Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Personal questions about the band and their members:

Have you played in any band before? Leading up to the formation of DISMEMBERMENT I had never played music, not even an instrument. I had always been drawn to music, but never imagined playing it, let alone performing it. I bought a guitar in 2009 just to jam around with my brother (Jacob) and it all kicked off from there. 

How will they do that you began to enter the field of music? When I was around 15 or 16 my Dad bought me a drumset. I gained an interest in playing and I really wanted to play the drums. It took me a few years to realize that I was terrible at it, haha! Jacob always had guitars laying around so I would mess with them every once and awhile until I finally decided to buy my own and start taking it a bit more serious. Still at that point, I just wanted to play an instrument and jam. Being in a band never crossed my mind. 

What's your name? / Who plays what? / How old are you? Luke Shively. I play guitar and do vocals. I'm 24 years old. 

Have you had previous members? No. Since day one it has been the 4 of us and the plan is to keep it that way. 

Where are you from? I was born in Columbus, OH and grew up in a small town called Laurelville in South Eastern Ohio.

What year was started the band? The idea of the band came about in the fall of 2009, but never really took its true form until the summer of 2010. 

What do you play music style? I’d like to think we have a broad sound for what a metal band can do these days. We’re all fans of the extreme side of metal (Death, Black, Thrash, etc.), but at the same time we really enjoy the other side. For lack of a better word, the “softer” side or more laid back side. When we’re on the road the jams could range from KISS, to Anal Cunt, to Baroness, Clutch, David Allan Coe, to Darkthrone, and so on. Now that we’ve matured a bit the goal is to incorporate the laid back vibe we all enjoy as fans while still maintaining our raw sound we grew up with. Our last album, “Embrace The Dark” is a good example of where we would like to head. Still keep the raw sound, but not being afraid to just jam and open up a bit more. 

What inspires you? I take inspiration from a lot of things. Day to day activities, seeing what makes people tick, how things work and exist the way they do always gives me creative ideas. Especially lyrically. Seeing great bands live and finding killer new music, metal or not. It always pushes me when writing. It puts me in the mindset, “Man, that is great stuff! Now how can I top it?” Not so much from a competitive viewpoint but as a great motivator to push forward. 

How have you evolved since you started with music? When I started playing and writing music seriously I was 16. That was 8 years ago. Back then all I wanted to do was play as fast as possible and write about evil shit, haha! Gain all the way to 10 distorted as fuck metal madness! Now I appreciate what it takes to actually build a great song. Sometimes that means hanging back a bit. I write more off feeling now rather than worrying about being as heavy as possible. It’s almost like letting the song find its own path. 

Do you have any other interests or jobs outside of the band and the music? I’m a huge fan of comic books and an enormous Batman fan. For work, I’m a manager at a little pizza shop right outside of where I live. Easy going place and they’re very understanding of everything that goes on with the band, so you can’t beat that!

Questions about your music and lyrics:

What are your songs about the whole? Starting out they were more fantasy based. I still enjoy writing in that style, but after a while it gets a bit stale. You do it for so long and sort of pigeon hole yourself. I really enjoy writing about things based in reality. Whether it’s personal emotions or things I have going on or just writing about harsh realities that we all have to face from time to time. Writing from an outside perspective looking in. Subjects that bring the listener in and leaving them with something they can relate to. 

Who writes the lyrics? I’ve written the lyrics to all the songs. So far it has worked great, I think. The guys will have input if I hit a rough spot and that definitely helps. It could range from a single line to a single word or even a whole subject to write about.  

When you do a song, you start with the music or the lyrics? Music always comes first. When we all 4 came together we searched for a vocalist for quite a while until I jumped on the landmine and took the reigns. I was terrified, but looking back I’m very happy with the decision. I’m still a guitarist first and a vocalist second. Once the song is done I start brainstorming ideas. Sometimes the idea comes, but every now and again the song steers me in the right direction. 

In which environment do you usually do your songs? When writing the music, I'm normally just sitting around the house. Maybe a beer or two while riffing around. Once you break that 2-3 hour time frame of jamming that's when the ideas start popping up. With lyrics I'm constantly writing notes in my phone or a nearby piece of paper wherever I'm at. It could just be one word, a title, a subject or sometimes a good chunk of material. Lyric patterns pop up every now again so I'll go hide in a corner wherever I'm at and beatbox to my phone. I won't have words, but can hear the syllables so they always sound a bit goofy in beatbox form, hahaha!  

Questions regarding your gigs and performances like:

Do you play always the same songs live or vary it? We try to mix things up a good bit. Try to keep an equal balance of songs from the two EP’s (“The Condemned” & “Denied Salvation”) and a heavy dose of tracks from the full length (“Embrace The Dark”). “Cryptic Isolation” is a mainstay that never leaves the set.

What was the first gig? Our first show ever was in early 2011 at a bar called Tootles in Circleville, Ohio.

What was the last gig? We got the opportunity to play Full Terror Assault Open-Air in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois at the end of August. I was a killer 3 day festival with a ton of killer bands!  

Where have you been playing this year? So far it has been a lot of East Coast and Mid-West runs. Haven’t had the opportunity to make it too far west, but we did get to visit the maniacs up North in good ol’ Canada! Great shows and awesome people up there! 

Which countries have you played in? So far just the US and Canada. Hopefully we can visit our metal brothers overseas sooner than later and also pay a visit to South America. Time will tell!  

Questions regarding your merchandise:

When did you sell merchandise? We were strict on making sure we at least had a CD to sell when we first started playing shows. From there we’ve expanded quite a bit in merch. 

Where can I buy your Merchandise? It's always available at our live gigs and it can be bought online at: www.DISMEMBERMENT.myminto.com

Questions about your views:

What do you think about downloading more music than buying CDs nowadays? As long as they’re still paying if they’re downloading I don’t see a problem with it. It’s a digital age these days unfortunately. Directly downloading it from some torrent site is absolute bullshit and in my eyes it’s stealing no matter how big the band is.

If you prefer downloaded music, cassette, CD or Vinyl? I really enjoy collecting cassettes and vinyl, but I’ll take anything can get. I’m not picky. 

What are your role models or idols? Chuck Schuldiner is number one in my book. Randy Rhoads, Lemmy, Geezer, Dime, Iommi. I could go on and on.

Is it easier to draw inspiration from older bands than bands that are active today? For me it’s about equal. The classics are great, but there are tons of great new bands doing a lot of cool creative things too.

What has been conditioned biggest obstacles in the music industry? The internet. Now everyone has a band and it has become one big zoo. Some good bands, some bad, but at the end of the day a lot gets overlooked because there is just too much to look through. You can pay, or almost HAVE to pay for recognition these days and I think that is lame. A lot of people would rather watch your set on YouTube rather than get out of the house and headbang along with you.

What advice would you give to other bands and artists? Do what you want, and play what you want. Don't let the metal "standards" constrain you. Most definitely don't expect ANYTHING! Be grateful for what comes your way and pay it forward. Work hard and it'll have its pay offs from time to time. 

News and updates:

Do you have new material in grams? We’ve been writing a good bit here lately for a potential full length release or maybe something smaller. No title or anything set in stone, but the wheels are turning.

What is your website?

We’re spread all across the great wide internet. Check us out at any of the links below for updates! FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/DISMEMBERMENTohio

YOUTUBE: YouTube.com/DISMEMBERMENTohio

INSTAGRAM: @DISMEMBERMENTohio

TWITTER: Twitter.com/_DISMEMBERMENTohio

MERCH: DISMEMBERMENT.myminto.com

BANDCAMP: DISMEMBERMENT.bandcamp.com

What are your plans for the future? We plan to take the winter off to keep cracking away at the new material. Then aim to get back out on the road early 2017! We want to hit a lot of places we haven’t yet so keep your eyes and ears peeled! Lots of news on the horizon!

Do you have anything to add? Thanks for the great questions and the support!