Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Have any of you played in other bands? We all have played in many bands. Currently Jeff and Andy play in Top Dead Celebrity. Andy is in a rad band called SubRosa on Profound Lore, and another awesome band called Done. Andy has been in so many bands I don’t even know where to start, he’s fucking prolific.  Dave currently plays in Dwellers and Old Timer (mabye they are still active?) right now. One of my more well known bands was called Black Sleep of Kali and I used to play in a band called Glacial with Andy as well. I've played in various other bands no one has ever heard of

How is it that you started playing music? I started playing music when I was like 8 or 9. Started Violin lessons, then got interested in the guitar in my teens. My Dad is a musician, and was always super supportive. He bought me a guitar, and I started to teach myself how to play by listening to Black Sabbath records and trying to figure out the songs. As soon as I got old enough to tell my parents I though the violin wasn't cool enough, I focused on guitar fully. But I am super glad I had violin lessons, because it gave me a foundation to play guitar and study music. I’m not sure about the other band mates, I am pretty sure Andy came out of the womb playing drums on the operating table, Jeff exploded into the world shredding Steve Vai licks and Dave came out with a full head of long, luxurious hair, and he was headbanging furiously until his umbilical cord exploded.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

Taylor Williams: Guitar and Vocals and i’m old, barely alive really.

Andy Patterson: Drums, engineer and he’s older than me, so he’s on deaths door right now.

Jeff Anderson: Guitars, he’s younger than me, so he’s got at least 2 or 3 years left in him.

Dave Jones: Bass, he’s a baby. I’m not sure it’s legal for me to even hang out with him.

Have you had other previous members? When we started we were working with our friend Joey Toscano from Iota/Dwellers, but it just didn’t work out. Our friend Oz was on bass for a hot minute...but neither of them played a show or recorded with us. Both of them are totally rad dudes and musicians though.

Did you make music even when you were young? Yes. I’ve been writing music since I was about 13 or 14. As soon as I started playing guitar, I started writing riffs, mostly trying to sound like Black Sabbath and zeppelin. Then I got into hardcore and punk, started my first band, and started ripping of Sepultura in my teens.

Where are you from? We all hail from the wasteland known as Salt Lake City, Utah in the USA. Actually, it’s a totally awesome place, and I love it. Pretty sure everyone in the band would agree with me.

What year did the band form? I believe we formed about 4 years ago? So maybe the summer of 2011?

What's your style of genre? I’d say it’s melodic DOOOOOOOOM! Or Dad rock.

What inspires you? Mostly music. But I think we get inspiration for our music through art, literature, movies, and just living life.

How often and where do you rehearse? Well, Andy Patterson is a bus- ass man. He is a recording engineer,he is in SubRosa who tour a lot, so we basically rehearse around his schedule. So sometimes we get regular practices, and sometimes not. It’s ok, we’re professionals dammit. Who needs to rehearse?

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Well, the band is something that we do for fun. Jeff and I are both Dads and we each have two kids. So that keeps us pretty busy. I have a daughter who is almost turning 1, and a 6 year old son, and that alone is a time consumer, although a pretty awesome one. But we all love music, and movies. I love the outdoors, so I try to get out hiking and camping as much as I can. Andy, as I mentioned, is a really talented recording engineer. He’s made records with bands like Call Of The Void, Cult Leader, SubRosa, Reproacher, Of Feather and Bone, and like a gazillion more, so that takes up a ton of his time. Jeff is way into collecting beanie babies, so he travels to beanie baby conventions around the country in his spare time. Dave, Dave is a fucking mystery man. We don’t know what he does in his spare time, other than be a total badass and cruise around Salt Lake on his chopper searching for tail.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? We would love to work with a label on our next record. Actually, we self-released Tree and Stone ourselves initially, and then later a small label out of Denver called Crown and Throne release Tree and Stone on tape for us. A friend of mine named Garth McKee runs it by himself. I think if we were a big seller for him, he would have put out the vinyl, but alas, we are old dudes with jobs and kids who don’t tour or play a ton. Still, he’s fucking rad, runs a really cool label, and was nice enough to put it out, because he rules like that.

What made you decide to make this music? A lion appeared to me in a dream and told me to make this music. Who am I to deny this C.S Lewis type character? Really though, we just love heavy music. So I sat down, Jeff sat down, we wrote some riffs we liked.

What are your songs about? Well, on Tree and Stone a lot of the lyrics focus on the Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. If you aren’t familiar, Sisyphus was damned by the gods to roll a giant rock up a hill, only to have it roll back again over and over and over, for the rest of time. Basically Camus said that it represents man’s futile search for meaning, but that the struggle of life, or the struggle that Sisyphus has to undertake every day, is enough to fill a person's heart with purpose and meaning. The songs that aren’t about the Myth of Sisyphus , are usually about nature or about wizards. So, some are super deep and philosophical , and others are just about shit that sounds cool. Don’t judge me, it’s my band, I’ll do what I want.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? I (Taylor) write the bulk of the riffs. Jeff wrote Rivers on Tree and Stone, which is a totally rad song. But, I come with the general idea most of the time, and then the whole band has a hand in shaping it. The songs always evolve and change, based on everyones input. I write all the lyrics. Since I sing and play guitar (which is hard to do at the same time dammit) I need to tailor the lyrics to my particular style of playing and singing, so I generally don’t like singing other people’s lyrics.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? We start with the music, and the lyrics always come last. Like dead last. I dread writing lyrics, even though I write for a living. Lyrics are a hard thing to do well, and I always feel like they will just suck. So I wait until we are going to actually play a new song live, or right before we are recording it to actually put pen to paper. I’m lazy like that.

Have you done any covers live? Not yet. But I do want to do a cover of the Bee Gees song Stayin Alive, but make it super heavy and slow. If we practice more regularly, I think we would actually get around to some covers.

What language do you sing in? English. I wish I could sing in a foreign language, but alas I am a product of the American educational system and can only fluently speak in English.Thanks a lot America. I do know some German and Spanish. I’ll work on it.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Least? Ummmm. I erased that sad memory from my brain, so thanks for reopening the wound. We will say, no more than 10 but less than 5. The most? I don’t know that either. A few hundred? Andy played for like 7,000 people once in SubRosa, so I vicariously did too...through him. So we will say 7,000. We are huge in Europe, and by we I mean Andy.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Beardos and dads...sometimes our wives come and watch us play too if we guilt them into it enough. Cindi, Andy's wife says she is going to show up, but then never does. Jerk.

What was your first gig like? Our first Gig was at a local record shop called Raunch here in SLC, UT, with our good friends in Dwellers and INVDRS. It was awesome. When INVDRS played it was so loud, the cops showed up and shut us down. I felt like a teen again, the cops ruining our good time. Stupid pigs.

What was your latest gig? We played CrucialFest which was really cool. Played with some awesome bands including the Ditch and The Delta, Cult Leader, Norska and a lot more. A good time was had by all.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? What an odd question. Umm. When we started doesn’t really matter, but if you want to support us and buy some t-shirts or music you can go here:  https://oxcross.bandcamp.com. With each dollar you spend on Oxcross merch, Jeff gets closer to completing his prized Beanie Baby collection.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? I’m fine with downloading music. I download music all the time, but with artists I really want to support, I make an effort to purchase something from them whether it be vinyl, or a shirt, or actually going to check them out live (which happens a lot less these days. Dad life and shit). But downloading is fine. It's convenient, in fact, everyone go download our record RIGHT NOW!

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? I don't really care about the music industry. Hopefully it dies a horrible death. Talented artist will hopefully rise to the top, and people will discover them because they are awesome. My boss Paul has a saying that you should never phone in it in, and try to strive to do your best with every project you complete. I think that's true to music and life. If you do great work, you'll eventually get recognized.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I hope it propels us to Nirvana-esque heights. But I wouldn’t even say we are really in the “music business” but rather we are in the business of making music. None of us give a shit about making a bunch of money or living off of Oxcross. Rather, we really just like doing it. It’s a great creative outlet, it’s the perfect excuse to hang out with some people I truly enjoy interacting with, and it’s just a ton of fun. If it stops being fun, we won’t do it anymore. If we make some money, then that’s just tasty gravy on top of an already delicious endeavor.

Do you have any role models or idols? Ian Mackaye. He is just an uncompromising, intelligent, and amazing artist and musician. He is totally awesome. Fugazi is one of my all time faves. Ian is everything that’s great about underground music, and the DIY ethos.

My other role model? My wife is a good role model for me personally. She calls me out on my shit, and puts up with my madness. I really respect her and what she does for a living and how she is puts herself out into the world as a person and mother. She rules and is a great role model for me.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Good music is good music. If you seek it out, you will find inspiration. People who say that there isn’t any good music today are just being fucking lazy. Just start poking around the internet and you can find all sorts of amazing music old and new. That being said, we find inspiration from both.

What have been your biggest obstacles? Time, jobs, work, kids. Normal everyday shit. Just finding the time to play with four different people who all have jobs, or kids, or other bands or wives or girlfriends. Life gets in the way, but we still find the time between it all.

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Just play what you want to play, and don’t worry about anything else. If you like what you are doing, that's what matters in the end. Maybe one day you'll be huge, maybe no one ever hears a note, but as long as you create something and you enjoy it, then it's worth it.

Do you have any new material? We are working slowly on a new record. Have 3 or so songs worked out, but we will keep banging away at it until we have enough for a new record in the next year or so.

What are your web sites?

https://oxcross.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Oxcross

Do you have something to add? Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.