Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

Teijo Damude: Vocals & Guitar

Kurt Torres: Vocals & Guitar

Tommy Rockoff: Drums

Stefano Arauz: Synth/Keys

Morgan Kibler: Vocals & Bass

Where are you from? We all met at the Musician’s Institute here in Hollywood, California. But as individuals, we come from all over the US. Some of us from the south, some of us from the east, and some of us are from the west.  

What year did the band form? 2013

What's your style of genre? We’re influenced by all kinds of different music, but we’ve got post-hardcore and pop punk as our general genre. 

How often and where do you rehearse? We never want to go into a show unprepared, so we practice at least once a week in our brand new practice space that we were lucky enough to get!

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? As most musicians would be, we would love to work and be signed with a label! If the right deal comes along, we will snatch it if we can. There are a lot of things to think over and reflect on before signing a record deal. Sometimes it can be a complete mess and all the label wants from the band is their money which is why it’s important to really work together with your band mates to come to a team conclusion of whether or not it is a good idea to sign with a label.  

What made you decide to make this music? A lot of our primary influences came from the early 2000s. Bands like A Day To Remember, Pierce The Veil, and I See Stars are just some of our collective inspirations for playing the music that we play.  

What are your songs about? When it comes to writing, we like to write our lyrical content around personal experiences, and find a way to make to lyrics relatable to our fans. Bands that inspire us do just this, and their music has helped us through some really difficult times. We want to be able to do the same for our fans, and hopefully pass the torch to others who want to start a band too.  

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? When it comes to writing, we all contribute to how we want a song to sound. It’s difficult to write parts for instruments that some of us can’t play, so we all contribute to the sound of this band in one way or another. 

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? We always start with the music, it gives us a bit of a road map to see where the song takes us personally and logically. That gives us a good blueprint of what the lyrics will be about.  

Do you compose in a certain enviroment? We tend to write all together in one room, it enables us to communicate better with one another when we want to speak our minds about a certain part of the song. Generally we tend to write the core of the song together, then once that's settled we all attempt to write some parts individually and bring them to the next meeting.

Where have you played live this year? The shows that we've played so far have all been in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles. 

Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We're hoping to at LEAST get out of the LA county area and hopefully play a show or two out of state. We want to expand our fan base and to do this, we've got to play shows in other parts of the country!

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We started selling merch almost a year ago! We've got shirts, stickers, and physical copies of our record on sale right now. We're hoping to expand our merch store in the coming year!

Where can people buy your merchandise? www.sparemegraceful.com

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? To musicians, it can be a difficult concept to deal with. In the long run, you really want to have the ability to make money off of your music, after all that is the primary reason why artists publish it on iTunes, Amazon, and other online stores. However, even if you don't make money off of the music you publish online, the Internet is the KEY source to exposure for musicians. Even if people download the music instead, they'll still hopefully come to the shows and support the artists. Musicians primarily make money off of the merch they sell now, but that's fans are downloading music online and then attending their shows. It's been a double edged sword for the music industry and it's artist. 

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? It's become a digital industry now. Even though people still go out and buy records and physical copies of albums, it doesn't always matter. Labels, instrument companies, and booking agents love to see how your online presence is when they're deciding if they want to work with you or not. Because of the Internet, the music industry is run almost completely digital now. 

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? We do tend to look up to more active bands today, but those bands have been around since the early 2000s. Though we want to make our music unique and "our sound", we take a look at what fans are listening to these days and try to put our own twist on the sound. 

What have been your biggest obstacles? These days, it’s hard to come up with astronomical amounts of money out of thin air when you’re a musician. I think that’s been one of our biggest and most consistent obstacles is that we’re literally scraping by with what we have financially. Most of us have second jobs that we work in order to get ourselves to the next show by renting a van. A common misconception from people who want to be musicians is that you instantly start making money by putting out records or playing shows and I think that’s why so many talented and determined artists lose their drive, because they realize it’s not just fame and money, you’ve got to work REALLY hard to get to where you want to be, and some people are just not cut out for that. 

What advice would you give other bands or artists? I think some of the best advice that we’ve gotten from other big name bands that we’ve looked up to for so long has been to be a nice person and a good group of people in general. Living/working in this industry, you really never know who you might end up meeting at a party, or you never know you might end up talking to. The last thing you want to do is mess up your one chance or one opportunity to work with big names in the industry because you were being a negative or bad person in general. Oh, and of course: practice, practice, and keep on practicing! Work on those stage presences, co-ordinate with one another, and keep it tight on stage. Let go of all the negativity you have going on in your life and have fun!

What are your web sites? You can check us out on all of our social media platforms which include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. All of our music is up on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Bandcamp, and Google Play. 

How can people reach you? We love the close relationship we have with our fans! You can get in touch with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. All of us have our own personal Instagram and Twitter accounts, we’re pretty active on them.

What are your plans for the future? Releasing more music, playing more shows, and eventually getting overseas to play shows for you guys! We just started the writing process again for our debut full length album, and we couldn’t be more stoked to be working on new material.