Matthew Taylor - Motion City Soundtrack 'We Don’t Pin Ourselves Into The Legacy Category'

The world really needs a new Motion City Soundtrack album right now, and thankfully, after a 10 year gap between full lengths, the band have returned in fine form with their seventh album The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World. Familiar in all the right ways yet fresh, exciting and emotional, the album is everything you’d expect from Motion City, and that’s not a bad thing in the slightest.

The path to album seven was not a short one though. The band initially reformed in 2020 and have toured extensively over the last few years with no murmurs of a new album until some studio photos were posted last year. 

Motion City were in Australia at the start of the year supporting Yellowcard on their Ocean Avenue tour (and sideshows) and sadly just days before the tour began, guitarist Joshua Cain lost his father. In a beautifully heartfelt post, frontman Justin Pierre commended Josh in so many ways, but also highlighted that the new album just literally wouldn’t have happened with Josh. Speaking with bassist Matthew Taylor, he confirms that and then some.

‘That’s absolutely true. He definitely spearheaded it within the band. We had come back in 2020 at the very beginning of the year. We called it the ‘Don’t Call It A Comeback’ tour because we were like ‘we’re gonna come back and play some shows, but let’s not get crazy.’ And then we just kept doing that, we kept touring on the legacy stuff and at a certain point, you have to ask how long you can continue to just play the old stuff and be happy as a band, and have our fans be excited to come hear the same songs again.

There are ways to do it: you can do different versions of the songs; you can do cool stuff. We just felt the pull to make new stuff. It wasn’t an overnight decision, but we weren’t thinking about it from the second we got back together in 2020. For me, it was 2022. We had these ideas that we knew were good. I didn’t really think about executing those yet. I hadn’t got there, but Josh did. So, then we just started kind organising ideas into folders and that started the process.

Josh and I were the most involved. Constantly working on stuff at home, thinking about the songs, structuring them and just pitching ideas. Of course, Justin is constantly throwing ideas at you but Josh was the one who was booking the dates in the studio. He was literally making deadlines when we weren’t ready, which is a great thing. It’s terrifying, but it keeps you accountable and there’s something to work for'.

'If you don’t have a deadline, you’re probably not going to get it done.’ 

Like so many bands in the pop punk, pop rock and emo scene, Motion City has experienced a wild renaissance over the last few years. It seems that distance really does make the heart grow fonder as upon their reunion, the celebration from their fans was unanimous in overwhelming excitement. Taylor affirms that the return has been unreal, but assures that the band has no interest in simply touring the same old tunes and playing the legacy card.  

‘It’s scary. We don’t like to pin ourselves into that legacy category, but if you overthink it and think that you’re just going out and playing old songs constantly, you kind of start to feel like that. But, we’ve noticed in our fans and in the crowd that we’re seeing young people, some of that is of course fans from twenty years ago bringing their kids, but there are just a lot of younger people coming to the shows who don’t have parents who were fans, which is crazy. 

You’ve got My Chemical Romance playing stadiums right now for The Black Parade. It’s a big thing right now and it’s very cool that we get to be a part of it to some extent.’

The world is in a certain weird state of affairs right now, and no doubt everyone is feeling the weight of everything that’s happening around us on the daily. Motion City have always been a band that fans could fine solace and comfort in when navigating their emotions or anxieties. The new album is no exception to this rule and Taylor confirms a lot of conscious thought went into the lyrics and album title when reflecting on the current state of everything. 

‘The world is a beautiful, wonderful place if you choose to see it that way, and it’s also a fucking wasteland if you choose to see it that way. We’re somewhere in the middle of that, we’re just trying to find the way through it all together, and I think all these songs take us on a path through that landscape.

There’s clearly the personal, super introverted innerworkings of Justin’s mind on it, and then there’s some broader stuff that we’re singing about too. Basically, just being an awkward person and trying to get through an awkward world, which kind of encapsulates us. We’re just glad that people catch onto that and it resonates.’

From a musicianship standpoint, the Motion City Soundtrack rhythm section of Taylor on bass and Tony Thaxton on drums is easily one of the most locked in and formidable rhythm sections in the rock scene. One of the things that makes this band sparkle is the subtle nuances that both offer to the songs to uplift and elevate the arrangements. Taylor notes that this comes from a long standing chemistry and the desire to keep Cain and Pierre’s craziness grounded.

‘We were in a band together before Motion City, so we spent a lot of time in a room together just jamming as the two of us. We had a lot of time to really get to know each other musically, just lock in together, and then having two guitars just do whatever the fuck they want to do on top of a super tight rhythm section that’s just playing off each other and also super locked in.

That’s kind of what makes our band special, I think, is that we’ve got two guitar players that are just out there doing wild shit, they’re running around and playing whatever the fuck they want, but then he and I are just together doing our thing. They’re flying, and we’re just trying to keep them tethered. It’s a fun, weird dynamic.’

Interview by Nicholas Simonsen @blackechomusic

The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is out now via Epitaph Records. Get it here

Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World tracklisting

1. Some Wear a Dark Heart
2. She Is Afraid
3. Particle Physics (feat. Patrick Stump)
4. You Know Who the Fuck We Are
5. Melancholia
6. Your Days Are Numbered (feat. Mat Kerekes)
7. Downer
8. Mi Corazón
9. Bloodline
10. Things Like This (feat. Sincere Engineer)
11. The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World