Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Have any of you played in other bands? Hi, this is Matt from Chaos Inception. Thanks for the interview. Yes, we've been in Convergence from Within, Fleshtized, and Temple of Blood. I'm currently in Quinta Essentia and Monstrosity.

How is it that you started playing music? My dad was a musician so there were always instruments around the house. He played guitar, but we also had a banjo, mandolin, violin, and a keyboard. I was always making some noise, but only for myself, so no one else could hear. Making loud racket when dad got home from work or when mom was watching her soaps could get you a smack. It just came back to me how even when I started playing electric guitar I didn't want to play it where anyone could hear me, so I'd have my ear a few inches off the fretboard so no one else could hear. But my first electric guitar was a Wilson tennis racquet and the only sounds it made where the distorted guitar sounds coming out of my mouth. Me and my brother used to have concerts where we'd play a mix tape and do all the air guitar stuff for my sister. When the grand finale became us whipping out our schlongs, mom banned any future performances. I had a toy tape player that also recorded and I made my first demo at age 6. Me and my brother did a cover version of Twisted Sister's Captain Howdy, changing the chorus to "Stay away from Captain Crunch". I remember my brother being the more gifted lyricist - "Feast for the Beast" was one of the first songs he wrote, at about age 10. We were way ahead of our time. My brother currently goes by the name Chri$ Cain and is releasing a rap album. I have written the music for about 50 hard core rap songs over the years, with melody lines taken straight from horror films and black metal albums.  

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? We are in our late 30s - Gary White - drums. Matt Barnes - guitar. Chris White, the vocalist, and Cam Pinkerton, the bassist, quit the band via text message last weekend. Without creating new drama, I can say they quit the band due to irreconcilable  differences over the business side of things. I think they were somewhat unrealistic over the timeline of the release of our third album, and also regarding going on the road as if there was a demand for it, and it would be worthwhile for everyone to leave their job and family to play shows to 50 people at best in different cities. But to be honest, it was easier for them to say because they were on the sidelines while Gary and I were working the songs out. Over the past few years Gary and I went through through a lot of shit of which they were merely spectators - his divorce, the death of my father, and substance abuse problems that touched both of us. The timeline was not what I planned either but some things are more important than releasing a CD. I'm not saying some things are more important than the music. Without the music, Gary and I probably wouldn't have reached the other side of the tribulation so soon. But the album is a lot of work, costs a lot of time, costs a lot of money, and sometimes other things come before it. It's easy to get discouraged about releasing an album for other people, because most people get it, steal it off the internet, play it once, tell you it's cool, and then start asking about your next one. There are dedicated fans who the music touches and means as much to them as it does to us - Rick Lien, for example. But, I don't see too many independent death metal bands at our age cranking out albums every 2 years. They are either in a contract with the label, or are constantly touring and have to make an album to sell at shows.

Have you had other previous members? Matt Odom who just joined Diabolic was in the band for a little while. We started out with Thomas Mortigan on vocals who now is doing a bunch of electronic/noise projects. And of course, there's Chris White and Cam Pinkerton, who quit last weekend. 

Where are you from? We all reside in Alabama. I was born in Illinois and raised in Mississippi. Our base of operations is Huntsville, and we have a rented, climate-controlled storage unit as a rehearsal space. Gary has been in that room in some band or other for about 15 years, I believe. I've only lived in Huntsville for about 12 years.

What year did the band form? Somewhere around 2005. Gary and I were doing Fleshtized with various line-up changes and difficulties. We decided to do our own thing, start fresh, and change the name. We dropped all the Fleshtized songs and changed the style somewhat for Chaos Inception.

What's your style of genre? We play death metal in the hellish, fast style, based on the Florida and South American sound. It's not what I consider brutal death metal, and it's not old school either. We don't sound like any European bands that I know of, except maybe Centurian. Basically, it's whatever riffs I write and Gary and I like combined with Gary's high octane drumming. We always try and stretch our style, but we do enforce boundaries on it. If we were going to do something totally out of character we figure it should be called something besides Chaos Inception. I find it a rip off when some bands think they can change their sound completely and they expect the fans to follow. If the band was called Matt Barnes, sure, it would have a lot of different styles on it. It would just be me doing whatever I wanted. But I think your personality and personal whims must submit to the band name once it is established. 

What inspires you? I'm inspired by horror movies and metal bands, as usual. I'm also inspired by my hatred for the contemporary popular culture. Rage is a key component in the sound - sublimated rage. But we express more than anger. Anger always seems to have a component of frustration, but frustration is not something that a god would feel. I write songs that I imagine would sustain someone going into battle. It would grant them invincibility and the power to crush all their enemies. So anger is not what the songs express, because that would imply frustration and impotence. We leave the anger to the screamo genre.

How have you developed since you started with the music? One of my key developments has come from playing with Mark English of Monstrosity. When I began writing with Monstrosity he pointed out how my songs tended to have a classical music influence that was somewhat trite in metal when it's overdone. I started thinking using more outside notes and straying from the harmonic minor mode. It's difficult because it sounds pretty good, but you end up writing more original material when you break the habit. He is an awesome guitar player. I think he's under-rated and he's one of the best guitarists in death metal. I hope I have some strengths that compliment his weaknesses and vice versa. He's more of an improviser and an explorer, where I like to have everything planned and written out. I'm starting to enjoy improvising more though, due to his influence.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Nothing that takes up nearly as much time. When you are married and work 50-60 hours a week and are in 3 bands you can't have many other hobbies. I just read a few of the Dune books by Frank Herbert, and I've watched a lot of the Scream Factory Blu Ray reissues of horror classics, like Halloween III, Motel Hell, and Without Warning.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? It's the nature of the business. You won't play too many shows outside of your hometown unless you have a booking agent. You probably won't play any bigger shows at all, unless you have a key supporter in a high place. We've managed to play with Cannibal Corpse a few times because Alex Webster has supported us in this way. 

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? We are out of our one album contract with Lavadome, but we enjoyed the experience of working with them for The Abrogation. If that release was beneficial to them I am all for letting them have the follow up. I haven't spoken with Jan, the head of Lavadome since Cam and Chris quit the band, but he should know that this is not going to slow us down one bit. I'm pretty sure that I will play bass on the album, and this means I will finally have the bass sound that I hear in my head without any compromise. My thoughts are, if Lemmy was in a hard rock band and played with that tone, why in the hell would I use a clean bass tone in my death metal? If you are in a death metal band, but could play a live show through Conway Twitty's bass player's rig without touching a knob, something is wrong.  Distorted bass will be in full affect on the next album, and I think the sound will be stronger because of it. Gary has done vocals before, but we will discuss a new vocalist further down the road. Almost all the songs are complete for the next album. Some things have to be rewritten because I tried to use some of Chris and Cam's riffs in the songs, so I will remove those riffs and complete 3 more songs in order to release 11 songs for about 45 minutes of strong material.

What made you decide to make this music? Gary and I wanted to start a band and this was the common ground we had. He was the blast king and I was a Morbid Angel/South American death metal freak so this is what we could do.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? I have written all our songs except for 3 that Cam wrote and I co-wrote. I will write all the music on the next album, with help from Gary with the arrangements and possibly some note changes from his suggestions. This is how it's always worked: I write the music at home in front of my computer, record a demo and hand it out at rehearsal, and we take it one song at a time. I wrote most of the lyrics and I would make a 'whisper demo' where I record a whispering death metal voice with the music to get across the words and patterns and then give that to the vocalist. Cam basically handed me 10 riffs which I arranged, decided what riff is the verse, chorus, etc., possibly adding a riff or taking one out, and also changing notes where I heard room for improvement. I am going into detail here not to belittle his contributions, but just to let people know that with him and the vocalist quitting the band, it will not change a thing because their contributions to the songwriting were minimal. I usually start with the music, but I have gotten through writer's block by writing some lyrics, maybe just a line or two or a song title, and then writing music inspired by that.

Have you done any covers live? Yes, we have played Pull the Plug, some Behemoth song, some songs from Kill Em All, and Hallowed Point by Slayer. We are always jamming on some cover or other as we warm up during practice. Gary is a killer drummer and can play tons of songs by remembering what they sound like. I think we've jammed every Metallica song off the first 4 albums, most of Rust in Piece by Megadeth, lots of Slayer, lots of Morbid Angel, some Nile, some Suffocation. Even some Tony MacAlpine and Yngwie songs, which I usually butcher. 

What language do you sing in? Broken English and Necronomiconeian.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Ha! Well as long as you have other bands on the bill, you'll have at least 12 people, plus the sound guy and the bartender and bouncer. I think that with Chaos Inception the least was probably 5 paying customers and the most was about 500 or opening for Cannibal Corpse. I've played for thousands with Monstrosity. The funny thing is, I'm less nervous onstage with an audience of thousands than I am with 5. Five people in the crowd with their arms folded, showing no support - those are the rock bottom moments. We call those gigs "funnels" because it takes all of your time, money for transportation, hotel rooms, and food, and your enthusiasm and funnels them into an abyss. That's your typical Friday night gig in Guntersville, Alabama.

What was your latest gig? We're trying to put together another opener with Cannibal Corpse. We have a temporary line-up already intact.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Where can people buy your merchandise? We have 2 CDs and one t-shirt design, which is a simple logo shirt. Our previously printed shirts with the album covers are all sold out. You can send us a message on Facebook for ordering information.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? I just think it must've been better when people had to buy your music. We all know about tape traders but there was at least some effort behind dubbing a tape, it was more than just clicking a button. I think nobody makes money off albums anymore because of this.

What do you think of my work? How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I think a zine writer is a great asset to the metal underground. We have done a lot better since I first started doing interviews, which was when The Abrogation came out on Lavadome. It had a lot to do with their promotion team. Also, I like to read reviews and interviews. Sometimes reading the review is more enjoyable than listening to the music it's describing.

Do you have any role models or idols? Why do you think that they exist? Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I like the feeling of carrying the torch for someone who was great but may have been overlooked. I find inspiration in the stories of the more obscure, lesser-known musicians. The stories of famous musicians are all the same once the riches come into the story. It's everyone's fantasy that soon turns into a nightmare, and if they survive the fun times, only after a long journey through the darkness can they come back to making good music. It's very difficult for me to find inspiration in new bands, because I'm usually listening to it as an active musician listening to their peers, and all I hear is what's gone wrong, or what songwriting choices they made that I wouldn't have.

What have been your biggest obstacles? Age is the biggest obstacle. It's easier when you're young. You have nothing to lose, and sleeping in the floorboard of a van doesn't bother you. After about age 35, if you sleep on the floorboard you will not be able to walk the next day, much less play a gig and headbang for an hour, then get wasted with everyone at the after-party. 

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Go for it at a young age. Drop out of college and go on the road. Practice your instrument for 2-3 hours a day, then spend the rest of your time learning how to write good songs by learning to play your favorite songs. Always have at least one business minded person in the band. Hire someone to do your promotions, because you need to spend your time writing songs. Learn how to edit your songs.

What are your plans for the future? We plan to solidify a line-up for the next album. We'll then hand over the best death metal album of the decade to our label and see what happens. Hopefully we will be invited to play some festivals.