Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band?We're called Moon City Boys. We started playing toghether when we went to the same art school back in 2011. We had our first gig ever at the schools Christmas party. Back then we had a different drummer, Siri Jennefelt who now sings in the band Saigon.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?The members of Moon City Boys today are Ella Rolf (bass), Kelly Wedin (guitar), Liselotte Bramstång (drums) and Sofia Ellis (vocals and guitar). We are all from Sweden. Ella, Kelly and Sofia are from Stockholm and live there, Liselotte is from Uppsala but lives in Berlin.

What was the ambitions of the band when you started?

When we first started the band our ambition was mainly to have fun playing music but we started to get serious about the band pretty soon when we realized that we had something good going on!

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We write the songs together but often it starts with something on the guitar or bass and then Sofia writes the lyrics and melodies. Kelly also writes lyrics sometimes. We have made one cover (Elvis Preasley- Always on My Mind) but we mainly write our own songs.

Do you have any clips on YouTube? We have our own channel on Youtube called ”Moon City Boys” where we put up videos. We haven't got that many up there yet but we just made two videos for our new singles that we will release soon!

Best/worst gig you've played? The worst gig we ever made must have been some of the first ones. We organized a festival in the summer of 2012 where we played in the middle of the night, around 5am, it went terrible haha but we had fun times!

How big crowds do you usually play for? We have mainly played i Stockholm on small and big stages. We have played on Debaser before Crystal Stilts (2013) and Tiger Lou (2013) those were in front of quite big crowds.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? This year we will start out by releasing two new songs + videos. In march we will travel and play in the USA. We are invited to play at the festival South by South West in Austin, Texas. After that we'll see!

Where was the latest gig? Our latest gig was our release party for the single ”Rockets/Stranger” in September last year on the street outside of Pet Sounds and on a party later that night.

What are your goals with your music? We try to let inspiration come to us and be free when we create new songs. We try not to get hindered by preassure and peoples oppinions. We have strong feelings about everything concerning the band and our goal is to hold on to those and keep it real. We want to make music that makes you feel and think!

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? Yes, many bands today are much bout image more than music and that is really boring and silly. Sure, image is something that always have been important for artists and we agree that it is, but we need the music to be the center of attention of our band.

What are your sources of inspiration? There are many great bands in Stockholm right now and we love to go and see them play live. But we get inspiration from all kinds of things and emotions besides music. Music is our way to let it all out.

What would be your dreams for the band? We want to travel and reach bigger audiences. Doing things together and exploring new sounds really developes us as a band.

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? We listen to all kinds of music. When asked which genre we would say MCB belong to we really just want to tell people to listen to the music. Genres and categories are so dull. We are more keen on good songs and sounds than lables. We like the attitude and music of the NYC punk scene of the 70's, but we can really dig a disco hit as well...

What would be your greatest fears for the future? A great fear would be to get lost in capitalism and stray away from the beauty of music and become narcissistic and money-crazed. But that is a thing we doubt will ever happen to us since we are far from being capitalists.

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Well, sometimes everything goes wrong. Guitar strings pop, you can't hear youself, people in the audience look bored... None of those things are to wish for but it's not the end of the world either. We try to keep our heads high and focus.

Have you been in any other bands? Sofia played synth in The Hanged Man and also sings in Kokonaut. Kelly has another band called Ewan & Guido and once played synth in Hjärnkirurg. Liselotte played in bands in her youth.

What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Liselotte studies fashion and art in Berlin, Kelly studies art in Stockholm. Ella studies to become a chef in Copenhagen and Sofia works part time as a scenographer and with this and that, in Stockholm.

What would you do if there was no music? Maybe political involvement and other kinds of art. Movies, theater, food& fashion.

How important are your fans? Wow, of course they're very important! To touch someone with something you've created is about the biggest thing you could do. It's a wonderful thing.

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? Lots and lots of ambition and love for music. It's a thing that don't connect with money. All thouh it would be a lot easier if we had some money of course. To have jobs and schoolwork beside of the band is a challenge, it takes up a lot of time and energy.

Do you have any webpages? Yes! We have a facebook site, tumblr, bandcamp and some of our music is available on soundcloud and spotify. Search Moon City Boys in any of them websites and you'll find us!

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Remember to remind yourself once in a while why you make music. Question things around you! And treat your bandmates with lots of care and respect. 

How do you view the musicindurty of today? The musicindustry today is like a game. Some got what it takes to keep on fighting to be part of it, some don't. And some are used by the industry untill they fall apart. It is like the world in general I guess. We hope to maintain our integrity and personalitys while trying to somehow cope with it.

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? For our band, at the moment, time is the biggest obstacle. And distances. We don't live in the same city and therefor we don't have a lot time for the band to rehearse etc. It can be quiet difficult to be in a band when there is stress and preassure and oppinions about things and you get irritated and tired. Small things can escalate so we talk a lot to eachother and try to take care of eachother.

Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? If you feel like traveling to the USA in march then you really should come to the festival South by South West. It's a great big music and film festival in Austin and we're reeeeaaally looking forward to it!!!!

What is your favorite crappy instrument? Haha, favorite crappy instrument must be the egg. Very useful! And good looking. We've got one that can glow in the dark.

Whats your Pre-show ritual? We actually have some things we usually do! We form a cirkle and tell each other how we feel what we want to express while playing and then we just breathe together, maybe having a beer or two.