The Living Tombstone have been dubbed “the internet’s biggest gaming band” - (NME)
“TLT” as they are known to their legion of fans, are the duo Yoav Landau and Sam Haft. Having created and released music for over eleven years, they have amassed 7 million YouTube subscribers, and their music has achieved over 45 billion streams across platforms. Their unique position as both recording artists and influencers in the gaming and ‘geekdom’ space gives them a significant cultural footprint and history, with multiple RIAA awarded songs, and even charting at #4 on the Dance/Electronic chart with their track Five Nights At Freddy’s, used in the end credits of the recent Blumhouse/NBC Universal produced film.
“Our fans connect to us because they’re obsessed with lore and story. So now we’re giving them a story that belongs entirely to them,” says band member Sam Haft, who portrays the primary vocalist character “Rust” onstage. “I don’t think of us as The Living Tombstone - I think of us as the two guys who write the story for The Living Tombstone. The act has its own world and its own characters for people to follow. It’s our job to continue to provide fans an interesting narrative.”
Haft, originally a TV and film writer by trade, joined The Living Tombstone as a songwriter-lyricist-vocalist seven years ago, but ask him and he’ll tell you, “The magic is all Yoav. I’m hardworking and lucky - he’s special.” Founding member Yoav Landau, who portrays the band’s frontman character “zero_one” onstage, started TLT as a way to escape an environment in which he never felt like he fit in, as a teenager in Israel. Yoav found an emotional outlet in developing music about his favorite television shows as a way to connect with like-minded communities away from his home, and across the world. As soon as he was able, Yoav left college, moved to America and became a full-time creator.
“I’m super grateful for the existence of YouTube,” explains Yoav. “The internet always felt more like a home to me than any one country.” And the more Yoav began to create, the more his "home country" of the internet embraced him. Before meeting Haft, he had already amassed hundreds of millions of streams, and one of YouTube’s earliest million subscriber plaques.
TLT's manager, Octone Records co-founder David Boxenbaum, never thought he would manage an act, but something surprised him when he first encountered TLT. “These guys disprove the rule, that you can’t just put your music out there and expect people to find it,” he says with a grin. “These guys put it out there, and millions of people found it.” And he’s right - they have - from major movie studios like Universal Pictures, to A-Listers like Will Smith and Jack Black. TLT has carved out its own little corner of the geek culture zeitgeist.
TLT encountered Boxenbaum - or “Box” as friends call him - while developing a TV show for Japanese media giant Avex, where he was the head of their music company. It was Box who convinced the act to finally assemble the debut LP album they’d been dreaming up for years, “zero_one”, and take it to the industry, where it was embraced by fans and casual listeners alike.
TLT have in the meantime continued developing projects for TV, video games, and more. In 2021, they released indie horror game In Sound Mind, which was critically well received and rated “overwhelmingly positive” on Steam. Since re-acquiring the rights to their TV project from Avex, they have independently financed a proof-of-concept to their battle of the bands cartoon, “Rock N Rumble,” with plans to pitch in Q1 2024. In addition, they’ve spun off the concept into a battle of the bands strategy video game, AudioClash: Battle Of The Bands, currently in beta and seeking a publisher.
Now newly signed to 10K Projects, TLT are working alongside industry-best alternative producer CJ Baran (Panic! at the Disco, COIN, One OK Rock) on their next album, entitled Rust. “Just as zero_one was an album about looking inward, Rust is an album about looking outward,” says Haft. “It’s an album about rebellion, dystopia, and an angry optimism that we can create the future we deserve.” Rust releases in 2024.
