Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What is your music about? It's instrumental music, so there are no lyrics. Sometimes I try to work a topic what the song is or might be about into the song-title, but more often than not it's rather abstract.

Best song you made? That's a tough question. I am not sure, my favorite song might change over time, but I'd say right now from my EP 'Sonic Sketches' my favorite song would be 'Spheres' or 'Floating'.

Have you done any single or album? I have released on EP so far.

Do you do anything on your own or get help with writing lyrics and music and such? This is a one-man project, so all of the writing is done by myself.

Do you play any instruments? Yes, I play guitar.

Tell us a little about yourself? I'm originally from Germany, but I moved to Amsterdam some years ago to study music here. After my studies I decided to stay here, so I live and work here.

Have any of you played in other bands? I have played in several bands before. My first band was a Speed Metal band that I formed together with my brother when I was 14.

How is it that you started playing music? I started playing piano when I was about 8 or 9, but later I got more interested in Rock music, especially Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. So, it became obvious to me that I needed an electric guitar if I wanted to play that music. 

Have you had other previous members? A few years ago I was playing my songs in trio format with a drummer and a bass player. Unfortunately the drummer had to quit at some point and the band fell apart.

What year did the band form? I am not sure I exactly remember when I initiated my solo-project, but it started when I first got into home-recording. I bought an audio interface, some software (a DAW and some drum software, etc) and I started writing and recording my own music. I think that must have been around 2008.

What's your style of genre? The music of my 1st EP I would say is instrumental progressive metal, well, that's how I would call it anyway. I am working on a follow-up EP in a similar style, but I also have some songs that would fit more into instrumental melodic rock, and I am going to release an EP with those songs as well some time in the future.

What inspires you? I get my inspiration from lots of different styles of music. Just listening to it, or watching some clips on YouTube for instance can be very inspiring to me. Sometimes it's also reading or watching an interview of someone whom of whose work I admire.

How have you developed since you started with the music? When I started playing guitar at age 13, it was mostly Hard Rock and Heavy Metal I was interested in, so for the first few years that was the only style I wanted to learn to play. But later, when I was about 20 or so I got interested in jazz and focused on that for some years. I enjoy listening to a lot of different styles of music, and I also like working on different styles of music when it comes to playing the instrument. Some of the genres I work on with my playing include Rock, Blues, Funk, Jazz, Metal, etc.

What made you decide to make this music? When I started playing guitar I was a huge Kiss fan, so I really just wanted to play their songs along to my cassette tapes.

What was your first gig like? Since I don't have a full band to play my songs with at the moment, there are no gigs. I did, however play one gig in 2012 at a teacher's concert of the music school where I work. At this music school we organize these teachers concerts every year where the students and parents can come and see the teachers perform and every teacher gets to play for like 10-15 minutes. So, I got the bass player I was playing in a band with at the time and the drum-teacher of the music school to play two of my songs. It was a lot of fun, and we were the only performers on that concert that played 'loud' music. LOL 

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? 

The only merchandise I have for sale is my EP, which is available as a download as well as on CD. 

I started selling it as soon as the EP was released in June 2013.

Where can people buy your merchandise? You can buy my EP on CD or as a download directly from my website www.LarsBauer.com or on my bandcamp page: https://larsbauer.bandcamp.com/

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? If people download stuff legally and pay for it, I am OK with that. Unfortunately nowadays everybody is expecting music to be for free. Or people think since a download does not include a physical CD/album there is no physical value, so it's OK in their mind to download it illegally but they miss the point that is it mostly not the physical value of material you pay for when you buy music, but you pay for the work of the artist. And that work goes into downloads just the same as a physical album.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I get inspired from older as well as recent bands and musicians. There's great music and musicians to be found in any period of time, this could be the bebop players in the 40ies or blues players from the 60ies or a new band that just came out recently.

Do you have any new material? What are your web sites? Yes, I do have some new material that will go on my next EP(s). My website is www.LarsBauer.com

How can people reach you? You can reach me through my website www.LarsBauer.com, there's a contact-form on it, or you can reach me through my Facebook-page: www.facebook.com/larsbauermusic/

What are your plans for the future? I want to get more music out in EP format, and at some point it would be great if I could get a band together to play this music with and perform it live.

Do you have something to add? Thank you very much for your interest in my music and for giving me the opportunity for this interview.