Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? Against The Raging Tide

How was the band formed? We formed in the Summer of 2013, by Jace Bennett, Chris Ginther and I (Aaron), we wrote a few songs and got the ball rolling, but a month later Chris decided the band wasn't for him, and moved to Portland Oregon. We searched for a few weeks, and we were able to add the talents of our good friend Danny Taylor to play guitar for us. We wrote and jammed hard on new material, tried out a couple people on bass, and finally found a good fit and picked up Maxx Hill, who was playing guitar for another band at the time. The four of us had great chemistry and it all came together.

Can you tell about your band? Our band is really very simple, we like to write strong Rock/ Metal music and get it out to as many people as we can. We understand you can never make everyone happy, however if most people listening are stoked and rocking out with a smile on their face and a sore neck from headbanging at our show the night before, then cool, to our standards we are doing things the right way. The four of us get along really well, it's like a second family. We all live in a small town where there isn't much going on, so our music is used as an outlet from the monotony and daily "Routine".

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? We are all from the Oregon Coast, our band consists of Jace Bennett (Drums), Danny Taylor (Guitar), Maxx Hill (Bass), and me Aaron Burright (Vocals)

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Really we had no ideal direction, goals or anything like that, we just wanted to get a feel for how each other plays, write cool music and maybe play a couple of local shows here or there.

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? We are a Hard Rock/ Metal band with so many different influences, that it makes it kind of hard to explain exactly the sound we have created in this project. We incorporate a lot of melody, energy and feeling into everything we do. We all take little pieces and influence from our favorite bands, and when each individual member throws those influences in, it really creates a cool different sound in every song we play. A more simple and short answer would be, if you haven't heard our band, we will be happy to share our music with you!

Where was your first gig? A bar in Newport called Cecil's Dirty Apron in Newport Oregon

Where was the latest gig? The Hawthorne Theatre in Portland Oregon

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? We all write the music, I write the lyrics.

Who has the best since of humor in the band? I would have to say we all have a good sense of humor, the best sense of humor though... I would have to give that title to Danny! haha.

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? The good, it's all good! We are having a great time and the ball keeps rolling for us. The bad... probably having day jobs that take time away from jamming! Also, it almost feels like when you are a band from a small town a few hours removed from the big city makes it more of a fight for opportunity, but that's where hard work pays off.

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? We play what comes natural to us, whatever sounds good at the time while we are working parts out to mold into full songs. We began by discussing what our interests were musically, like I said previously, we all just kinda picked up our instruments and it all just clicked. We never really set out to play any style in particular, we just kind of let it come to us as we work the parts out, and of course we are always happy when we can create a new song that we can all groove with. Our songs are about a lot of different things, love, hate, the struggle of going through hard times and the power to overcome. I just get an idea and began the vocal song writing process with a brainstorm/ flow to get the lyrical ideas and melodies to work with each other the right way.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We have played around with a few cover songs and are fully capable, we just have our originals that we prefer to play... but you never know when we might bust out a cover song just to turn some heads, and have people like "Hey, I know that song!".

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We released a 4 song demo back in January, what we have been working on lately is our first full length album produced by our good friend Greg Fender who has produced albums for previous bands I have been in through the years, he does great work, and knows the style and sound we are going for, so it always comes out dialed. We are very excited about our first album, it should be available later this Summer!

Do you have any clips on YouTube? Absolutely, this is our video for "Curse This Place"  that was released on our False Protagonist demo, this video as well as many other live video clips can be found on YouTube.com Against The Raging Tide - Curse This Place (Official Music Video)

How old are you?/What got you started in music? I am 29, I originally started making hip hop music 13 years ago believe it or not haha, I went from rapping to rocking. I liked the feeling and energy of heavy music quite a bit more and stuck with playing in Metal bands through out the years. All respect to Hip Hop/ Rap music, I just have a better time with another style of music, but there is nothing wrong with being well rounded.

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

Best/worst gig you've played? There has been so many shows the last few months even for me to say what the best or worst would be, I can speak on my behalf and say, when we won the first Battle for Warped Tour at the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland Oregon back in April was my favorite, the worst would have to have been a few weeks later when we were all recovering from some freak cold sickness that had us feeling like death all week, my throat hurt so bad it felt like it was closing up on me, it was hard to breathe, eat... sing, but we went up there and rocked our set, that was a challenge for sure!

What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? We have the Battle For Warped Tour finals in Portland at the Hawthorne Theatre next week, the winner will get a slot on the local stage of the Oregon Warped Tour, and if we manage to win the battle we go back 4 days later to play at Warped. We also have local gigs around our town, bar shows, our album release show, stuff like that.

Witch band is the best you´ve seen? Out of the bands we have shared the stage with, there has been so much talent, that's a tough one to answer, we had the opportunity to play a show with a band called Local H. For a 2 piece band, they kill it.

Is it always the same songs live? We switch it up, it gets boring to play the same set, we interchange what songs we will go up there and play. It also varies depending on the time alotted for the bill we are on that night.

What has been the best/most promising gig so far? Definitely winning the first round of the Battle for Warped Tour in April.

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? We have not had any big crazy tours, but we plan to in the near future, then we will have all kinds of stories to share with you from the road!

How big crowds do you usually play for? Locally where we are from we draw anywhere from 100 to 300 people depending on the venue, promotion and evening of the show, but no matter the size of crowd, even if there's only 2 or 3 people that come out to the show, we still play like there are hundreds of faces in the crowd!

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Finish this album, play a bunch of shows, write some new music, drink lots of beer and hang out with cool people!

Where do you usually play? Anywhere we get offers to play, we even played at a Zumba fitness studio last month haha!

How do you get psyched up for a gig? There's nothing really set in stone, we just get focused, have a couple beers and go up there and do work! As soon as we hit the stage, it's go time!

What are your goals with your music? Make as many people aware of our band as possible, go as far as we can, all the while making sure we are all still enjoying ourselves and what we are doing, the music is only as good as how the people in the band feel about playing it.

When did you decide to go all in for the music? It's easy to go all in for the music, if you enjoy it, you're gonna put the work in to do it!

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? I would say both, I mentioned earlier about the many influences. Each individual member is inspired by different styles of music from older stuff to newer stuff. We are just inspired by what moves us, or makes us want to be better musicians.

What are your sources of inspiration? I am personally inspired by a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of purpose in our local scene, and never hitting a plateau where it feels as if we can't go any further or achieve anything more. We inspire each other at every jam and every show. So I guess the best inspiration is each other, I mean as tacky as that may sound, we push each other to grow as musicians.

What's the first step when making a new song? Danny writes a hand full of riffs, he throws those ideas at Jace, then Maxx and I kinda throw our stuff in the mix til we latch onto something we think sounds cool, then we have a skeleton to put a full body and face on so to speak. It's like building a monster piece by piece haha!

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? I understand how bands can get upset most times when people download their music with out any form of payment, that is heart and soul they are literally stealing from them. Of course any musician is going to want gratification as well as some sort of kick back for the amount of hard work put forth, I will personally still buy albums, especially from bands I have been following for years and really enjoy listening to and supporting, however if I have never heard of your band and I'm going with a shot in the dark for this 15 dollar album that could potentially be a half hour of filler and 2 rocking songs that I really dig, I'll usually just YouTube those 2 cool songs and go without the purchase. I really see it from both sides... If you are going to sell your album, make it affordable, problem solved.

What would be your dreams for the band? Our dream is to be as successful of a band as we can be, to go forth and conquer lol!

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? This could be a very long list of groups here haha, I personally listen to anything from Hip Hop to Indie Rock to Heavy Metal. Just to spare you all, I'll name a few of my favorite bands, (In Flames, 36 Crazyfists, Finch, Papa Roach, Taproot, My Chemical Romance, Atmosphere) The list goes on and on from there. If you wanna know what my band mates listen to personally, hit us up on Facebook and I'm sure they will tell you!

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? I'm not really afraid of anything when I'm on stage, maybe being booed off stage, or equipment failure, that's never fun.

Have you been in any other bands? Yes, I have played in several bands over the span of the last 10 years or so, all of my band mates have been in other bands as well.

What do you work with outside of the band and the music? I am a tattoo artist at Cross Over Tattoo studio in Newport Oregon, I have been professionally tattooing for 6 years.

What would you do if there was no music? Crawl under a rock and die haha.

How important are your fans? Without them, there would be very little energy at our shows and no one to share our music with, it would be a sad day. Our fans mean everything to us!

How often do you rehearse? We try to get together as much as possible, but with everyones work schedules, we usually get together a couple times a week to stay polished.

Where do you rehearse? We rehearse in South Beach Oregon

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? That's like a parent having to choose their favorite child haha! We all have our favorites, I will say right now, I'm really digging our songs "Sunblind" and "Cigarettes and Sunsets".

What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? The best live band I have ever seen has to be In Flames.

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? The goal until you are a very established band should not be making a living at it, because it will rarely happen, it comes down to the people who truly want to be successful, who is willing to stick it out until the bitter end. The music industry is a dog fight to the top for the most part, if you take a week off from playing, there's a guarantee 2500 other bands are not, and they will make it further and faster than you will. The goal is to have fun, stay positive, get along with your band mates and work hard on your music and promote, promote... then over time, you may find that making a living playing your music won't be as difficult.

Do you have any webpages?

Against the Raging Tide
Against The Raging Tide | Metal from Newport, OR

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Keep playing music, stay driven, don't be an asshole haha.

Describe your show, visually and musically Lots of energy, lots of movement, lots of headbanging.

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Staying together, keeping the same line up is key. Not letting every promoter screw you out of money to get back home or to eat with. It takes a long time to climb the ladder to the top, but ultimately the biggest obstacle is staying on top once you get there.

What is best/worst with playing the clubs? The best is when you can gain a few listeners and people are feeling your music, the worst is when everyone walks out on your set for a half hour "smoke break" .

Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? Well for one, we will give you one Hell of a show, and two... we give free high fives.

What is your favorite crappy instrument? A washboard? maybe a kazoo... haha

Whats your Pre-show ritual? Fireball Whiskey and Pabst Blue Ribbon

Would you like to add anything else? Thank you for taking the time to read this interview and please be sure to check out Against The Raging Tide today!