Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Have any of you played in other bands? All of us have been involved in a number of other projects including bands such as Alarum, A Million Dead Birds Laughing, House of Thumbs, The Ophidian Ascension and Arcane Saints. There's too many to mention but those would be the main ones.  

How is it that you started playing music? I'm actually not sure how long Nick was writing music for Hadal Maw before we started working together, but it all started around 2010 when I started working with Nick and we've been working hard ever since. 

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? Nick Rackham : Guitar, Rob Brens : Drums, Ben Boyle : Guitar/Vocals, Jim Luxford : Bass, Jake Milne : Vocals 

Did you make music even when you were Young? We've all been playing music from a young age.  

Where are you from? Hadal Maw is based in Melbourne, Australia. 

What's your style of genre? Our first album has a very modern death metal sound, with technical elements.  

What inspires you? Anything and everything but our main influences come most from Gojira, Decapitated, Behemoth,  

How have you developed since you started with the Music? We've all developed a lot, as musicians and songwriters. Especially myself and Nick who were coming up with parts that far exceeded our ability on our instruments. But since writing our first album "Senium" where we were trying to write very intense music, we're now working to strengthen our songwriting and focus on groove a lot more.  

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? We're currently talking to a label for Australia but I can't say much more than that. Labels still have their place today and can help take bands to places they might not be able to get on their own. Not to say there aren't plenty of bands who are capable of being 100% DIY.  

What made you decide to make this Music? I'm not sure it's a decision, I think it's just something we were all drawn to. Even the new direction the music is taking is something we're all naturally gravitating towards, there isn't really anything musically where we sit down and make decisions about what's going to happen. It is what it is. 
What are your songs about? In short, it's all a view of the excesses of forces in our world today and how they corrupt. 

Do you compose in a certain environment? Typically, either Nick or Ben will compose a guitar shell for a song on their own then I'll add my drums to it and everyone else will add their flavour to it. Vocals typically come last. Everything is programmed first so it's easier for us to collaborate online then we all learn it once the song is ready. We tried writing in the jam room a few times. It was good for a few individual ideas but otherwise it was very time consuming and not overly productive. 

Have you done any covers live? Not yet, we haven't really discussed it. It's not something we've talked about seriously and it's hard to imagine it happening anytime soon, but never say never! 

What language do you sing in? English 

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We tend to stick to the same setlist for a certain period of time. That way all the song segues etc are all tight and the whole set feels like one piece. We're about due to change it up now that we're adding new material.  

What was your first gig like? From memory, it wasn't too bad at all. Naturally the stuff was super difficult, but we decided that we need to

Have you had to cancel a gig? Fortunately no!  

Where have you played live this year? We've continued to focus on playing around Australia, we try and keep returning to places we've played outside of our hometown as much as we can. We're planning on expanding on that and hopefully head overseas next year.  

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We started almost immediately. Our guitarist Nick is also a superb artist so he designed a shirt for us to start selling. We now have a few different designs and also have other things like guitar picks, stickers, singlets, long sleeve shirts and we're always looking for new things to print. You can check it all out at www.hadalmaw.bandcamp.com/merch 

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records nowadays? Well its opened up the industry in a lot of ways, and eviscerated it in others. If it weren't for digital music, we probably wouldn't have been able to get started the way we did, being able to get our music our there and put out videos etc. It's just a matter of everyone acknowledging that recorded music, for now, is a dead end for a viable income. However as streaming continues to catch on, there'll be a lot more money coming back in. Your average joe probably only buys a couple of CDs a year, but if he's paying $10 a month for his spotify subscription, that's a whole lot more money being put into the industry. We'll have to wait and see.  

What do you think of my work? Anyone who takes the time to seek out new music and expose it to the world has to be pretty awesome! 

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Well we don't have a huge European fanbase so if this exposes us to a few more fans overseas, that's a win. 

Do you have any role models or idols? Far too many too mention. We never cease to be inspired by bands that work super hard and really achieve success, especially on their own terms. 

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I think both form important functions. It's important to understand where things originated from, the basic elements, whereas the newer bands can show you how they're taking those elements and making it theirs. From there you can formulate your own way of bringing something to the table. 

What have been your biggest obstacles? I'd say time and money. The lack of both can put a lot of strain on things and create obstacles but we've always found a way to move forward. Careful planning and hard work will always create a pathway to where you need to be. 

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Just write the music you love and if you want to get out there, work as hard as humanly possible and learn as much as possible from other guys who are already out there. It's a game of stayers. 

How do you get psyched for a gig? Considering how energetic and difficult the shows are, it can be pretty easy to get psyched up, because we know we have to be on our A game. 

Do you have any new material? We're in the midst of pre producing a few songs for our new album and most of the new album is getting closer to being written. We're all very excited.  

What are your web sites? our main site is www.facebook.com/hadalmaw and you can shoot us a message there if anyone wants to get in contact 

What are your plans for the future? Keep writing interesting heavy music and keep touring. That's as good as it gets.