Los Angeles-based duo Sara Taylor and
Ryan George founded
Youth Code in 2012, six months after they started dating, and initially put together the project to play for local record store Vacation Vinyl, where Taylor worked. No strangers to the music scene -- with
George originally fronting straight-edge punk outfit
Carry On and Taylor working as a tour manager -- the pair quickly turned heads with their brutal mix of EBM and industrial. Their first recorded material appeared on a demo cassette just a few months after their initial live show and featured four tracks that had been recorded just prior. Hooking up with Angry Love Productions -- a label run by
Psychic TV's Edward O'Dowd -- for their first proper release, the single Keep Falling Apart appeared in mid-2013, followed quickly by their self-titled debut album, released on Dais Records. With their sound crossing over into the hardcore punk scene they had come from and the EBM and industrial scenes, the pair found themselves being asked to support the likes of punk outfit
AFI, shoegaze-inspired
Nothing, and industrial pioneers
Front 242 in the beginning of 2014.
Youth Code released an EP,
A Place to Stand, in September, again on Dais Records, which was remixed by the likes of former Sandwell District member
Silent Servant, noise-hop merchants
clipping, and Florida-based dark electronica outfit
God Module. The compilation An Overture, bringing together the entire band's output up to that point, was released just a month later. The duo followed with a year of extensive and successful touring with industrial legends
Skinny Puppy before releasing their second full-length release,
Commitment to Complications, in 2016. ~ Rich Wilson