Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

WHAT´S THE NAME OF YOUR BAND? Mental Shutdown
HOW WAS THE BAND FORMED? The band was formed after a jam-session, we felt it sounded pretty cool, and decided to form a serious band to "chase our dreams"
CAN YOU TELL ABOUT YOUR BAND? The bands hometown is the city of Lillehammer, Norway. Consists of 6  members who truly can not survive without having heavy metal as a  sentral part of our lives! For us it's all about playing heavy metal, having ourselves a great time in doing so! :)
WHERE ARE ALL BAND MEMBERS FROM?/WHO DOES WHAT IN THE BAND?

Joakim Joereng - Vocals. Comes from Horten in Norway.
Kim Ruben Sletten - Guitars /Vocals. Comes from a small valley called
Heidal, Norway.
Thomas Toft - Guitars. Comes from Horten, a long time friend of Joakim.
Simen Hagen Voll - Synth. Comes from the city of Oslo, Norway.
Torkjell Hagen Voll - Bass. Comes from the city of Oslo, Norway. Simen
and Torkjell are brothers.
Memet Oedegaard Cataltepe - Drums. Comes from the city of Lillehammer,
Norway.
WHAT WAS THE AMBITIONS OF THE BAND WHEN YOU STARTED? The ambitions when we started (and still are) was/is to become one of the best metal-acts in the world! (Huge goal, but you need something to reach for, right?;))
COULD YOU EXPLAIN YOUR MUSIC TO SOMEONE THAT HAVEN'T HEARD YOU? Mental Shutdown plays a melodic, heavy, powerful and punchy type of heavy metal. We are told that our music is easy to enjoy, because of  our melodic compositions, and our way of singing the songs. If you haven't heard us, it's about time you do!!
WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST GIG? Our very first gig was in a youth-club in Lillehammer. About 20 people in the audience, just about enough to get us hyped for more!

WHERE WAS THE LATEST GIG? Our latest gig was in Strzelin, Poland. We had a small "weekend-tour" playing 3 concerts. Poland was awesome, we will head back to play more concerts as soon as possible!
WHO WRITES YOUR SONGS?/ WHO WRITES THE MUSIC WHO WRITES LYRICS? From the beginning until about 1 year ago, Kim Ruben was writing and composing the songs. After Joakim entered the band, he has started to write some lyrics. Thomas are also writing a little. So you could say that we are 3 writers, but the songs are shaped by the whole band at the rehearsals, so in that manner you could also say we all do!
WHO HAS THE BEST SINCE OF HUMOR IN THE BAND? A tricky question, we all have a great sence of humor!!
WHAT'S GOOD/BAD WITH THE BAND?/WHAT GENRE DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE? For me (Kim) the good thing about this band is the guys and the music! I am lucky to play in a band with skilled musicians who also are great guys to hang out with! And the music is of course awesome!! ;) When it comes to the genre, it's hard to place it, but I have to say melodic heavy metal.
WHY DID YOU PICK THAT PARTICULAR STYLE?/WHAT ARE YOUR SONGS ABOUT? The style came automatically because of our inspirations.. The cool thing is that we all listen to different bands, and we pick up inspiration from ALOT of various artists, so when we create our own music, we include a little bit of almost everything. We are working with a concept of how we humans destroy moder earth, and she's quite angry with us for that. So moder earth has decided that it's time for payback. She sends her avenger, and we write songs about that.
DO YOU WRITE YOUR OWN MATERIAL OR MAINLY COVERS? We mainly play our own music. Sometimes we do covers.
HAVE YOU MADE ANY ALBUMS?/IF YES WHAT ARE THEY? We are working with our debut-album these days. Writing the material for it. We are hoping for release during next year. We released a single last year, called Manherder. (It is on Spotify, Wimp, Itunes etc.. )
DO YOU HAVE ANY CLIPS ON YOUTUBE? Yes we do, some covers and some of our own songs aswell. Search for Mental Shutdown, and you will find us!
HOW OLD ARE YOU?/WHAT GOT YOU STARTED IN MUSIC? The members are from 23 to 27 years. The music came naturally for all of us, of course the dream of huge stages and thousands of people in the audience was a huge factor in the decision!
AT WHAT AGE DID YOU START PLAYING? Fearly young, early teens.
HOW OLD WERE YOU GUYS WHEN YOU FIRST STOOD ON STAGE? I think we were about 14/15 years.
WHAT YEAR WAS THE BAND STARTED? Mental Shutdown was formed early january 2007.
WHAT PLACES WILL YOU BE PLAYING IN IN THE IMIDATE FUTURE? At the moment, we do not have many gigs on the list, but we are working with booking gigs besides working on the album, so you have to follow us on Facebook and you will know where we play!
WHERE HAVE YOU PLAYED FROM THEN TILL NOW? Various cities in Norway, Poland, Sweden.. Hopefully the list will grow!
WITCH BAND IS THE BEST YOU´VE SEEN? Hard question, we think there are a lot of great bands out there! We have played gigs with a lot of ekstremely talented bands. Just to name a few bands you should check out; Thermit, Rusted Brain and Deathinition from Poland, those guys are fantastic!
IS IT ALWAYS THE SAME SONGS LIVE? No, the setlists are planned in front of every show, of course many of the songs are played at every show.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BEST/MOST PROMISING GIG SO FAR? For us, the gigs in Poland were great, we feel we promoted the band in a nice way, and we probably fixed the oppurtunity to get more gigs I Poland. Other than that, we played a litte show at a business-showcase here in Norway in august, that might turn out to be healthy for us.
HAVE YOU HAD ANY BIGGER TOURS FROM START TO NOW? Unfortunately we haven't been on a bigger tour yet, we are hoping that  our debut-album will unlock some doors for us.

WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR? The rest of the year will be spent on working with the material for the album, do some small shows and promote the band.
WHERE DO YOU USUALLY PLAY? At various clubs around the country.
HOW DO YOU GET PSYCHED UP FOR A GIG? We usually sit backstage and have a little talk over a beer. We are always psyched for a gig anyway;)
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS WITH YOUR MUSIC? The goal is to create supercool heavy metal for hungry ears worldwide. And hopefully one day , get the chance to make this band our way of living.
WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO GO ALL IN FOR THE MUSIC? As soon as the band was formed!
IS IT EASIER TO GET YOUR INSPIRATION FROM OLDER BANDS OR FROM BANDS MORE MODERN? Both. We listen to bands from the 70s until today.
WHAT ARE YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION? The nature, other human beings, various happenings etc.. There are inspiration in almost everything if you use your fantasy!
WHAT'S THE FIRST STEP WHEN MAKING A NEW SONG? For me, the first step is the composition, when cool guitar-stuff pops up in my head, I start to work with them, trying to put together the pieces, and finally I will have the whole composition ready. From there I can start to work with the lyrics. Often, Joakim writes the lyrics to the songs I have composed, we work as a team I guess Thomas works in the same way as me.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE DOWNLOADING OF MUSIC INSTEAD OF BUYING ALBUMS? To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this topic. In one way, it's far easier to promote your band these days. You just upload the music to the internet, and people can have as much as they like. And there is almost no costs in it. Still, we have huge costs in creating our music. We spend thousands and thousands on equipment, studio-time etc, and when people can have the music almost for free on internet, we have to look at it as pure promotion investment. Earlier when you had to go to the store to buy the album you wanted, artists made more money on their albums. Besides, for many, alot of the pleasure about bying an album of their favourite band was to listen to
the records while reading the lyrics in the album, studying the artwork etc. I could go on and on about this.. All in all, we just have to welcome the digital distribution.. It seems to have come to stay.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAMS FOR THE BAND? The dreams would be huge stages, world tours and billions of records sold!

BESIDES YOUR OWN MUSIC, WHAT GENRES AND BANDS DO YOU LISTEN TO? Mainly we listen to rock / metal, bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Jorn, TNT, Dream Theater, Testament, Children of Bodom etc.. The list is very long! There's nothing wrong with a nice bluesrock record either! ;)
WHAT DO YOU HOLD MOST DEAR? Besides our familys and friends, our gear is extremly precious!!
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR GREATEST FEARS FOR THE FUTURE? Horrible reviews on our debut-album, and no interest from the people what so ever. I don't think that will be the case though, we truly believe we have found a key to a new kind of heavy metal that people will enjoy listening to!
WHEN YOU ARE ON STAGE, WHAT DO YOU FEAR MOST THEN? Hmm.. Hard question.. Well, it's not fun if people starts to leave in the middle of the show (fortunately not happened yet).
WHAT SONGS AND WHAT YEARS WERE THEY RELEASED? 2 singles. 2012 - Symphony of Shadows, bonus track - Lights Are On (with former vocalist Thomas Hellerud), 2013 - Manherder, with our new vocalist Joakim Joereng.
HAVE YOU BEEN PART OF ANY OTHER PROJECTS? Yes, we all come from different bands. Currently most of us also play in coverbands. It's a nice way to earn som extra money.

WHAT DO YOU WORK WITH OUTSIDE OF THE BAND AND THE MUSIC? Joakim and Thomas are students. Memet have also been studying. Torkjell is a salesman for BMW. Simen is in the army. Kim is a salesman within  construction business.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF THERE WAS NO MUSIC? Some other stuff I guess.
HOW IMPORTANT ARE YOUR FANS? They are very important! No fans, no band.
WHAT'S THE FUNNIEST/MOST MEMORABLE THING A FAN HAS DONE FOR YOU? Hmm.. Well, no one has done something very special for us. But sometimes we get seriously nice reviews on our shows, and that's memorable!
HOW OFTEN DO YOU REHEARSE? At least two times a week. Sometimes all week.
WHERE DO YOU REHEARSE? In our drummers basement. He built a room specially designed for music.  Almost like a studio!! \m/
NAME 2 OF YOUR OWN SONGS YOU LIKE AT THE MOMENT? Dark Messiah, The Beast
WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS THE BEST LIVE BAND YOU'VE SEEN? For me, Iron Maiden is at the top!
WHAT DRIVES A BAND THAT ISN'T ALL THAT FAMOUS AND RENOWNED TO TRY TO MAKE A LIVING ON THEIR MUSIC AND TO KEEP PLAYING?  The dream of becoming a band with such success. Besides, we play  because of our passion for heavy metal. It's the coolest hobby in the world, success comes in addition as a bonus!
DO YOU HAVE ANY WEBPAGES?
Currently working with one. When it's finished, you will find us at
www.mentalshutdown.com, we also use Facebook as our main channel for promotion.
www.facebook.com/mental.shutdown.band
DESCRIBE YOUR SHOW, VISUALLY AND MUSICALLY Our show is energetic, powerful and and loud!
HOW DO YOU VIEW THE MUSICINDURTY OF TODAY? The business is one of the toughest I believe. There are so many great bands with great music, and being a band amongst all others that stand out as something different is not easy. I guess it is about 98% chance for failure, not because we suck, but because the business have endless numbers of great bands to choose from.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU LIKE TO GIVE OTHER BANDS? Hmm.. Never give up, keep working with the music and keep your fingers crossed :) At least that's what we do! One day the right person might attend your show, so remember to give a 100% at every show!
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST OBSTACLES FOR A BAND? I think that is various from band to band. Some bands may have financial challenges when it comes to equipment, studio-time etc. Other bands may struggle with the creation of their music.. What we all have in common I believe, is the challenge of always making new kinds of music. To be the band who stands out as something special.
WHAT IS BEST/WORST WITH PLAYING THE CLUB? The best thing about the clubs is that you get real close to your  audience. I can think of anything bad about playing clubs.
TELL US ABOUT UPCOMMING GIGS AND WHY WE SHOULD BE AT THEM? Well, as mentioned earlier, we do not have any special show on our agenda yet. Follow us on our Facebook-page. And when we have a show,  you should attend because you will enjoy it :) Screaming guitars, powerful battery and vocals, I mean who wouldn't like that!?
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE SENTENCE Special, melodic, heavy and powerful.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CRAPPY INSTRUMENT? Bugle! (LOL)
WHAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST QUARRELSOME TIMES FOR YOU IN THE BAND? Fortunately, no quarrelsome time has come our way, yet..
WHATS YOUR PRE-SHOW RITUAL? A beer backstage in calm conditions where we can relax and get prepared.