Good American rock bands are few and far in between. Good Minnesota rock bands, fewer and further. So imagine how excited we were when we heard that we’d be speaking to Motion City Soundtrack aka Motion City aka MCS right before their Rockawayfest Showcase last week. The boys put on an awesome show, by the way! It was definitely nothing short of impressive.
If you missed it, well, here; we’re cordially inviting you to our one-on-one with the band – mostly Justin (the lead vocalist), and Joshua (the lead guitarist).
Hi! When did you guys get in? Have you seen much of Kuala Lumpur yet?
“We got in two nights ago at 4am. This is our first time to Malaysia so..we walked around a bit and we saw the Petronas Twin Towers at KLCC but we didn’t get to go up though. We also hung out at the hotel bar for a bit. And we’re leaving tomorrow!”
That’s so soon!
“Yeah we leave tomorrow morning – we know, we know! But we have this other show and we’re on our tour. We started our tour in June and before that we were in Europe. Next up, we’ll be in Korea, then UK, and then another US tour. And that’s it.”
Wow. Being on tour so much, that just means that you boys would have to pack light all the time. So what are the things that you absolutely have to pack when you travel?
“Clothes! (laughs) No, just kidding. We all have our gadgets these days but you know, I’m having a conundrum currently because I realize the validity of having a device that can store several books that you can read. However, I like physical turning of pages of books but packing twelve books would make my bag overweight at airports. So, yea. But I like the crisp pages, books..”
Ah! So tell us, why “Motion City Soundtrack”? Because, you know, it sounds like a movie.
“Because it was better than Yukon Cornelius (a character in the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special). Actually, when our first album came out (which was ironically called I Am The Movie) it often got misplaced into the movie soundtrack files in stores. It sounded really cool and we liked the name – we didn’t think that it would cause us these issues down the line (laughs). We were searching for a good band name at that time and we’ve thought of a few but we just like the way this one sounded. Now we’re just known as MCS or Motion City.”
How long did you guys take to work on your new album, “Go“?
“That one was really quick or at least I feel like it was. We started writing songs specifically for that record at the end of 2010 and by March/April 2011 we were in the studio. What we did was..we sorta pulled a bunch of old ideas together coupled with a bunch of new ideas, wrote songs together, so it felt like it came about really quickly.”
Where did you guys draw the inspiration from for the songs on “Go”?
“Everything we do. As far as the content of the songs, in the last few years I’ve been obsessed with the idea of enjoying each moment as it happens. Time moves at an accelerated rate and that phenomenon is just really strange – so the content of the songs, it has got a lot to do with just what has happened and what’s in our surroundings.”
Okay, last one for the road. What would you guys most likely be doing now if you weren’t in a band?
“That’s a tough one..hmm! I would like to have a job where I didn’t have to do much, where I could just sit and think all day and write down ideas. Then I could go home after and just create. But you know, I don’t know what kind of job that would be (laughs).”
Sounds like the kind of job we would all love to have! Thank you boys for speaking to us and much gratitude to Livescape Asia for making this interview happen.
For more information on Motion City Soundtrack, visit their website. Don’t forget to LIKE their Facebook page!
