Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? The Metaphor

How was the band formed? The band was formed when Tomas decided to turn from playing post-hardcore to post-rock simply because of the heavy influences of Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Ros, 65daysofstatic and etc. It was formed alongside with former post-hardcore band mate, Ling. Kelvin and Sze Yee joined in after hearing our proposal and the tunes Tomas has written. Izzy came in 2 years after the band was formed replacing Omar as our first drummer. 

Can you tell about your band? The band is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and plays post-rock music in general. The band is about 5 years old now and we've released a 5-track EP and recently, an 8-track LP. 

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? The band members are all based at the same location. All of us pretty much grew up there. Here is the breakdown of who does what; Tomas Tam (guitars, manager), Ling (keyboards), Sze Yee (guitars), Kelvin Hew (bass), Izzy Musa (drums & percussions). 

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Tomas started out the band with the ambition of touching people's hearts with post-rock music which was pretty insignificant back in Malaysia. Most people in Malaysia were not exposed to that genre as commercial media basically takes the center stage. Listeners here are more exposed now to the indie and underground music genre thanks to the internet (social media/youtube/facebook). One of the main ambition of the band is to tour Europe. Tomas has said before during the emergence of the band that, "if we do tour Europe, I'll come back a retired musician". 

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Yes, we've always explained it as emotional instrumental rock songs. Or, we normally give references as bands like Explosions in the Sky are pretty well known here in Malaysia now. 

Where was your first gig? Our first gig was at this pub/restaurant called "Urbanattics". 

Where was the latest gig? Our latest gig was 7th July. It was a music festival called "Da Ge Hui" organised by the Chinese Music Community in Malaysia.

Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? Tomas normally comes out with the basic structure of the songs. Then, the band will further arrange those bits and pieces into complete songs. Nobody wrote any lyrics so far as we're instrumental. Lol. 

Who has the best since of humor in the band? All of us have a great sense of humor! We talk crap rather a lot! Well, the best would be Izzy, the drummer. 

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? The good thing about the band is that we believe in our music. We have always played and performed our music with full of emotions, giving 110%. The bad thing about the band is, we play post-rock music. Post-rock isn't really a big thing here nor anywhere at all, we believe.  

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? Tomas picked that particular style is because of the music he listens to. He claimed them to be "majestic". The songs are mostly about daily experience and even experience from a movie. Tomas writes a lot in his head when he is watching movies. Most of the band members are into film scores and soundtracks. We appreciate beautiful compositions no matter how simple or complicated they sound.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We never covered any songs before. We only write originals.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We've released a 5-track EP (Preface) and recently, an 8-track LP (self-titled) 

Do you have any clips on YouTube?  Yes, we do but they are mostly recorded live performances.

How old are you?/What got you started in music? Tomas is 27 this year and he started playing music after he witnessed his high school's band rocked out the stage back when he was 14. Kelvin is 32 this year, not sure what got him started though. Ling is 30 this year and she is a professional musician graduated from a music university. Sze Yee is 29 and he started music because of Nirvana. Izzy is the youngest among all of us at the age of 23 and he started music because of a family background that plays music.

At what age did you start playing? Tomas started at age 14 and Sze Yee at age 15. Not really sure about the rest though. 

How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? Tomas and Sze Yee stood on stage for the first time playing music at the age of 16. Not really sure about the rest.

What year was the band started? 2009.

Best/worst gig you've played? Best gig we've played was at a big festival in Malaysia called "Urbanscapes". We were nobody at the time and we've caught a lot of people's attention then. Worst gig we've played was a performance at a bar long way back. The sound and equipments provided were horrendous. 

What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? You mean "immediate"? If that is so, then India, Taiwan, Singapore should be the answer. We're planning a tour in Taiwan and we've received invitation to play a festival in India early next year. We're also looking at Philippines at the moment.  

Where have you played from then till now? We've mostly played back in our hometown and some other states in Malaysia. We've also covered Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhao and Hong Kong. 

Witch band is the best you´ve seen? Hands down, Sigur Ros and Explosions in the Sky. 

Is it always the same songs live? Depending on the time and duration allocated to our performance slots. But yeah, the songs played live have always been songs from our EP/LP. 

What has been the best/most promising gig so far? To be honest, we've played so many shows that we cannot really keep track on which is the best/promising one. We'd say, Urbanscapes was the best. 

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? Just China. 

How big crowds do you usually play for? Normally it is about from 100 to 300.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? We're planning to play as many shows as possible to sell our CDs and to publicize ourselves. We are also planning to write a new record soon. Probably around end of the year. 

Where do you usually play? We usually play at close venues like pubs/restaurants/live venues. We also do play at outdoor gigs like festivals.

How do you get psyched up for a gig? We don't. We usually just chill around the venues during our shows and if there are alcohol around, we drink. 

What are your goals with your music? We want to tour Europe. 

When did you decide to go all in for the music? We haven't really gone all in for the music as we all have day time jobs. However, we are willing to do a lot compared to some other bands out there to achieve in what we believe in - our music. 

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? We don't think that it matters. We get inspirations more when we watch movies and when we jam in the studio. 

What are your sources of inspiration? Movies. 

What's the first step when making a new song? The first step is always to see and imagine life scenarios. Then use that imagination to get some tunes to start working on them. 

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? We think that downloading music isn't a bad thing at all. It helps the band in publicity and promotions. However, we do hope that people wouldn't just download them for free. Buying albums definitely will make us even happier. Our aim is to sell as much as possible and to make as much money for the band to move forward. 

What would be your dreams for the band? To stick together as always like a family and to tour Europe. 

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? We listen to varieties of music and genres. Some of us listen to post-hardcore, metalcore, punk-rock, jazz, pop, indie and etc. The notable bands/artists that we mutually listen to are Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic, Sigur Ros, Caspian, Maybeshewill, Underoath, Radiohead, Hanz Zimmer, Coldplay, Kasabian, Pg. Lost, and etc. 

What do you hold most dear? Band members. We have this unbreakable chemistry and we hope that it will always be like that. 

What would be your greatest fears for the future? Our greatest fear is if any of us leaves the band or if any of us goes deaf. 

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? We fear most on stage if our equipments don't work as they should work.

What songs and what years were they released? When We Were Once Lost (2011), Panicked Part 1 (2011), Panicked Part 2 (2011), Rebirth (2011), Last Recital (2011), In The Beginning (2014), When We Were Once Lost (2014 - Rearranged), Homecoming (2014),  Those Vague Symptoms (2014), Until We Meet Again (2014), Unity In Separation (2014), Memoirs of an Uncharted Mind (2014), Faith Got Us There (2014)

Have you been part of any other projects? Yeah. Some of us are bits and parts of other musical projects. 

Have you been in any other bands? Yes. Some of us play in other bands in a permanent basis. Tomas plays for a pop-punk band, An Honest Mistake as a bassist while Izzy has his own band called Cocktail Party Effect. 

What would you do if there was no music? We would be geeks. All of us are pretty well to do with computers. Tomas and Sze Yee are IT geeks while Kelvin is a graphic designer. 

How important are your fans? - Very! We treat our fans like our friends! We hang out together and we also credit / thank them from time to time for coming to our shows. 

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? Funniest thing a fan ever done for us was following us around being shy to actually take pictures with us. They followed us for quite some time too! Most memorable ones would be fans sending emails/messages thanking us for the music we've made. We usually thank them back because it's because of them, we still continue on doing what we do. 

How often do you rehearse? We rehearse about 2 weeks once. Sometimes even once a month. But when there is a show nearby, we rehearse maybe 2 times in a week before show. 

Where do you rehearse? We usually rehearse in our good friend's studio called Studiohive. He also helps us on stages and he was the tour manager when we toured China.

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Homecoming and In The Beginning.

What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? Sigur Ros. 

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? Passion definitely. If it wasn't for the passion in music, perhaps more than half of the bands here in Malaysia would have done something else. 

Do you have any webpages? Nope! We started using Facebook as the base of our online page.

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Always try writing your own materials, not covering other people's songs and contribute as much as possible to the society because someday when you die, you should die being known of doing something good. 

Describe your show, visually and musically Lights, Ambient, Delays, Reverbs, Melodies, Loud, Emotional, Showmanship. 

How do you view the musicindurty of today? With the emergence of EDM (electronic dance music), we think that the music industry is focusing a lot more into rave parties/concerts. The radio plays those kinda music way too much that they have gotten pretty annoying. 

What advice would you like to give other bands? Always be humble and support other local acts as well. 

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Financial. 

What is best/worst with playing the clubs? We hardly play at clubs.

Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? 22nd August @ Penang, Malaysia. 23rd August @ KL, Malaysia. 6th September @ KL, Malaysia. 13 & 14th September at KL, Malaysia. Well, why people should go to those gigs is simply because Malaysia have a lot of awesome and talented bands. Some of us are very unique and are able to deliver a different set of music experience altogether. 

How would you describe your sound in one sentence Imaginative, emotional, and epic.

What is your favorite crappy instrument? Glockenspiel 

What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? When it comes to pushing each other to get things completed before they are too late. 

Whats your Pre-show ritual? Stretches and prayers.