At the Gates Vocalist Tomas Lindberg Plays ‘Would You Rather?’

In our latest installment of ‘Would You Rather?’ At the Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg dishes on why he loves playing small club shows, his passion for both being in the studio and on tour as well as his admiration for David Bowie.  Check out our game of ‘Would You Rather?’ below with Tomas Lindberg of At the Gates:

Would you rather play big festivals or small club shows forever?  

That’s a tough one, I guess if it was forever I would probably choose club tours. The good thing with festivals is that you reach a lot of people at the same time. It is an overwhelming experience as well especially these big European ones, it’s a wild thing really. Wacken is 80,000 people which is kind of mind blowing but I would never give up the small clubs. You’re closer to the people and the intensity level is higher. I would probably have to do a lot more club shows to make up for a large festival.

Would you rather be late for a show or mess up onstage?  

That depends on how late. [Laughs] If you say 15 minutes late then I would rather that, people pay to see us play and we should be perfect every time. We’re older now, if we f--- up a song or whatever, we’re not machines, stuff happens. We can shrug it off, not laugh in the face of the audience, but we don’t want to kill each other either.  We just want to put on a good show.

Would you rather be on tour or in the studio?  

[Laughs] That’s a tough one too. You can’t really go on tour if you haven’t been in the studio. To record songs, to create songs, that’s a fantastic experience but to interact with fans and play those songs always tops that experience. I love both.

Would you rather have an accordion for legs or drumsticks for hands?

I’d probably go with the drumsticks for hands. I’ve always been a bit jealous of drummers. It costs a lot of money for the equipment and you have to drag s--- around, which I don’t have to do, but that’d be fun.

Would you rather have lunch with a music icon who has passed away or a music icon who is currently alive? Who would it be and why?

I would love to have lunch with a person who was alive recently but is no longer alive -- one of my biggest inspirations ever David Bowie. I would have lunch with him I think that would be amazing. He’s been through so much different stuff in life and he’s been so courageous. He’s been an inspiration to me always since I was a small kid.

Our thanks to Tomas Lindberg of At the Gates. Be sure to pick up their latest album At War With Reality here. Catch At the Gates on the 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise and on tour in February. Go here for a list of tour dates here.

Watch the At The Gates Video for "The Night Eternal"