Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? Mater Monstifera.

Where are the band members from? What are their roles? In present(2014) there are 6 members of the band. Yvor(guitar), Archangel Cesyn(guitar), Deemon(bass-guitar), Stephanos(vocals), Denisa(keyboard) and Ondre(drums). Both guitarists are from Trhové Sviny(near České Budějovice), the singer lives near Prague, and the rest of the crew are all from České budějovice.

How would you explain your music to someone who haven't heard it? Supposing the listener knows his way around metal, I’d tell him to imagine melodic, intense black metal with heavy, rolling and sometimes kind of thrashy riffs and vocals.

Where was your first gig? Uff…I don´t know J Krnov???

Where was the last gig? Last time we performed on Žižkův Vraždící Palcát festival, yearly festival with a long tradition, which takes place in Tábor.

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? All songs come from Yvor’s mind. He also participates in writing the lyrics along with the singer.

Who has the best sense of humor in the band? I think we all are cheerful and friendly guys, but if I had to choose one of us, perhaps Deemon is the one whose humor never sleeps.

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? There is nothing wrong with the band, if you ask me. We could probably get more foreign gig opportunities, and the distance between where the singer and the rest of the band live sometimes cause a problem but it isn’t a vital problem. Traditionally, Mater Monstifera was considered a black metal band with all the features. And it is still being seen as a black metal band, although in last two years the music has become a bit different, which is probably thanks to new band members(Ondre, Denisa, Stephanos). And, of course, the times have been changing, just as our perception of music.

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about?

I believe that black metal has simply always been closest to all of us.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We compose solely our own material. Sometimes we finish our set with a cover.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they?

Our discography goes like this:

Vůně krve (promo 2000)

Svíce života (demo 2000)

Sepsáno krví (miniCD 2002)

Zrozen z hříchu (CD 2005)

Beletseri (single 2008)

Na zrcadlech lží (CD 2011)

V troskách tvýho světa (EP 2013)

New album is going to be recorded in autumn 2015.

Do you have any clips on YouTube? Just check them out. Not any offical videoclips, though.

What year was the band started? 2000.

Best/worst gig you've played? I have to speak for myself here. Usually, the best performance are at AFOD festival, which we organize. From other past gigs I really enjoyed for example last year’s Waiting for the Winter festival in Brno. Other band members who remember it, often mention our performance at Kaltenbach festival, where we are going to play again, next year. There were some bad gigs too, of course. Generaly speaking, bad gigs tend to be those in small towns and badly advertised.

Where are you going to play in near future? We are looking forward to play in České Budějovice (19.12.) and the week after in Munich (26.12.)

Which band is the best you´ve seen? I cannot say. I really enjoyed performances of Behemoth, Dark Tranquility, Origin, and many others..

Is it always the same songs live? Not always. We change our playlist from time to time and incorporate whatever new songs we finish.

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? There have been some minor tours but none of them very long.

How big crowds do you usually play for? It depends on the venue. But we usually do get large attention.In clubs we’d get between 50 to 200.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Finish 2 new songs, enjoy 2 promising gigs and start working on new material for the new cd.

Where do you usually play? Czech Republic covers most of our gigs.

How do you get motivated for a gig? We prepare for our shows together in backstage. We drink, talk, dress up…

What are your goals with your music? To make greater and greater music, of course. To produce great cds and get bigger attention. We don’t give up.

When did you decide to go all in for the music? From the very beginning, I’d say. There’s no other way than ’all in’.

What are your sources of inspiration? Heart, mind, life experiences, people, sound and music of other bands.

What's the first step when making a new song? For me there is always this first riff or a melody that gives you some kind of impression, atmosphere. And on this vision you proceed.

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? Well, it’s almost impossible to avoid it now. It’s not about us and our music, but the industry. It would be shame if we stopped selling and buying cds. As time evolves, I believe we’ll get to point when it will come back to fashion. It wouldn’t be, of course, same as before, rather a collector’s hobby. But if this phenomenon survives, I don’t mind selling music via internet.

What would be your dreams for the band? Personaly, I am really looking forward to rehearsing the new cd. I also dream about some larger tour.But the biggest dream would probably be to sign a contract with an international company.

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Personaly, generes don’t bother me. I just pick the good stuff from anything.

What would be your greatest fears for the future? I often fear, with the development of the world, that we’d evetually come to a point in time where we, people, would become so ignorant, that we’d either stop performing live music or perform a very shitty one.

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? There is no place for fear when you are on stage.

Have you been in any other bands?

Most of us did(or still do) play in other bands:

Deemon- Eleament

Stephanos- Belligerence, Genuine Relief

Ondre- Dievision

How important are your fans? I’d say it’s like 40 percent of the motivation that gets you going on.

How often do you rehearse? Not very often. But we try to rehearse every year at least a single/demo/mini cd, or at least offer our fans some new merchandise.

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? I like all of them. Lately, I’ve been working on the new one, which is going to be real good. To name something from the recorded ones, I’d say ‘V troskách tvýho svět’ from the last EP.

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? Well, if you do make and play good music, it is the music itself that drives you to carry on. And yes, it’s nice to receive positive reactions from fans.

Do you have any webpages?

http://www.matermonstifera.cz/

http://bandzone.cz/matermonstifera

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MATER-MONSTIFERA/135107122486

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Don’t give up on your band when the audience is not very large. If you are certain about your music, carry on, take inspiration from yourself mainly. Be patient, it will come back to you. And don’t set up no new projects. .-)

How do you view the music industry of today? Troublesome. I don’t want to answer this, sorry.

What is best/worst with playing in the clubs? The good thing is that clubs fill up easily(at least optically). Bad thing is that advertising of these venues tend not to be very good and the sound is not always great.

How would you describe your sound in one sentence Intense.