Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? Pretentious, Moi?

How was the band formed? The live band was formed in 2009, though I’ve been working on demo material since 1994

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

Rachel Iden (Die Laughing, Ring of Thorns) – Vocals

Gordon Young (Seraphin Twin, Dream Disciples, Ring of Thorns) – Guitar

Christian Tonkin (DUST, Manuskript) – Guitar

Matt Helm (Red Sun Revival) – Guitar

Tim Chandler (Sins of the Flesh, Manuskript) – Vocals etc.

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? I originally put the band together as a side project, the band I was in at the time had a more industrial sound, and I wanted to keep a more gothic sound going, so I started doing my own thin. Rachel appeared very early on, on the first demo, through the band was not put together until much later, after we were asked to play at a festival in Austria

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? ‘90s-esque trad goth, quite eclectic, a bit more dancy than droopy.

Where was your first gig? Dornbirn, Austria – Judgment day festival, it was great fun.

Where was the latest gig? SGM Fest Madrid

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? I write the songs and lyrics. Though there is input from the other musicians.

Who has the best since of humor in the band? We all have a pretty good sense of humour, I think it goes with the territory.

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? The band members all have quite different tastes in music, but the project was deliberately created as a trad Goth band, and retains most of the sensibilities it had when the project was started in the 90s – so it still has quite a 90’s feel – a bit more electronic, a bit more driven.

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? The great thing about gothic music is that it is quite eclectic, and part of the aim of the project is to explore the various directions the genre has to offer.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We have never performed a cover, probably never will.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? Yes, there is a self-titled album, we are working on the next one.

Do you have any clips on YouTube? Loads, some of them are awful. Here’s the official one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWIq3dWbRI

How old are you?/What got you started in music? I first joined a goth band in 1989, I am old enough to know better.

At what age did you start playing? I have been playing keyboards since I was about thirteen, but didn’t learn to play any guitar until much later.

How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? I expect we were all teenagers,

What year was the band started? 2009 as a live band, 2009 published, demoing since 1992-ish very slowly.

What places will you be playing in in the immediate future? There are a couple of things in the pipeline, we deliberately don’t play live very often.

Where have you played from then till now?

Here’s a few:

Whitby Goth Weekend, Whitby, UK

Seixal Electrofest, Lisbon, Portugal

Dark Spring Festival, SO36, Berlin, Germany

Gotham Nights Anniversary, Oslo, Norway

DV8Fest, York, UK

Destroy the Silence Festival, London, UK

Judgement Day Festival, Dornbirn, Austria

SGM Fest, Madrid, Spain

Grotesque Modena, Italy

Convergence, Chicago, USA

Is it always the same songs live? No – we try to mix it up a bit, plus we’re trying out new material at the moment.

What has been the best/most promising gig so far? We have been lucky enough to have played some great places, the most exotic for us was Chicago last year.

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? We don’t tour – it’s too much time out of life, plus since we’ve all been in bands for a long time, the novelty of touring has long since gone. It’s much more enjoyable to play bigger one-off gigs.

How big crowds do you usually play for? It varies from a few hundred to a few thousand. But the best crowds are often the smallest.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Try to finish the album. ‘No promises, mind.

Where do you usually play? We go all over – that’s the fun part.

What's the first step when making a new song? Cup of tea

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? I don’t listen to specific bands very much, I tend to like individual songs. Genre-wise I’m going through a folk and ‘60s phase. I don’t listen to Goth; I’m afraid of accidentally plagiarizing.

What do you hold most dear? Most, dear, I hold my tongue.

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? There are so many things that can go wrong on stage – most of them are outside your control. If something breaks down then it’s usually obvious to the audience what has gone wrong. The one thing that the audience cannot tell is if the monitors fail – in that event everyone just thinks you can’t sing in time on in tune.

Have you been part of any other projects?

We are all involved in other projects

Matt – Red Sun revival

Rachel and Gordon – Ring of Thorns

Christian and I are also in Manuskript

Rachel and I have also been working with All Hallows Eve

Have you been in any other bands? Autumn of North, Sins of the Flesh, Manuskript, All Hallows Eve, for me.

What do you work with outside of the band and the music? I’m an Architect by day

What would you do if there was no music? I’m a designer, so I’d entertain myself through art and design, and I’d finally have time to read.

How important are your fans? Very important – if it wasn’t for them, and the joy of being round other musicians, I would have stopped by now.

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? We’ve had a few get tattoos done – that really makes you think.

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? I think that making a living is quite a difficult thing to do in the Goth scene, also – if you are expected to go on tour it’s equally difficult to hold down another job. I guess there’s some Kudos to be had for being in a band, but for the most part it’s probably just a matter of having something you need to communicate.

What’s your Pre-show ritual? We sacrifice a goat