Motion City Soundtrack are headed back to Australia to play Commit This To Memory in full as part of the ten year anniversary tour. Soon after they will be releasing a new album titled Panic Stations. We were lucky enough to catch up with bass player Matt Taylor and chat about the tour and new album.
SCENEzine
First off we’ve had the chance to hear the new album and are absolutely loving it. Are you happy with how it turned out?
Matt Taylor
I sure am. Glad you like it too. I really appreciate that. We are all very happy with it
SCENEzine
Can you tell us a bit about the artwork album?
Matt Taylor
I can’t really dive too deep into it because we like to leave things very much open to the listener and or viewer of the artwork and the music. We hired our friend Brad who is very talented he actually did the artwork for Go as well. We just wanted some striking contrasting images to go along with the songs. There are panels also that kid of represent different seasons like a shift in seasons. Hopefully you’ll see that through the panels in the art. I’m very happy with the way it turned out. I think visually it’s pretty striking imagery.
SCENEzine
The first song the world got to hear from the new album was “TKO”. Really love the fuzzy bass sound. Was that song fun to write and record ?
Matt Taylor
Matt Taylor
It’s funny you should say that it’s actually my favourite song on the album. There’s something about that song it has multiple different feels in it. I’m a bit ADD sometimes when I listen to music so that appeals to me as a listener.You’ve got your quirky upbeat verse and then the chorus steps up a little in intensity and it’s off time.
Then the bridge we just ride out we just keep playing and keep playing the same chord changes and it just kind of washes. I like that we weren’t feeling like we had to chop it up and make it shorter. We just let the song ride.
It just felt really good and we just kind of listened to our hearts on that one without sounding super cheesy.
Glad to hear you like the song, thank you.
SCENEzine
Another highlight comes from the beautiful and epic “Days will run away” which closes the album. Are you looking forward to playing that live to see how it connects with the audience?
Matt Taylor
I am looking forward to that yeah, definitely. We tend to like to put those types of songs on the end of records. I’m very curious to see how that one goes live. I think that’ll be really fun for us too as a band to play that because it’s pretty intense. It goes from being very intimate quite to very loud. It’s a lot of fun.
SCENEzine
The album itself was recorded in the new revamped Pachyderm studios. Famously Nirvana’s In Utero was recoded there. Did you feel a senses of history and nostalgia while being there?
Matt Taylor
I did. Gosh I was probably eleven years old when I first heard Nirvana and that changed my life completely. So being in that room and just imagining the three of those guys pummelling the room with sound there was something very special about that for sure. They lived there in the house just like we did. We even staged one of the famous photographs they took on the fireplace. It was the band, Frances Bean, Steve Albini and a dog. We actually had a photographer come one day so we were like lets recreate this shot (laughs) It’s somewhere on the internet now.We were definitely feeling the vibes and energy Nirvana had left there. The room was awesome. It was very cool for us.
SCENEzine
Recently you played Nirvana’s “Breed” live. Was that fun to do?
Matt Taylor
Yes that is beyond fun. My eleven year old self freaked out the first time I heard it. I just couldn’t believe it. So yeah getting to play it is like part of my child hood coming out. It’s a simple song but it pummels. It rocks so hard and is fun to play. We like to do it and invite other bands up to have fun along with us. I’d love to do it again sometime soon.
SCENEzine
You are headed to Australia soon to play Commit this to memory in full. Does that album hold a special place for you? Being a bass player yourself was it surreal having Mark Hoppus produce the album?
Matt Taylor
Yes to both of those questions. It definitely takes me back to a time when we play it. This whole year we have been playing that album live and it’s still just as strong as the first time we played it through. It makes me feel ten or eleven years younger. Around that time is when we met Mark. It makes me think of the time we toured Europe with Mark.
He used to come into our back stage and turn off the lights the leave. Pranking us all the time. But sometimes we would just have really long conversations about music realising we had a lot in common. Blink had released their self titled album a year before and we were listening to that really appreciating the production sound on it. We the just got talking with Mark and asked if he had ever produced since we were about to record a new album. He said he’d never produced but would like to. It just happened very naturally and really good opportunity for us.
SCENEzine
Was it just as natural asking Mark to guest on “Hangman”?
Matt Taylor
Yeah he was all about that. He was there already and we were like hey since your here why don’t you do this.
We had finished recording one night and he worked on it when we weren’t in there with him so he had written his own melody. We had the words and he came up with the melody and it sounded cool. Being a bass player it was great having him produce. I was able to get a little more special attention.
SCENEzine
One absolute crowd favourite is the anthem “Everything is alright”. When writing that song did you feel you had something special? At what point did Patrick Stump get involved?
Matt Taylor
That was one of the last songs to be written for Commit this to memory. We were in LA rehearsing and doing pre-production and it was a matter of a few days before recording when the song came about. We found out that Fall Out Boy were recording “From under the cork tree” at the same time in LA and they were good friends of ours. We just called them and they came right in. Also Justin had sang on “Take this to your grave” previously so they owed us one (laughs) But yeah that also just worked out naturally.
SCENEzine
Is it true you were intoxicated for the recording of your part for “Make out kids”?
Matt Taylor
This is very true. One hundred percent true. I didn’t expect to be recording that night. We went to a fundraiser where Blink was playing and there was free beer so I drank the free beer. I drank all the free beer. After Mark finished playing he was like hey do you wanna go back and record. I was like no, no I don’t (laughs) But it was my turn to record the bass part and I seriously nailed it. I played better intoxicated somehow than sober. I’m not encouraging anyone to do that but in that once instance for me I don’t know how I did it but it worked out.
SCENEzine
Since you’ve been to Australia a few times do you have a favourite memory from a past tour?
Matt Taylor
I do. Last time we were there Metallica was headlining Soundwave and we played earlier in the day. We showed up the day before the show and I think we were in Perth and Metallica decided they wanted to throw a BBQ for the entire tour and all the bands could come. So we went and all of Metallica was just hanging out talking to everybody, super nice guys. Also Slayer and Anthrax were there, everybody on the tour. All these bands that I was just like terrified of just hanging out being the nicest guys. That was the coolest thing any headlining band has ever done to this day that I’ve ever seen. That just took a bunch of money out of their own pockets to have a little pre tour party for everyone. I thought that was really cool.
SCENEzine
And you got to drink there free beer.
Matt Taylor
Yes exactly and I didn’t have to record so it was great.
SCENEzine
Since the album is called Commit this to memory when you realised you would be starting the ten year anniversary tour were there songs you couldn’t remember how to play?
Matt Taylor
SCENEzine
When you get to Australia are you planning on playing any new songs live as well?
Matt Taylor
Yes we will. We are going to play Commit this to memory then take a tiny break and come back and play a bunch more songs. We will do a lot of old songs and a few new ones. You’ll definitely hear something new.
SCENEzine
We were lucky enough to catch you playing at Riot Fest Chicago last year. Did you have fun playing that?
Matt Taylor
Yeah that was great. We’d been off stage for a while because we recorded in June and were getting it mixed through July and we went and played that in September. It was actually kind of scary because we hadn’t played in so long. We showed up and were like oh my god there’s a lot of people here to see us, it’s a great thing but we are terrified (laughs) we had a great time though. Aside from the mud.
SCENEzine
The first Motion City song we ever heard was “The future freaks me out”. It just struck us straight away with the wit and intelligence behind the lyrics. are you sometimes amazed with the stuff Justin comes up with?
Matt Taylor
Absolutely. I agree with you on that song because I was not in the band when they had written that song. So I approached that as a fan as well. The first time I heard “I Am The Movie” I wasn’t in the band yet. So I was a huge fan of that record I thought it was really good. Justin has the ability to turn it on with the funny and pop culture references then to get really serious and deep. Abstract at times but then very meaningful at other times. He was able to go back and forth through those different emotions seamlessly and that’s what I really liked about it. So yeah I agree with you.
SCENEzine
Can you leave us with a last message for your Aussie fans?
Matt Taylor
Yes. We can’t wait to come see you guys and to play for you and just hang out it’s been too long. We are really looking forward to it and will see you very soon.
(Interview by Christian Ross)