Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? X-Vivo

How was the band formed? Our original founding took place back in 2006. Alex our guitar player was the main initiator and had already brought several of his ideas to reality at this point. He then ignited the first spark by bringing the people together, talking about the concept, the songs and therefore creating the first version of X-Vivo. Over the years to come we had our fair share of ups and downs which left us in the need for a recreation in 2011.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?

The main part of X-Vivo is actually from Berlin in Germany. The only exception so to speak is Alina our “Siberian Beast” on bass from the heart of mother Russia.

Kai - Lead Vocals
Alex - Guitar, Vocals, overall master mind
Alina - Bass, Vocals, Piano
Olli - Sounds, Cuts, Vocals

What was the ambitions of the band when you started?

At first it was mainly to bring the ideas and the music from our heads into life and later on also directly onto the stage. In the aftermath this experience (and for some of us it was the first on stage experience at this point) gave us such a huge powerboost that we simply needed to keep on track.

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? X-Vivo is a combination of heavy riffs with synthetic sounds patterns, pianos and electronic added drums including a variety of voices ranging from screams and rap vocals up to clean singing. All mixed up in one awesome cocktail.

Where was your first gig? As main and only part of a self organized show in the Weiskopffclub in Berlin.

Where was the latest gig? At the K17 also in Berlin as part of the “Alternative Metal Night” lineup.

Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? The main idea for the music normally originates from Alex while the lyrics are mainly created by Alina, Kai and Olli, but the further development of each song until creating its final form is teamwork.

Who has the best since of humor in the band? Do you mean best or most wicked :)? We would say our vocalist Kai but the rest is up in a very close second place.

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? From our perspective Alternative / Industrial Metal suits the most.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We mainly focus on our own material, but we also for adapted for example Spineshanks “Asthmatic” for our live set.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? Up to this point we unleashed one demo “Evil One” in 2007, one a full-length album called “EgoPhobia” in 2009 and one EP named “Out Of The Smell Of Decay” in the early dawn of 2013 which all can be found in our local web store or directly on our homepage http://www.x-vivo.de

Do you have any clips on YouTube? Definitely yes! Over the time we had the joy to work together with quite a bunch of very talented and motivated people. Thus, if you check our channel on YouTube you will find some really nice live footage which catches the drive of our shows and also a quite variety of teaser videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/xvivotube

Best/worst gig you've played? Our best gig so far would also be the concert at the K17 “Alternative Metal Night”. The crowd was amazing. We also totally enjoyed performing with the other bands that night and the response for the whole evening was really overwhelming. Well and for the worst gig, can’t really tell. We have played in totally darkness, in front of only ten other people (including the other bands of that evening), some of us had nose bleeding during a gig and Kai hurt his back while massively headbanging (at the second of our songs), but even during these moments we enjoyed being on stage and doing our stuff.

Which band is the best you´ve seen? That really depends on who you ask: Kai - Iron Maiden, Alex - NIN, Alina - Rob Zombie, Olli - Lychee Lassi

Is it always the same songs live? No, each of our monsters needs to be put on stage and therefore we always try to variegate our setups by including different material or new on stage elements.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Right now we are focusing on composing our next album, which will be a full length concept album to be released in 2015. Therefore quite some work needs to be done and we also of course have some gigs to play.

How do you get psyched up for a gig? We apply our paint, put on our armor, huddle together and take it on with a roar.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? Both. Every decade has its own characteristics with the potential to influence the creative process, even if it is just a tiny element. We are also inspired by different genres, what results in our not so clearly definition of style, but we think that is one of the points that makes X-Vivo interesting. In the end, we are trying to create something new and therefore you can't have enough influences.

What would be your dreams for the band? To play a majestic concert tour or take the stage at a major festival and simply having fun in doing what we are doing.

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to?

Olli mainly prefers HipHop, Soul, DubStep and artists like NAS, Gangstar, Pete Rock and  Seeed.

Kai is totally into bands like Iron Maiden, Arch Enemy, Protest the Hero, Misfits etc.

Alex mostly listens to metal/rock with electronic influences. All time favorites are e.g. Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot, Massive Attack, Underoath and the early Marilyn Manson Albums.

Alina loves NIN, Katatonia, Tool, Slipknot, Oceansize, Architects, This Will Destroy You and the old Metallica stuff.

What do you hold most dear? The people and individuals that shared our path over the time, which are / or have been part of our friends and family.

What would be your greatest fears for the future? To perform with Justin Bieber at some political “nutjob-rally” while taking a math test, naked!

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Actually on stage there is no time to think about something like that, you just keep on pushing and if something happens you simply react. Fears are more like something for before you go on stage. That’s when you start to think what could go wrong, “is everything in place”, “does the equipment work”, “do I need to check the bathroom again (just in case)”, “where is my stage water”. At this point we mostly fear a failure of equipment, cause we have so much stuff and Olli normally suffers the most.

Have you been part of any other projects/bands?Alex played bass in a screamo band called Devuse until 2009. He was also doing a remix for the collaborative project Biinds for their new remix Album Antiphon.

What would you do if there was no music? Create it!

How important are your fans? They are one of the key motivators for everything we do as a band.

How often do you rehearse? Normally we rehearse once a week. For all the work that needs to be done for our album release next year we tuned this down a bit but we still meet us at least once a week to discuss the concepts and the progress.

Tell us about upcoming gigs and why we should be at them? Our next gig is again in Berlin at K17 on september 5th 2014. We got invited by 'Black Born Phoenix' to participate and it will be a great mixture of different styles of metal. We always like to play there and after all these concerts at K17, it's a bit like coming home. The sound is great and stage fits perfect for rocking our asses off, and that's what we gonna do!

How would you describe your sound in one sentence Take the weirdness of Slipknot, mix it with the atmosphere of Kidneythieves and Nine Inch Nails and let it play at Silent Hill.

What is your favorite crappy instrument? For the sample recordings of our album 'EgoPhobia' we used an old wok into which we threw stuff. Afterwards these samples got mangled though a synthesizer. Don't know if you can call that an instrument, but everything that makes a sound could be useful.

What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? We had a really hard time back in 2006, when our former bass player and good friend Schloddy had to struggle with a disease a long time and unfortunately he didn't win the fight. It almost killed the band, but after a year of hiatus we decided to go on. Schloddy told us the whole time, no matter what will happen, keep the band alive and don't stop making music! So we kinda listened to the wise man in the end.