Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

How was the band formed?  Me, myself and I got together one drunken night and decided to go  for it, we would make a band, enter the Eurovision song contest and then on to  stardom. This was a brilliant idea until the next morning when we sobered up and  realised we’re from New Zealand and not from Europe, so we couldn’t enter. Then  we found out that I was sleeping with me girlfriend, so we kicked him out of the  band. Typical drummer. Me and myself then fell out over creative differences, so  he went solo and that left just me with rights to the name.

What can you tell us about your band? I make scifitronica – electronic music with a science  fiction theme. Well, all electronic apart from the one metal track. I guess that  was the reverse of Metallica getting an orchestra.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the  band? I’m from Wellington in  New Zealand and compose all the music and create the artwork.

What was the ambition of the band when you started?  I wanted to reach as many people around the  world as I could that like aliens, sci-fi and music colliding.

How would you explain your music to someone that hasn't  heard it? It’s a blend of various genres of electronica; ambient, soundtrack,  synthpop, indietronica, even a metal track. Fans have variously described it as  a mix of Kraftwerk, New Order, Jean-Michel Jarre, Depeche Mode, Tangerine Dream  and Yello. All the albums are sonically different, so there’s something for  every taste.

Where was your first gig? I am a complete introvert so I don’t gig. Strawberry ice cream and  obsessing over the virtual gear in my home studio and what I can get out of it  is what makes me tick.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? 

I only create original music, a great fear of mine is to end up  like Michael Bolton.

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

I have released four albums: Enter the Infinite (2010), Echoes from  Earth (2011), Soul Destroyer (2013) and Reactor (2014). My fifth is currently in  production.

Do you have any clips on YouTube? 

I have all the audio there http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTrinityWard 

I wish I could afford Industrial Light and Magic to do videos for  me, but the reality is I’d just have them make endless loops of Slave Leia or  force them to fix the three prequel Star Wars movies instead.

What got you started in music?  Seeing Depeche Mode’s “The World We Live in and Live in Hamburg”  concert film – all those lights, dials and sliders were intoxicating to my inner  geek. I just knew I had to have a synth and a sampler but I ended up collecting  far more than I ever anticipated: An Ensoniq VFX-SD, Yamaha SY77, an Emu Systems  Emax II that was borrowed once by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, Evolution  EVS-I, Roland Super Jupiter, M1 and JX-8P, Sequential Circuits Prelude, a  Kurzweil K2000 and probably a few more. And then there were the drum machines,  effects units and the vocoder. I think I may have an addiction to shiny things.  Say, isn’t that your watch I’m wearing?

At what age did you start playing?  I started playing when I was 17.

What year was the band started? Trinity Ward started in 2006. I spent four years making hundreds of  mini tracks until I had enough quality material to put my first album out four  years later.

Which band is the best you’ve seen  live? REM. They did a live show under pouring rain in a soundshell. The  crowd embraced the rain and waded into a pond that separated the front of the  stage and the first row. The whole spectacle was surreal, the audience was  amped, the band was amped, the weather was amped, the amp was soggy. I read an  interview later where REM said it was one of the best live shows they ever  played.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? I’ve recorded 7 tracks and a bonus interlude for my new album. Now  I’ve got several months of mixing to do to get it sonically perfect compared  what I want it to sound like.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or  more modern ones? I’ve got a bit of a retro sound going so I think the early  electronic movement has been highly influential.

What are your sources of inspiration? I am a huge fan of sci-fi. From the Culture novels of the late Iain  M Banks to films like Bladerunner with the epic Vangelis soundtrack or the  futuristic soundscapes of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene and Equinoxe.

What's the first step when making a new song? It can be anything. A sound, a drum part a melody or an effect that  I really like the atmosphere of. From that the music builds itself. David  Gilmour of Pink Floyd said he used to just try a different chord or note after  the beginning of something he liked the sound of. He would keep trying until it  sounded great. I use the same approach. It takes hundreds of hours to get from  the spark to the flame.

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of  buying albums? I give all my work away for free on my Bandcamp site www.trinityward.com with a  pay-what-you-want option for those that have enjoyed what I do and wish to help  support an indie artist. So for me, free is great. The more people that download  and listen to my stuff the better. Some will then pick it up on iTunes, Amazon,  Spotify or any of the digital outlets.

What would be your dream for the band?It was to get played on the radio, and thanks to Simon  Thomas from Sine FM (Doncaster, UK), Martin Turner from DCR Dover Community  Radio, Martin from the NBT Music Radio Station (Berlin), Patrick from  RelaxFreeRadio (New York) and Joey and Randy at Earbits Radio (Los Angeles),  that’s happened. Now I’d like to reach even more people because we aliens are  always greedy and want the whole Earth for ourselves.

What do you hold most dear? My nuclear pellet death gun. Everyone is always trying to take your  stuff. Even in space. I parked up next to the International Space Station one  night and next morning my wheels were gone. Cheeky shits.

What would be your greatest fears for the  future? That there will be a sudden and most surprising outbreak of peace  in the Middle East. Think of all those out of work news anchors and reporters?  What would they do for a living?

When you are on stage, what do you fear most? Being on stage is fear enough to make me never want to be on one.  Look at what happened when someone gave Hitler a microphone and a  stage.

Have you been part of any other projects? I’ve recently done a remix for Metroland, a wonderful synthpop duo  from Belgium who have opened for OMD, of a track for their new album Zeppelin.  We share a mutual respect for early German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk –  it was a much better idea to take the mic off Hitler and give it to them.

What would you do if there was no music? I would go on a Earth-wide orgy of destruction. It’s only the  soothing tones of Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears that  keeps me from actually doing it.

How important are your fans? Incredibly. Without fans there can be no art. Art cannot live in a  vacuum. I tried it. I spaced an MP3 of one of my songs out the airlock – I  didn’t hear a thing from it ever again. It’s the random donations from unlikely  places around the world, from people who love what you do, that makes making  music such a pleasure. At least I think they’re donating because they like it –  maybe they think they’re paying protection money so I don’t obliterate their  home town in the super-secret invasion scheduled for June? So a huge thank you  to everyone who has put back in to the arts and Trinity Ward in particular. Just  another $9,676,434,232,234.05 and I will have my very own Death Star!

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done  for you? Thrown a pair of Tom Jones undies onto the stage. No, that was a  nightmare I had. Thanks so much Tom. I need a mental shower now.

How often do you rehearse? This is a great question for musicians, not so much for  undertakers. I spend around 4 hours most nights of the week playing and  recording. I’ve done that since 2006 and I still haven’t managed to master the  intricacies of the triangle. It’s an unbelievably subtle instrument.

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? Probably a crusty old roadie with a crappy old van of some type  that runs on the drummer’s after shave.

Do you have any  webpages? Yes, you can hear my music and download it for free from www.trinityward.com which is backed by  Bandcamp, and get updates on the invasion from https://www.facebook.com/TrinityWardMusic or if SoundCloud rows your boat http://soundcloud.com/trinity-ward

I run the Scifitronica group on SoundCloud and on rare occasions  tweet sci-fi tidbits using @Scifitronica.

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? You’ve got until June to make your hit record.

How do you view the music industry of today? It’s an exciting sea of noise to navigate and a great time to be an  indie band or artist with a whole world of people potentially within your reach  if you can only find a way to connect with enough of them.

What advice would you like to give other bands? More triangle. There are heaps of well-meaning people close to you who will tell  you to hang tough and stay positive. And good on your mum for that. But be hard  and fair with yourself. If that snare track is just a wee tad irritating, fix  it. People will notice. When you release something into the untamed wild that is  the internet it will soon let you know if the guitar solo you thought was like  Hendrix on LSD sounds more like a cat being strangled by an octopus.

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Obscurity is your enemy. Make some noise and be heard. Just not the  octopus-cat noise.

What is your favorite crappy  instrument? The theremin. It’s just an electrified un-bent triangle that tries  too hard.

What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the  band? I once had an argument with myself as to whether Laa-Laa or Po was  the most musically gifted Teletubby. Punches were thrown.

Do  you have anything to add? Yes. A Casio FX82 solar powered calculator. You can’t beat a classic.

What´s the name of your band?  Trinity Ward.

How was the band formed?  Me, myself and I got together one drunken night and decided to go  for it, we would make a band, enter the Eurovision song contest and then on to  stardom. This was a brilliant idea until the next morning when we sobered up and  realised we’re from New Zealand and not from Europe, so we couldn’t enter. Then  we found out that I was sleeping with me girlfriend, so we kicked him out of the  band. Typical drummer. Me and myself then fell out over creative differences, so  he went solo and that left just me with rights to the name.

What can you tell us about your band? I make scifitronica – electronic music with a science  fiction theme. Well, all electronic apart from the one metal track. I guess that  was the reverse of Metallica getting an orchestra.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the  band? I’m from Wellington in  New Zealand and compose all the music and create the artwork.

What was the ambition of the band when you started?  I wanted to reach as many people around the  world as I could that like aliens, sci-fi and music colliding.

How would you explain your music to someone that hasn't  heard it? It’s a blend of various genres of electronica; ambient, soundtrack,  synthpop, indietronica, even a metal track. Fans have variously described it as  a mix of Kraftwerk, New Order, Jean-Michel Jarre, Depeche Mode, Tangerine Dream  and Yello. All the albums are sonically different, so there’s something for  every taste.

Where was your first gig? I am a complete introvert so I don’t gig. Strawberry ice cream and  obsessing over the virtual gear in my home studio and what I can get out of it  is what makes me tick.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? 

I only create original music, a great fear of mine is to end up  like Michael Bolton.

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

I have released four albums: Enter the Infinite (2010), Echoes from  Earth (2011), Soul Destroyer (2013) and Reactor (2014). My fifth is currently in  production.

Do you have any clips on YouTube? 

I have all the audio there http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTrinityWard 

I wish I could afford Industrial Light and Magic to do videos for  me, but the reality is I’d just have them make endless loops of Slave Leia or  force them to fix the three prequel Star Wars movies instead.

What got you started in music?  Seeing Depeche Mode’s “The World We Live in and Live in Hamburg”  concert film – all those lights, dials and sliders were intoxicating to my inner  geek. I just knew I had to have a synth and a sampler but I ended up collecting  far more than I ever anticipated: An Ensoniq VFX-SD, Yamaha SY77, an Emu Systems  Emax II that was borrowed once by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, Evolution  EVS-I, Roland Super Jupiter, M1 and JX-8P, Sequential Circuits Prelude, a  Kurzweil K2000 and probably a few more. And then there were the drum machines,  effects units and the vocoder. I think I may have an addiction to shiny things.  Say, isn’t that your watch I’m wearing?

At what age did you start playing?  I started playing when I was 17.

What year was the band started? Trinity Ward started in 2006. I spent four years making hundreds of  mini tracks until I had enough quality material to put my first album out four  years later.

Which band is the best you’ve seen  live? REM. They did a live show under pouring rain in a soundshell. The  crowd embraced the rain and waded into a pond that separated the front of the  stage and the first row. The whole spectacle was surreal, the audience was  amped, the band was amped, the weather was amped, the amp was soggy. I read an  interview later where REM said it was one of the best live shows they ever  played.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? I’ve recorded 7 tracks and a bonus interlude for my new album. Now  I’ve got several months of mixing to do to get it sonically perfect compared  what I want it to sound like.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or  more modern ones? I’ve got a bit of a retro sound going so I think the early  electronic movement has been highly influential.

What are your sources of inspiration? I am a huge fan of sci-fi. From the Culture novels of the late Iain  M Banks to films like Bladerunner with the epic Vangelis soundtrack or the  futuristic soundscapes of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene and Equinoxe.

What's the first step when making a new song? It can be anything. A sound, a drum part a melody or an effect that  I really like the atmosphere of. From that the music builds itself. David  Gilmour of Pink Floyd said he used to just try a different chord or note after  the beginning of something he liked the sound of. He would keep trying until it  sounded great. I use the same approach. It takes hundreds of hours to get from  the spark to the flame.

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of  buying albums? I give all my work away for free on my Bandcamp site www.trinityward.com with a  pay-what-you-want option for those that have enjoyed what I do and wish to help  support an indie artist. So for me, free is great. The more people that download  and listen to my stuff the better. Some will then pick it up on iTunes, Amazon,  Spotify or any of the digital outlets.

What would be your dream for the band?It was to get played on the radio, and thanks to Simon  Thomas from Sine FM (Doncaster, UK), Martin Turner from DCR Dover Community  Radio, Martin from the NBT Music Radio Station (Berlin), Patrick from  RelaxFreeRadio (New York) and Joey and Randy at Earbits Radio (Los Angeles),  that’s happened. Now I’d like to reach even more people because we aliens are  always greedy and want the whole Earth for ourselves.

What do you hold most dear? My nuclear pellet death gun. Everyone is always trying to take your  stuff. Even in space. I parked up next to the International Space Station one  night and next morning my wheels were gone. Cheeky shits.

What would be your greatest fears for the  future? That there will be a sudden and most surprising outbreak of peace  in the Middle East. Think of all those out of work news anchors and reporters?  What would they do for a living?

When you are on stage, what do you fear most? Being on stage is fear enough to make me never want to be on one.  Look at what happened when someone gave Hitler a microphone and a  stage.

Have you been part of any other projects? I’ve recently done a remix for Metroland, a wonderful synthpop duo  from Belgium who have opened for OMD, of a track for their new album Zeppelin.  We share a mutual respect for early German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk –  it was a much better idea to take the mic off Hitler and give it to them.

What would you do if there was no music? I would go on a Earth-wide orgy of destruction. It’s only the  soothing tones of Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears that  keeps me from actually doing it.

How important are your fans? Incredibly. Without fans there can be no art. Art cannot live in a  vacuum. I tried it. I spaced an MP3 of one of my songs out the airlock – I  didn’t hear a thing from it ever again. It’s the random donations from unlikely  places around the world, from people who love what you do, that makes making  music such a pleasure. At least I think they’re donating because they like it –  maybe they think they’re paying protection money so I don’t obliterate their  home town in the super-secret invasion scheduled for June? So a huge thank you  to everyone who has put back in to the arts and Trinity Ward in particular. Just  another $9,676,434,232,234.05 and I will have my very own Death Star!

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done  for you? Thrown a pair of Tom Jones undies onto the stage. No, that was a  nightmare I had. Thanks so much Tom. I need a mental shower now.

How often do you rehearse? This is a great question for musicians, not so much for  undertakers. I spend around 4 hours most nights of the week playing and  recording. I’ve done that since 2006 and I still haven’t managed to master the  intricacies of the triangle. It’s an unbelievably subtle instrument.

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? Probably a crusty old roadie with a crappy old van of some type  that runs on the drummer’s after shave.

Do you have any  webpages? Yes, you can hear my music and download it for free from www.trinityward.com which is backed by  Bandcamp, and get updates on the invasion from https://www.facebook.com/TrinityWardMusic or if SoundCloud rows your boat http://soundcloud.com/trinity-ward

I run the Scifitronica group on SoundCloud and on rare occasions  tweet sci-fi tidbits using @Scifitronica.

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? You’ve got until June to make your hit record.

How do you view the music industry of today? It’s an exciting sea of noise to navigate and a great time to be an  indie band or artist with a whole world of people potentially within your reach  if you can only find a way to connect with enough of them.

What advice would you like to give other bands? More triangle. There are heaps of well-meaning people close to you who will tell  you to hang tough and stay positive. And good on your mum for that. But be hard  and fair with yourself. If that snare track is just a wee tad irritating, fix  it. People will notice. When you release something into the untamed wild that is  the internet it will soon let you know if the guitar solo you thought was like  Hendrix on LSD sounds more like a cat being strangled by an octopus.

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Obscurity is your enemy. Make some noise and be heard. Just not the  octopus-cat noise.

What is your favorite crappy  instrument? The theremin. It’s just an electrified un-bent triangle that tries  too hard.

What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the  band? I once had an argument with myself as to whether Laa-Laa or Po was  the most musically gifted Teletubby. Punches were thrown.

Do  you have anything to add? Yes. A Casio FX82 solar powered calculator. You can’t beat a classic.