They rock to their own beat, make their own fashion statement and break every mold with their unique guitar sounds, infectious songwriting, and high-energy live performances. They jokingly make references to The Golden Girls and are friends with fellow VOX endorsers the All-American Rejects, who also showed their support by checking out the show. Something about this formula has worked. Motion City Soundtrack has arrived!
“I think we’ve been lucky, because we haven’t ever worked with a producer who’s been like, ‘This is how it must be, and you must write the song this way,’” states Justin Pierre, lead singer and guitarist of Motion City Soundtrack. “I think we have a lot of control. Even with our record label deal on Epitaph. We have full creative control over our band. If anyone was to tell us what to do I think we would tell them to f**k off,” chimes in Joshua Cain, lead guitarist. Case in point is the band’s latest release, Commit This to Memory – the producer is Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and the approach has been completely grassroots. The band took an especially big leap of faith in Mark Hoppus, who had never produced an album before. “I think that was what was so cool about it,” explained Josh. “He hadn’t heard a single song of the new music we were writing, and he signed on like, ‘Ok yeah, I like you guys, so I believe in you.’”
Fresh off the MTVu Campus Invasion Tour with Straylight Run and Hellogoodbye, MCS hit most college campuses from the mid-west to the east coast. And just before that they were on their own headlining tour with support from OK GO. “Instead of trying to gain fans by getting on TV or on the radio, we continue to tour all the time. Just by word of mouth and us trying to be normal people that are having fun playing music – we try to get people into our band that way,” enthuses Josh. And regarding the Myspace craze Josh has a positive outlook, “I just had a conversation with someone about the Internet helping or hindering bands. I think that with our first record, I Am the Movie, the Internet helped us immensely. And with our second record, I think people found out about us through the Internet and they came to our shows.”
So, how does a quirky, independent rock band draw their musical influence? Justin shares, “I would say just in general, growing up in the early ‘90s was kind of like our bread and butter.” Continuing the thought like a big brother who obviously shares the same mentality, Josh explains, “We were big fans of Smashing Pumpkins, Jawbox, Pixies, Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr… and Sunny Day Real Estate was life changing for me. That was the band I was really like, ‘whoa.’ And they were using VOX AC30s!”
And that brings us to VOX. The reason we had the pleasure of meeting MCS. “I was always a huge fan of AC30s,” Josh announces. “When I see a band like Sloan playing them, or I’ll see Tom Petty play on SNL and he’ll be playing all AC30s, it is just the right tone. A while back I bought one of the AC30/6TBX combos, because we were in a van and I needed a smaller amp that I could fit in there. We didn’t have a trailer back then. That was the main reason I used a combo amp. I played that amp forever! When the re-release of the Handwired AC30 came out, one came into the guitar shop I worked at right after we had gotten signed. I was like ‘I have to do this.’ I think I spent around $4,000 on that amp!”
“That reminds me of the story with Dashboard…,” Justin begins. “Oh yeah,” Josh picks up, “There’s a good story involving Dashboard Confessional. When we were out on tour with Dashboard, they asked, ‘Where’d you get that thing (my Handwired AC30)?’ And I said, ‘At this guitar shop – it’s rad. It sounds good.’ The next time we played with them, they had one, too. We talked Mark Hoppus into buying one, too, after he had done our record. He bought the only other one that I could find.”
Continuing about his amps Josh spills, “Well, the reason the Handwired AC30 is amazing is because it has a master volume. That was the first VOX you could buy with the master. Before, with the AC30/6TBX’s that I was using, I had to use an attenuator. That would allow me to run the amp as hot as possible to get the nice gain that I needed, but it allowed me to control it. The master volume is so rare. I was like ‘I’m a bad-ass for buying one of these AC30 Handwired amps.’ When I had the chance to get the AC30CC2X with the master I was like, ‘Hell, Yeah!’ The new Custom Classics have the ability to really swing it around with a lot more EQ, so we’re able to have a clean sound. I use the clean and actually blend all the channels together to get the right tone that I’m looking for. We do use the reverb as well. They sound gritty but clear. That’s the reason I use VOX.”
Justin has his thoughts as well. “I use mine for more of my clean sounds, too,” he reveals. “It kind of reminds me of some of the bands that I like. The tone is kind of ‘jangly.’ I think it even brings out an underlying bit of ‘country’ in us…” Josh is quick to interject, “It’s Minnesota. Like Soul Asylum, Jayhawks or even the Replacements. We all have that vibe.”
With all the snow up north this year, you’d think MCS’ wintery video for “Hold Me Down” would have been filmed in their hometown, Minneapolis, but Josh was quick to correct. “It was actually shot in Mammoth, California, by the ski resort. The snow falling in the video was computer generated, but all the snow on the ground was real. It was snowy and cold!” To experience the chill for yourself, check out the video on Epitaph’s site: www.epitaph.com/videos/player/745
Most recently, Motion City Soundtrack completed the Campus Invasion Tour and has posted video on the MTVu website www.mtvu.com/uconnect/campus_invasion_tour. In addition, be sure to check out Justin and Josh when they hit your town as part of this years’ Van’s Warped Tour. To find out what the guys are up to next, check them out on their official website www.motioncitysoundtrack.com or by stopping by www.myspace.com/motioncitysoundtrack.
By Jenn Plonski
Photos by Karl Larsen
Click here to watch a video clip with Justin and Josh talking about their AC30 Custom Classics.