The Living Tombstone

The Living Tombstone has 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 the last 15 years, they have amassed 9 million YouTube
subscribers, and their music has achieved over 70 billion streams across platforms. The band is
coming off a sold-out four-continent-spanning 2025 World Tour. 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,” which was used in the end
credits of the Blumhouse/NBC Universal produced film. TLT’s “It’s Been so Long” was then
used in the end-credits of Five Nights At Freddy’s 2.
“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 with 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 form of escapism, feeling isolated as a
teenager. Yoav found an emotional outlet in developing music about his favorite television
shows to connect with like-minded fans and communities across the world. With a rapidly
growing viral music act, Yoav dropped out of college, and has been doing The Living
Tombstone full time since.
“I’m super grateful for the existence of YouTube,” explains Yoav. “The internet always felt more
like a home to me than anywhere else.” And the more Yoav began to create, the more his
"home" 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 Q2 2026. In addition, they’ve spun off the concept into a
battle of the bands strategy video game, currently in beta and seeking a publisher.
Since signing their bespoke label Ghost Pixel Records to 10K Projects in 2024, TLT worked
alongside industry-best alternative producer CJ Baran (Panic! at the Disco, COIN, One OK
Rock) on releasing their 2025 sophomore album, “Rust,” and now are hard at work on their
follow-up, “Armstrong.” TLT continues to grow their fandom universe, signing music acts to their
label, creating music with huge video games, and performing with musical peers like Bbno$.