The Living Tombstone – 'Live Shows, Fandom and Boss Battles'

The Living Tombstone are an internet sensation that has taken the world by storm.

Ahead of their completely sold-out debut Australian tour we had a chat with Sam Haft and Yoav Landau about about their rise to fame, Five Nights at Freddy’s, the supportive internet community and what they’re looking forward to down under.

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In a world where the internet pop culture, fandom, and music collide, there comes an opportunity to take advantage of this. Today we've got Sam and Yoav of the Living Tombstone to have a chat with Wall of Sound ahead of their first tour in Australia. You're about to tour Australia for the first time and it's completely sold out on all the key cities of the East Coast. The demand to see The Living Tombstone down under is huge. The Melbourne date sold out in 24 hours, which is a pretty impressive feat. What are you most excited for when you guys come to visit, whether it's on or off stage?

Sam: Enthusiasm, I think. Selling out those shows so fast speaks to a lot of enthusiasm there and I'm so excited to get a sense of that. Also scoping Australia out in case I need to change country!

Yoav: Well outside of that gloomy note.

Sam: That’s part of it. When we’re there and have downtime, I’ll be like, okay—nice houses, nice people, good weather. I can’t pretend I won’t be doing that.

That's it. There's so much to see and do on and off stage here, which is good. And I'm sure that the crowds here are really keen for you. The demand for the shows were huge. The following that you guys have is astronomical and it's gonna be really exciting to see in person – for the Australian audiences – the new dynamic way that we can experience the character driven narratives that you guys have in your music. What are some challenges or insights that you guys have into the process of translating your work into a live setting?

Yoav: The way we go about this, is that a lot of the songs are already structured in such a way that you can play with a live band. So our, our live band setup is: Sam and I sing, we have a bassist, guitarist and a drummer.

Sam: And Tracks.

Yoav: So when it comes to tracks, we listen to the song and then basically a lot of parts in the song can already be translated to their respective instruments. So bass, even if it's an electric bass, we can actually have a lot of manipulation.

The Living Tombstone is very inspired by Ska and Reggae.

There’s a lot of tools and chords that I play a lot. The guitar can basically mimic a lot of what's happening there and we can both play digital and real drums together. There is a setup with a PC that we can control everything with. Like Sam mentioned with tracks, it's basically everything else that we would not be able to play at all with any of the instruments. There's a click track and we understand how do we sync up to everything that's happening? And that's how we get the songs to sound maybe like 75, 80% close to the original songs that were not done with instruments in mind.

Cool, it's very interesting to see. You're just about to finish a North American tour, is that correct?

Sam: So we just finished our North American tour at the end of the year.

Yep, that's right. You're not new in bringing this to the stage, but it'll be new to us which obviously we are super keen to see. I want to touch on your online presence. You've created a whole bunch of different soundtracks for new generations to spook themselves online, if you will. Our Wall of Sound bossman Browny's son, is particularly fond of your music and he is an avid, longtime listener. For the parents who aren't quite latched on to what The Living Tombstone is yet, what do you want them to know about your purpose as entertainers?

Sam: Part of the reason that there tends to be a lot of appeal for young people is that TLT grew out of the world of fandom. Fandom of video games, of cartoons and stuff like that. So much of that is something that I think a lot of young people find very easy to digest. I think the media diet of young people tends to be very biased towards games and cartoons and that kind of thing.

The first thing that I would say to help someone understand TLT is that the roots are in fan art. That is part of why the fan base is like an online community that all that happens to be around a band instead of a video game.

Yoav: The thing that's so fascinating and why we're trying so hard to bridge the gap, it's because we are both fans. To be both the performer and fan is interesting. Not to sound fourth wall breaking stuff, but it's meta because we're both the fans and the performers. I'm sure people listening being like “well isn't it what a musician does? Like he's a fan of his own music.” Yeah, totally that's true. I'm not dismissing the definition. It's more that because we're an internet band, we're not just fans of our music, but we're fans of what we're seeking and making music about. The current album that we're releasing and promoting, Rust, we very much want to be fans of not just that, but also the things that we are very much into. And that also extends to beyond music. We're an audio video act, so music videos are very much about exploring that even more deeply.

Sam: Part of why we have these interesting costumes that we perform with on stage is because we're very self-aware of the fact that we are a visual experience to people online.

Online, you're often not just listening to the music on Spotify, you're watching it on YouTube or something. So I think part of that is also trying to create a really interesting visual experience for the in-person listener.

For musicians or any kind of media content creator to have that proper output that's going to last, they need to have the passion for their work and the passion for what they're doing, which clearly you guys have, like you said, you know you’re fans of what you make the music about. You're not making the music about any random thing you pull out of a hat. You also still managed to maintain a great sense of community despite, your high numbers and your high success in your career. You guys still managed to maintain that community with your fans which is really cool to see.

Sam: And they're really good to each other too. I think that's why our concerts have been succeeding and why there has been good word of mouth about our shows. Our fans are really kind to each other.

It's always a roll of the dice when it comes to an online fandom, what kind of fandom you're gonna get. I think to an extent you can influence it, but ultimately you don't really have control over who's in the club.

I think it's been amazing to see that the fan base is as big and international as it is. It still has small community inclusiveness and love for each other when they link up in person.

Yoav: If you think about it The Living Tombstone encompasses a lot of different things that we're into. It also extends to the tombsonas 'cause we have five different tombsonas that are all very different in how they feel and react and act. Then you also have the fandom stuff, which is also separate from one to the other. So you have like Five Nights at Freddy’s, My Little Pony, and these are all like, and I think when you're a fan who go to our show, you end up also having to understand and respect that. You have people with you that are also in different parts of the internet that The Living Tombstone are very much into. And I guess that mutual respect and understanding cultivated our kind of audience.

Sam: It’s almost reductive to call it like one sort of fan because there are the people who are there because they really wanna see the Five Nights at Freddy's songs, there're the fans who are there because they really wanna see songs about My Little Pony, there are fans that are there because they wanna see the song we did for Beat Saber. But then there are also fans that show up because they love the characters we play on stage. They want to get to the barricade so they can be close to the base character Tesla. It really is this wide spectrum of interests and yet they still are in community with each other, even if they're not all there for the same reasons. It's very cool to see.

Yoav: Let's say you’re a fan of one fandom, but not a fan of this one. Much like how you can have a fan who's more of a fan of, wrestling in this example or more of Zero1 – they can still listen to something that's outside of their periphery and say this is still good. They understand the love for the thing that we're singing about because at the end of the day it's still music for the sake of music.

Sam: To piggyback off of that too, there's something that we notice on stage. The people who are there clearly for the Five Nights at Freddy's stuff, when we're playing stuff that's not that. You don't get that thing that happens at concerts sometimes where people are just checked out when it's not the music that they want to hear from the band. Everyone is so down to experience the show, whatever the shape of the show is, whatever songs are being played.

Mm-hmm. Even if there's specific stuff they're there for, they're not just in the back getting a drink when there's anything else and they're there. Also, when we have opening acts, they're so there for the opener too, which is so great. Like being able to introduce people to music artists that they may not already be aware of. They're coming in with this open mind and learning to love these new music artists the same way that we love them, which is why we pick them.

Yoav: We definitely cultivated this mentality of “you can let yourself be engaged in things that you're not as much into, but you still respect and love it because it's still part of the same pool.”

The intersectionality of so many different kind of communities and fandoms into this one group of people who love the music and love the different topics and the focuses of the music, they all come together and it's an overall positive experience. That's what helps the community stay tight because that's such an important thing to – growing as creators and having a good community to give back to is always such a wholesome thing to do. I just want to touch on Five Nights at Freddy's, because obviously that's quite a successful video game franchise and has had a very successful movie adaptation, featuring you guys in the end credits. I'm wondering what's been the most strangest and rewarding things that have come from this series bursting in popularity for you guys?

Yoav: I think it was the interesting ripple effect that making a song about Five Nights at Freddy’s had. For example, there was a stream that Jack Black did with Markiplier, and he also had his son in the stream. And Jack Black decided on a whim – there was nothing prompting him to do it as far as I know – to basically sing Five Night’s at Freddy’s during the video. It was one of many weird, strange moments that happened because of the song.

Sam: Yeah I think it's definitely a surreal moment to hear Jack Black scatting over a song that Yoav wrote 10 years ago. It's very fun.

Yoav: That’s the thing. It's not like when Sam and I do anything, it's not like we know, “oh this is gonna be big, this is gonna be huge.” Well you never know. This is never our mentality to begin with when it comes to trying to make a song about something we like. Because in the case of Five Nights at Freddy's, the song came out two weeks after the game came out. At the time I saw forums talking about this new game that just emerged just a couple of days ago and that got me to think like “okay, interesting. What's happening here?” And then I see that they're presenting the story in an interesting way that's like a like a newspaper on the wall kind of thing. And that was enough for me as a way to go off of and say, “I'm inspired to make a song about this game that just came out.”

Sam: Yeah, and you would never know nine years later, it's in a big horror movie.  

Yoav: The guy who made this game, he just released a game that no one yet talked about much. It could have been just whatever, but this somehow caught on fire.

I guess you know how an in developer – like the person behind Five Nights at Freddy's – creates this game, this franchise, which just takes off. And you guys as an internet band, you've grown alongside it and you get to kind of almost come full circle to a degree when your song is featured in the movie adaptation. It's pretty phenomenal stuff.

Sam: That's a very good point. In a lot of ways it's like we've both come so far and look at us. Who would have thought?

Yoav: Yeah not me. To give credit to Scott Cawthon, the guy who made the games, he reached out to us really early on and that was his vision basically from the very beginning. Even when the movies switched production studios.

The idea from the very beginning was to say, “the game has its story and we can make a movie about it, but the song is relevant to the game because we're talking about fans who are engaged in the story in such a way that there is even music about it.”

Sam: I think this was before Blumhouse was attached, before the final director was attached. Scott had already emailed Yoav saying “it's important to me that this song is in this film.”

I love that. Community and looking out for each other is just so wholesome to hear. Especially when you hear the stories of the business parts of the industry – undercutting each other and all kinds of nonsense that goes on in the background. To hear that you guys have that sense of community, you and Scott, you don't forget where you come from. You do it for the fans and he knows how special your song is for that franchise and that recognition is really wholesome to hear. I would like to ask you a bit of a fun question. If you could provide the soundtrack for any boss battle in gaming, who would it be for and what would it sound like?

Yoav: Oh my God. This is such fun question, you're right about that. Now I need a second.

Sam: What's interesting for me is the bosses that come to mind, come to mind because of the soundtrack that already exists for them. I think of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, but so much of what makes that interesting is the music that exists for it already. So I realize that maybe one of the ways in which I think about bosses is very audio wise. All the bosses that come to mind, they come to mind because from an audio level, the music is so cool.

Yoav: If we're talking about bosses for video games, I really liked Vass from Far Cry 3. He didn't actually have a theme song, he just had a sequence or whatever. I think he really deserves some themes and, that's one character.

Sam: I don't think I'm gonna have an answer better than that. Stick with your answer.

It’s really interesting, like talking about video games and music. How you kind of think of the boss fight and the music that goes into it is a big part of it. For example Soulslike games. Some of the bosses in there have some iconic themes like Gwyn the Lord of Cinder in Dark Souls 3.

Yoav: It’s so good it's used outside of Dark Souls 3 so much.

The memes are fantastic as well, proving the sense of the internet in general. It's just crazy on how it can spread that meaning and you can hear your songs in so many different aspects. It's really cool. I’m gonna wrap up there. It was an absolute pleasure chatting with you and we look forward to seeing you guys when you come and smash out that Australian tour.

Sam: Absolutely. Where in Australia are you based?

I'm based halfway between Sydney and Melbourne in a town called Wagga Wagga in New South Wales.

Sam: Good name!

Yeah, it's interesting!

Sam: Can we get you to our Sydney show or Melbourne show?

I'll definitely be at one of them for sure.

Sam: Excellent. Hope we see you there then.

Definitely looking forward to it guys, and thank you for stopping by Wall Of Sound.

Sam: Of course. Thank you so much.

Interview by Tyler Lubke

‍THE LIVING TOMBSTONE - Australian Tour July 2025

Friday 4th July — The Triffid, Brisbane – SOLD OUT
Saturday 5th July — Manning Bar, Sydney – SOLD OUT
Sunday 6th July — Max Watts, Melbourne – SOLD OUT