Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Have any of you played in other bands? Trez played in another band called These Colours don’t Run and is currently working on a solo project called Infinitee. As for myself(Corey) I played in These Colours Don’t Run with Trez and way back when used to play in another band called Etherial.

How is it that you started playing music? I(Corey) Started playing music after really getting into metal music. Some of the first bands i really got into were Slipknot, Children of Bodom and Arch Enemy to name a few. I think it was really Mick Thompson from Slipknot who really seeded my passion of playing music. I remember my first guitar was a BC Rich warlock like the ones he used to play. 

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? The full time Members right now are myself Corey Skerlak and Trez Thomas. Trez plays guitar and has started doing back up vocals taking over from our previous and first bassist Bryn Herbert. I play guitar and also do back up vocals. As for right now tho I have taken over doing just the lead vocals because our original vocalist stepped down for personal reasons and I have a hand injury that I’m getting treated. We also have a few fills in that we are using regularly for drums we’ve been lucky enough to have Gord Alexander of Tessitura, Logan Vars of Protosequence and Mitch Stykalo of Valyria filling in for different gigs. For bass duties Drew Copeland of Death Toll Rising and Cameorn Rehman of Tides of Kharon have been gratefully helping us out. Lastly for guitar fill ins Dylan Parker of Protosequence and Jeremy David of Valyria/Arctos has stepped up for fill in our gap on guitar. Check out their main bands they are all amazing ! 

Have you had other previous members? Our previous members have been John Thompson our first drummer who started out with us. Our original bassist was Bryn Herbert. Our first vocalist was Connor Adams. 

Did you make music even when you were young? I personally started when i was about 13 or 14 trying to learn what I could on friends and family instruments. I don’t think i received my first guitar until I was about 16 after that I caught the bug and have been going hard ever since.  

Where are you from? The band is located in Edmonton, Alberta Canada where I am from. Trez Thomas is also from Edmonton but now lived in Sherwood Park which is just on the out skirts on Edmonton.  

What year did the band form? The Band formed in 2013 after Connor and myself wrote a few tunes then came up with the idea to start a death metal band with the material we were writing. 

What's your style of genre? The style of music we would put ourselves in would be death metal or murder metal. 

What inspires you? Everyone in the band takes inspiration from different sources. I think everyone is really inspired from the music we listen to. Theres quite a diverse musical taste with the band which is nice when writing new material since everyone enjoys a different variety of music to draw inspiration from. The band itself is always been about how reality can be worse or more horrific then fiction. So the band takes songs take inspiration from the atrocities that happen around us in life. 

How often and where do you reherse? Right now with the band we are rehearsing twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays. Since we are working on our newest EP we try to focus on writing on Thursday nights and jamming Sundays. 

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Not actively, we want to get a more stable line up before we approach any booking agents. I think its a great idea and very helpful for bands that want to get out to places they have never played before. Its much easier to get someone with all the contacts to get you solid shows rather then trying to book them yourself and possibly have shows flop last minute or tours fall through from not getting enough dates. 

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Again not actively if we were approached by the right label we would defiantly consider signing with one. I think we need to work a bit more on getting out there and making our brand a little more reputable before trying to jump on any labels. Once the band member situation has been resolved and we have a solid line up we might start searching for the right label to be apart of. Labels are great for bands, the right ones of course. Im sure there are labels out there that abuse bands a bit, but music wouldn’t be where it is without music labels. 

What made you decide to make this music? The main influence for starting Tales of the tomb was the band Macabre. Connor and I both really enjoyed their music and how they approached what their songs were about. That was what drove us to write some of the first songs we did when we were starting out. 

What are your songs about? Our songs are really about how reality can be worse then fiction. From serial killers, cult leaders, to conspiracies. We in no way try to glorify any of the things our songs are about but rather try to elaborate on them and use them to show people how dark reality can be. 

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? When the band first started it was just Connor and I. I wrote most of the song material in the early days. Connor would help me with some of the song arrangements. We would both work on lyrics together always checking facts and details of what we were writing about to make sure everything was accurate. As we started getting more people in the band they would help with arrangements or lyric ideas. Today Trez and I write the all the material and lyrics for the band.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? We normally will start with the music then put lyrics to the music. Personally I like to find a topic first to then start writing music too. That’s what I did for the first EP we had all the topics we wanted to cover before we starting writing the tunes. 

Do you compose in a certain enviroment? Not really we usually will come up with riffs and ideas on our own time or when we jam where ever that may be. 

Have you done any covers live? No we haven’t done any covers live yet. Don’t really have any plans to do any in the future but that doesn’t mean we never will.

What language do you sing in? All in english. We have a sample for one of our songs Mermaid in a manhole, Which is the only song we have written not about a real life event, which is in Japanese. Its from the Movie Mermaid in a Man Hole which came out in Japan as a part of the Guinea Pig Films which are a collection of movies that are pretty gruesome. 

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Likeany band who starts from scratch we have played to bar staff and now we can get some pretty packed rooms. 

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Usually any age over 18. We have had some older folks who have been at some gigs either if they’re regular bar staff or a metal lover still rocking. We have played a few all ages gigs which a fun to do because some of the young kids in metal are so stoked to be able to go to a gig.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? For the first couple years of playing live we had the same songs we we’re playing. Since expanding on writing for our new EP we have brought new songs into the mix. We have some songs stashed away to debut when we are closer to releasing the EP and are working on and some that we have just written that we have no album or EP planned for yet. 

Do you have a regular place you play live often? There are a few venues in Edmonton that we frequent. We tend to play a lot at the beloved metal pub The Rendezvous here in Edmonton and the Mercury Room which is another great venue for all genres. 

What was your first gig like? Our first gig was small the turn out wasn’t the greatest but it was fun. We played in Calgary, Alberta at Lord Nelsons with some great bands that we still play with here and there today. Big thanks to Kaje from Annihilatrix Productions for hooking us up with our first gig! 

What was your latest gig? Our latest gig was awesome ! We played with Vancouver based tech death band Archspire and locals Skepsis and Protosequence. The turn out was awesome and the crowd was super fun and into every band the whole night. Very fun times

Have you had to cancel a gig? Yes just recently too We had to cancel two gigs we had out west. I think they were the first gigs we ever had to cancel so far and hopefully the last! 

Where have you played live this year? This year we have ben pretty quiet mostly just playing our home town. We had one gig in Red Deer, Alberta in April. 

Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We have a couple great gigs coming up this year. We are playing a metal festival called Armstrong Metal Fest mid July which is always a good time. We are also playing another festival in Drumheller, Alberta called Loud as Hell. This is one I’ve never been to personally but have only ever heard good things so we are really looking for to that as well. 

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? When we first started the band we had 1 inch pins that we were giving away and a couple sticker designs that we were giving away to just get our name out there. Now we try to have as much merch as reasonably possible. So far we have had CDs, shirts, beanies, patches, stickers, and pins. We try to have a ton of different designs as well for people to choose from. We have a lot planned in the way of merch we would like to get a zip up hoodie out soon and some other different things like key chain bottle openers and cool things like that. 

Where can people buy your merchandise? Right now people can buy our merch direct from the band. We can meet up with people locally to deliver merch in person. We do have a web store on our band camp page and you can always direct message the band about merch as well. Here is our band camp page. 

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? It defiantly does suck. Its okay if they pay for the music when they download it but you can’t really stop people from torrenting and file sharing music. We try to rely on having a lot of different merch for people to buy. People in other bands will hopefully agree with me when I say thats how you really make money in a band now days since people download and file share so much. Having a strong merch game is always important for making money ! That also doesn’t mean will ever stop having CDs for sale either.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Not really 100 percent sure. Bigger artist defiantly have probably seen a decrease in album sales. It might not affect smaller bands as much since I don’t think their music is downloaded as much as bigger artists.

What have been your biggest obstacles? I would say our biggest obstacles so far have been trying to have dedicated members that are looking to play full time. Theres a lot of players in our local music scene but a lot of them are already in bands and don’t have time for more projects, or are tied up with family or jobs where they can’t commit fully to playing or touring. 

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Have a strong merch game! If you want to have a self sustaining band or project having good quality merch and interesting stuff that people want to buy defiantly helps make money to keep the band going.

Do you have any new material? We currently are working on finishing a follow up EP to our last one “Volume One: Morþras”. We have a few more things to write and we plan on hitting the studio to record it sometime later this year. We hope to have it released by year end or early next.

How can people reach you? Email or Facebook works best for trying to get a hold of the band

What are your plans for the future? Our plans for the future is defiantly to find solid members for the band and hit the road. We really want to tour as much as we can and play in as many places as we can. We also have plans to release a new EP soon and more music after that.