Pegasus on the edge of the abyss "I would never have said I'm depressed and drink too much"
Two members leave the pop band Pegasus. With all their success, the quartet from Biel forgot to talk about their feelings. A documentary film takes a look behind the scenes and shows how the musicians are fighting for their friendship.
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- Pegasus has been one of the most successful pop bands in Switzerland for almost 30 years.
- Last year, Lucerne filmmaker Ivo Amarilli accompanied the four musicians from Biel with his camera.
- During filming, things suddenly came to a crashing halt - Gabriel Spahni and Simon Spahr announced that they would be leaving the band at the end of 2025.
- For Pegasus frontman Noah Veraguth, it was a decision that came "out of nowhere" and felt like a "shock" at first.
- At first, the four musicians were at a loss for words, having lost their emotions for some time - as the film portrait of the band reveals.
Noah Veraguth, Gabriel Spahni, Stefan Brenner and Simon Spahr did not lack courage from an early age.
As soon as the four musicians from Biel started making music together almost 30 years ago, their dreams grew bigger and bigger.
With their band called Pegasus, they wanted to play at the Gurten in Bern one day and even perform at the Hallenstadion in Zurich at some point. They achieved the latter for the first time in 2007 as Joe Cocker's support band.
Gabriel Spahni: "I have to open a new chapter"
What happens when a lifelong dream suddenly shatters from one day to the next?
And what happens when a member of one of Switzerland's most successful pop bands no longer wants to play because he "can't sleep"? And claims: "It's no longer healthy."
Lucerne filmmaker Ivo Amarilli accompanied the band with his camera last year, the craziest twelve months since Pegasus was founded.
The 2024 tour with Circus Knie was not the only thing on the agenda - with a total of 105 performances, more than ever before in one year. The production of a new album was also planned.
But then came July 8, 2024.
On this Monday, Gabriel Spahni, co-songwriter and bassist of Pegasus, informed his three colleagues out of the blue: "I have to start a new chapter."
Specifically, this means that Spahni wants to leave the band at the end of 2025.
A decision that feels like a "shock"
For Pegasus frontman Noah Veraguth, it is a decision "out of the blue". After almost 30 years together, it feels like a "shock" at first. At first there were no words, but the feelings had been there for some time - more on that later.
And in this tense situation, a filmmaker now also wants to hear clever sentences. "I was against this film," says Veraguth at the beginning of the documentary "Pegasus - eine Band macht Schluss", which premiered on SRF2 this Friday evening.
One of the most successful Swiss pop bands, if not the most successful, is suddenly teetering very close to the abyss. But nobody should know about it - at least not yet. Not in July 2024.
It gets worse: one month later, guitarist Simon Spahr also announces that he will be leaving the band at the end of 2025.
The musicians no longer know where "up and down" is
Shortly afterwards, the Circus Knie tour continues in Bern and Pegasus is back on stage together. The band performs as if nothing had happened in the past few weeks.
Noah Veraguth sings about flying, while his head is spinning and in reality he may be about to crash.
Hours before the Bern gig, filmmaker Ivo Amarilli visits the band. The four musicians are standing in front of their "Knie" wardrobe trolley and no longer know where "up and down" is.
Suddenly Noah Veraguth runs off with his guitar and starts singing. Meanwhile, Gabriel Spahni, Stefan Brenner and Simon Spahr Löcher stare holes in the sky. Jeez, what's happening here?
Five minutes before the performance, Veraguth says: "Hey guys, how are we doing it?"
Spahni: "What?"
Veraguth: "Just today ... Full throttle?"
Spahni: "Yeah, sure."
The audience in Bern doesn't seem to notice anything that evening, nor does the Knie family.
Veraguth asks Ivan Frédéric Knie after the performance: "How were we?" Answer: "Super." Mother Géraldine is also thrilled: "Mega."
Noah Veraguth: "We deserve an Oscar"
It's palpable: the uncertainty within the band is getting bigger and bigger. Is the big bang looming?
"We deserve an Oscar for being able to pretend 100 times that we were all still having great fun together," says Noah Veraguth later in the film.
He talks about how disappointed he was that Gabriel Spahni didn't seek a dialog first, but instead presented the band with "just the decision he had made".
A little later, it becomes clear why this might have been the case. "Noah never shows his feelings," drummer Stefan Brenner criticizes the frontman.
That's why he never went to him with problems. He continues: "I would never have said to Noah that I'm depressed and drink too much."
To illustrate the situation, Brenner tells another example: "When I once told Noah that I had ended my relationship, he asked me in all seriousness: What, you had a girlfriend?"
Hardly any talk about feelings within the band
Momoll, the four Pegasus members spent a lot of time together and celebrated one musical success after another. Their two records "Human.Technology" (2011) and "Love & Gunfire" (2014) alone went platinum.
The latter album remained in the Swiss charts for no less than a year and a half.
However, it is possible that the longer the musical successes lasted, the more they blocked the view of other things: there is hardly any talk about feelings within the band.
At the same time, the documentary makes it clear that the four men have been friends for far too long for them to simply throw their decades together on the scrapheap.
Shock, disappointment and disorientation
First the shock. Then disappointment. Later, disorientation. And yet Noah Veraguth, Gabriel Spahni, Stefan Brenner and Simon Spahr soon seem to realize:
A break-up is also possible without noise.
Or as the four musicians say at the end of the documentary "Pegasus - a band breaks up":
Gabriel Spahni: "You never know what will happen in the future. You often have the feeling that you're losing something important, but when you get to a new place, things suddenly look completely different."
Simon Spahr: "We have so many great memories, so I try not to be sad."
Noah Veraguth: "We can't go back, but we can find a way in the future where everyone is happy."
Stefan Brenner: "We were four friends before, we were friends during it and we still are afterwards. It's amazing anyway that we were able to hold on to the same dream together for so long. And two of us are still on board. That's just enough to keep us from rowing in circles."
Pegasus' eighth studio album will bereleased today, Friday, January 17. It is entitled "Twisted Hearts Club". From March 7, the band will be on tour for the last time. Tickets are available here.
