Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? AWOOGA

How was the band formed? Tam and Taz had just left their previous band and whilst getting drunk and high with James decided that we should form an awesome band so we could get more drunk and high.  And write some awesome tunes.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?

Tam is from Sheffield and is the lead singer and plays bass guitar.

Taz is from Sheffield and plays drums

James is Devon and plays guitar and does backing vocals.

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? To get drunk and high and write awesome tunes.

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Loud/heavy/atmospheric space rock. 

Where was your first gig? The Casbah

Where was the latest gig? Tramlines festival, Sheffield.

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Sometimes Tam or James will have a basic shell of a song and it will be put together in the rehearsal room.  Other times we will be jamming about and something will sound good and we go from there.

Some songs are written and done about an hour, some take weeks to get right. Tam writes the lyrics.

Who has the best since of humor in the band? We all pretty much share the same sense of humour, although to other people we are probably as funny as an orphanage on fire.

What's good/bad with the band? The good things about our band are that there are no boundaries when it comes to our music.  We are always experimenting and it’s open to throw in anything you want to see if it works.   Another good thing is that now our band is getting more well known, we are getting more girls to our gigs.  That is always a positive sign. The bad things are that our rehearsal room gets far too stinky for just 3 guys…

What genre do you feel you are? We have elements of stoner, doom, post-rock, grungy rock but it’s played pretty spacey.  We don’t consciously try to not fit into any genre but we describe ourselves as atmospheric space rock.

Why did you pick that particular style? Our particular style comes from us liking a lot of the same genres but really it’s just what comes out of the AWOOGA machine.

What are your songs about? The use of lyrics in AWOOGA is to generate another layer to the music that can the listener can interpret however they want. BUT this does not mean the songs are about nothing, just a random collection of words, our songs have multitude of themes often several in one song.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We write our own material

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We have 2 Albums. V Column & Artifacts

Do you have any clips on YouTube? Yes! Our last two video are on youtube, ‘Where the others go’ and ‘Tide’. You can also find some old material and live stuff on there.

How old are you?/What got you started in music? We are in our mid twenties.  Thinking that playing music you enjoy with like minded people will be one of the greatest things ever is what got us started in music.

At what age did you start playing? Taz has been playing drums since he was 13 years old, Tam started to play bass and sing when he was 15 years old and James has been playing guitar since he was 10 years old.

How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? We were all about 15 years old we started playing live.

What year was the band started? Late 2008

Best/worst gig you've played?

Best- We would say Tramlines at West Street Live this year has been excellent.
Worst- Tam booked us in to play a community stage at a festival that shall not be named. We played on a stage that was slanted down a hill. It was the day after Michael Jackson died. We decided to do a cover that went very wrong.

What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? We have a European tour supporting Amplifier and Knifeworld. This will see us play France/Switzerland/Germany/Holland. When we get back from that tour we are doing a few UK shows with Polish super stars Coma.

Witch band is the best you´ve seen?

James – Mastodon/yes/deftones

Taz – Can’t really say. Tool is up there but seen some other awesome bands too.

Tam – Alice in Chains/Zappa Plays Zappa/Deftones

Is it always the same songs live? No, we try and keep it fresh for ourselves too.

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? We have done few tours around the U.K. and this tour with Amplifier will be the first outside of the U.K.

How big crowds do you usually play for? Depends where we are playing, but on average it’s about 200/300 people per show.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Working on our new album after the tour and then hopefully do more tours for 2015.

Where do you usually play? Whichever cool venue offers us to play to begin with.

How do you get psyched up for a gig? Always have an Agwa bomb each. Does the trick ;-)
What are your goals with your music? To keep releasing albums and see the world whilst doing it.

When did you decide to go all in for the music? When our fans wanted more from us.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? The best of both worlds no matter what genre each artist does.

What are your sources of inspiration? Our main source of inspiration is to keep pushing ourselves into writing more good material.  Inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime.

What's the first step when making a new song? Tam or James will often have the bare bones of a song.  Tam will often have the vocal melody to accompany it.  It then goes into the AWOOGA machine.

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? It’s great that someone wants to listen to your music.  It’s nice if they give you some money for that but the exposure has to come first.

What would be your dreams for the band? To play in Japan and Scandinavia.

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to?

James - doom/stoner rock. England has a great electronic music scene. Drum & Bass/Garage/Techno. 

Tam-  Everything from Frank Zappa to 2Pac.

Taz – Rock/Metal music in all forms, Jazz Fusion, Ambient/Electronica/Downtempo.

What do you hold most dear?

Tam – My Geddy Lee signature Jazz Bass and

Taz – my Akira Jimbo Snare

James – my grinder

What would be your greatest fears for the future? We are fearless keyboard warriors, scared of nothing.  Except slow internet connections.

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Bad front of house and stage sound.  Also someone trying to shoot me because they thought some of our lyrics we about them.

What songs and what years were they released?

Bandit – 2009

Grain – 2011

Thief – 2011

On Intermission – 2011

Dropa - 2011

Helix – 2011

Dwelling – 2014

Where the Others go – 2014

Sword – 2014

Tide – 2014

Fault line - 2014

Have you been part of any other projects?

Tam/Taz – Axis Dynide/Ritalin
James - Naisian

Have you been in any other bands?

Tam/Taz – Axis Dynide/Ritalin
James - Naisian
What would you do if there was no music? cry

How important are your fans? They are the most important thing. We would be doing fuck all without them.

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? Sent us the guitar tabs to V Column.

How often do you rehearse? As many times a week as we can.

Where do you rehearse? Above a bar in Sheffield city centre.

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Tabula Rasa (New Song), Sword

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? To enjoy it J

Do you have any webpages? www.awoogaband.com

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? If the band you are stop being fun then don’t do it.  Also gaffer tape is the more important than any musician.

Describe your show, visually and musically Loud and atmospheric. Dark lighting. We let the music be the show.

How do you view the music indurty of today? On the larger scale it’s an horrendous, vacuous mess where most of it’s inhabitants treat unique talent and honesty with derision.  On a smaller/medium scale there are pockets of great work going on, REALLY great work.  However, there are lots of medium/smaller scale elements of the music industry that are trying to emulate what happens on at the top.

What advice would you like to give other bands? Go watch other bands that are established and see how they do it and speak to as many different band members that you regard as good and ask their advice.  You will be surprised…

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Being pressured by outside influences to sacrifice your originality and creativity.  Scenes that are dictated by clothing labels and mobile phone networks. 

Tell us about up coming gigs and why we should be at them? Our European tour is going to be crazy, we are supporting Knifeworld and Amplifier so all the shows are going to be out of the world.  It’s a tour not to be missed if you can get there!

How would you describe your sound in one sentence An epic voyage into dirt and space.

What is your favorite crappy instrument?

Taz – My hi-hat stand.  Does that class as an instrument?

Tam – My Dan-Electro chorus pedal that cost me £10.  It’s the basis for all my bass tone.

James – My 7 String Les Paul.

Whats your Pre-show ritual? Our pre-show ritual involves us having a few rums and then soaking in the atmosphere of the gig.