pieces. And if I liked the pieces, that would be my work!" When he was a young boy, Dieter Meier wanted to be able to play the piano beautifully without having to learn. Now he's become a pop star without really trying. "We know that our albums are not just another fashion item. But of course, we do have our style and our ways. Like with a painter, you can't expect every exhibition to be completely different. And of course, we are also predictable. Sometimes, we have the ability to lose the impact by doing too much. But we have found our brush-strokes," he adds with a smile. "A lot of people think it's been a long fight and a long struggle, but it's not true. We have been successful from day one."