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How was the show? Matt: It was great, a lot of fun. Justin: It was fun, I was telling you about this earlier, I may have eaten a little too much, but every once and a while it's like... we haven't had a break since December slash January. Was that it or did we have another month? Matt: I had a week when I went home for my girlfriend's graduation. Justin: It's been awhile, so I think we're noticing that it's time for a break. I mean, it was a lot of fun, it was great. Matt: The show was great! What would you say the mission statement is for Motion City Soundtrack? Justin: Our mission statement...What's our mission statement? Matt: [without hesitation] Tear ass and take names! [Everyone bursts into laughter] That is a great mission statement! Matt: [smiles] I just came up with that. Justin: That was a GOOD mission statement. Matt: [laughs] That works! Justin: Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. People just can't seem to lump your sound into one particular genre. Justin: Good! Make up a genre for your band. Matt: [laughs] Oh gosh, that's hard. I don't like genres. Justin: How about transgressional confusation? Transgressional confusation. Matt: Transgressional confusation. Justin: Confusation. Matt: Confusation. Justin: Confusing... confusation. Matt: Yeah, not like Confucius Justin: Confusing, confusation, conversation, sensation, transgressional uh, trangrar--transmogra--neutron transmographical... [Matt and I both stare at Justin, wondering what will come out of his mouth next. We burst into laughter] Matt: You know she's going to have to type all of this, right? Justin: I don't know, I can't think of anything... just make up a word that sounds good! [laughs] Because each member brings a different sound to the table, by drawing inspiration from different places, is there a band or an artist that you can all agree on as being great? Justin: I think we have...Do you think we all like Ben Folds? Matt: I think so. Justin: And then there are all those weird ones that we like. Matt: Yeah I think we all meet at certain points. Justin: I think some people like some things more than others. Matt: Well the weird thing is, you guys like The Pixies and Superchunk. I like those bands... Justin: But you're not crazy about them? Matt: No, it's just that, I was exposed to them later than you guys, so I'm just now really getting in to them. I mean I liked Doolittle forever and then there's the whole Jawbox thing... but yeah, I think there are points where we definitely meet. I think, you know, with like Break and bands like that... Justin: Yeah, and that's just weird too because I think you and Tony were in to Break, when Break just started... well, sorta, not really, but... Matt: [laughs] Justin: I don't know, there are just so many bands I hate, but then it's just the way that it happens like... The Pixies, the first album I heard was like Trompe Le Monde, and then I worked my way backwards 'cause I was in high school, y'know? Then I heard of bands and it would turn out that they had already broken up. Matt: Yeah, all the good bands break up. So maybe you guys shouldn't break up. Matt: [laughs] what are you trying to say? Are you trying to say we're bad? Justin: Yeah, you think we're bad? No! That's not what I meant! Matt: Nah, I'm just kidding! Your album seems to be getting nothing but rave reviews. Have you read any bad reviews yet? Matt: Well, there was a mediocre one in AP. Justin: Yeah, recently. I wasn't too happy about that one. Matt: They just kind of brushed us off as a pop-punk band. Justin: It seems like we've been showered in nothing but good reviews, which seems kind of weird, and so I mean it'll happen. Matt: Yeah it'll happen, somewhere. Justin, I know you write movie scripts... Justin: Yeah, I try to, anyway. Does being in a band help you write scripts? Justin: Yeah... I had this really awesome teacher, this awesome screen-writing teacher and he was weird, he was like...have you ever seen Adaptation? Yes! [I laugh because I know the character he's about to compare his teacher to] Justin: He's kinda like that guy! He's really funny, he'll make somebody stand up in front of the class and say, "okay, can you read this short scene", and then they'll read it and he's just like..."That was crap, that was total shit! That sucks!" And he just had people in tears, he was so awesome, he was just so totally brutally honest, and you know, he didn't fuck around and... where am I going with this? Matt: [laughs] Justin: Yeah, he just mentioned that there are certain things you can do by writing, even if it's total crap, just getting it all down and getting it all out there, it's kind of like drinking a gallon of water and flushing everything out of your system. Like getting rid of all the crap, so it's like being in a band and writing things over and over and over and changing things, and making them better. I don't really believe you can learn to write. I don't think you can take a class and learn how to do something that's creative. I think you just have to develop your own way of doing that on your own. So yeah, I think so! Some of the lyrics on the album are really abstract... Justin: Good! ...it's almost as if they have been written from various experiences, instead of each song being solely based upon one experience. What's the songwriting process for you, and where do you tend to draw inspiration? Justin: One person comes up with a part, either on guitar or they just write it, and sometimes the words will just come up on the spot. On 'The Future Freaks Me Out', the "I'm on fire" part, that's something that just came out, Josh was just playing and I just sang it right away and so we just played with that and we changed a few things around and it was just like...[he realizes he's gone off track] Okay, stop! But the point of that was, some of the stuff, okay so, it happens, and then I take a shit. I take a shit... [Matt and I burst into laughter] Justin: I just take a fuck ton of time, and I... I can't think of any... I swear too much! Matt: Slow down! Justin: [takes a deep breath and begins to speak a little slower] And then, after the song is put together, after the song is structured, there is a lengthy period of time in which... Matt: The revision process? Justin: Yes! The revision process! And just writing over and over and over, and I tend to take a lot of time and... [laughs] What was the original question? Matt: [laughs] Wow! What is the writing process? Justin: Okay, yeah! So it's like, the structure of the song, put it all together, play it for awhile and then, and then I go... and then we try to record the original song, and then listen to them, and then sometimes I look at the lyrics on the paper and realize the words don't always work right, so I don't know, the song changes. Right. [I realize that Justin is actually going somewhere with all of this] Justin: 'Perfect Teeth' is about three or four different things all kind of put together, and so what you're saying is very...what's the word? Psyc-- No, I mean, I can tell you looked at it and you picked something out that I don't think a lot of people would have noticed. I can't think of the word either. Justin: Yeah, whatever that word is! Matt: Perceptive? Justin: Yeah, there you go! There are many references to wine and medication on the album, is that a cheap form of therapy for the band? Justin: I don't think any of us in the band like to drink a whole lot, I mean, I have the capabilities of drinking a whole lot but I don't do that often...medication? I don't know... It's a coincidence that the word medication is on there a few times? Justin: Well I think medication could be anything. Whether it's actually medicine put in to something, or whether it's alcohol or whether it's television, or anything that dulls you. Anything that makes you gray verses, like, eccentric, or sad, or happy--that's gray. I think that's what medication is, anything that does that to you. On the 'Boombox Generation' track, a little after the line "check out the new teen beat model of the year" someone says something that you can hear it on the left speaker if you wear your headphones.... Justin: Yeah? ...Everyone is debating over what it is exactly. Justin: Well what do you think it is? From what I could hear it sounds like, "My sister's totally in to you guys" Justin: That's it! Matt: Yeah! And if you listen in the live show you can hear it, too. So if you ever wanna hear it, there's your answer! Even though it's a recording and it's coming from the back corner. But you can hear it live, too. What made you guys decide to use the Pink Bunny in the video for 'My Favorite Accident'? Why not a Giant Panda Bear? Justin: A Giant Panda Bear? Well, we couldn't find any giant panda bears at that hour. [I look down at my pink shirt and nod approvingly] Justin: Just watch any video made by any generic band that involves a boy and a girl or whoever in a relationship. And then after that, watch our video and then hopefully you get the joke. So it doesn't have anything to do with Donnie Darko? Justin: I didn't think about it at the time, but that's really interesting that you said that, because I love that movie. Matt: Yeah, that's a great movie. Justin: Yeah I think we all love that movie. Now that the video has been getting some airplay, would you jump at the chance to do it over again with a bigger budget? Justin: Well not necessarily with a bigger budget, I just love being involved in the making of movies, or videos or whatever... You'd just do it just for the sake of doing it? Justin: Yeah! I just love being around it and even though it's the most stressful thing ever, you just end up losing a lot of weight from running around and sweating all the time because you're so stressed out, but it's a lot of fun. Work best under stress! That kinda rhymes, right? [laughs] Umm... Justin: Best... stress... I don't know...[to Matt] what do you think? Would you jump at the chance to do another video? Matt: Absolutely. Absolutely and we will be doing it again, soon. Did you have fun doing it? Matt: We did. I tended to be a little whiney at four in the morning when I had to scream in to a mic in front of a room full of people, but, other than that it was a good experience. Justin: Yeah 'cause of all of the shots... Matt: All of the band shots, I think, started at like 8, 9, 10 at night. Justin: Yeah and it would go to 8 in the morning. Matt: Yeah, and we were recording at this house in this neighborhood, so there were like neighbors all around and we tended to be kind of loud. Justin: So yeah, if you notice we put tape on the bottom of Tony's cymbals, and these big black mats on top of his drums. Matt: We also had a really crappy PA blasting, so we could hear the song and fake a long, and it sounded like absolute ass, and the drums were as dead as you could imagine, I mean he would hit the cymbals and it would be like "chink!" like nothing. It was so hard because it sounded nothing like the actual song and we were just trying so hard to fake along. It was hard to be motivated and scream and look all-authentic, and be rockin', you know? There's that and then there's the fact that it's 4:00 a.m. and you haven't gotten any sleep Justin: And then our cameraman fell asleep! We were supposed to go in and shoot this elaborate ending of the video that didn't turn out... so we did something totally different. But we had this elaborate ending planned out, and then Andrew's like "Yeah, yeah I'm just gonna change the film for the camera" and he just sat down on the couch and he put his hand in to the bag... Matt: Yeah, it was just a funny image! Justin: ...and I came in and he was just like this [Justin lets his head hang down as if he's slumped off to sleep, but then whips it back up, laughing], and he's just laying there on the couch and it's like 8:30 in the morning, and you're like, "ANDREW!" and he's just like, "Hey, hey, yeah! Yeah I'm just changing this bag..." Yeah, it was just funny. Matt: [keeps laughing] Justin: Yeah, we went on maybe 6 hours of sleep into the next day.... and it was just like... Matt: Yeah that was horrible. How many days did it take you to film all of it? Justin: We did it in two days, two straight days! We could only do it for two days because we had to rent the equipment, and we had to do all sorts of things, and we only had the amount of money to do it for that amount of time, so... it was a lot of fun, but it was horrible... Matt: It was horrible fun at the time. Justin: On the first day it was great! And then after the first day it was like... shit we have a lot to do the next day! And then it turns out to be 9:00 at night and we haven't shot any of the band footage, it was just all the other footage... Matt: Another thing that really sucked was, on the first day, a few hours in to the shoot our jib broke, which is the really giant arm on the camera that allows us to get those really cool flying shots. It just BROKE, just completely broke and that sucked so we had to just work around that, and not get the shots we wanted, but just had to work with what we had. Justin: Yeah and it would have been a hell of a lot of money to pay for that, because we had the insurance on it, but we still would have had to pay like 12 percent of what it costs for the arm, and the director, Andy, he... [smiles] I don't know why I'm telling you all of this! But, he worked for this company and he worked out some sort of deal with them. It was a post-production company where we got the jib arm from, and so he offered them this deal of two grand's worth of post-production in exchange for the arm. Well that worked out very well! Justin: [smiles] Yeah. Is there any truth to the rumor that your next album is already finished? Justin: Oh god, yeah--the next three albums are finished! No, not really. Whoever told you that was a fucking liar! [we all laugh] Justin: Actually, I think we only have one song that's completely finished... a couple of songs that are almost done. A ton of ideas but, we haven't actually recorded anything. Matt: Yeah, there haven't been any demos made or anything...first we have to get some of our ideas together and then actually find the time to get together, and put these ideas together and record an album sometime before the winter or during the winter. So it's going to be an interesting experience for Motion City Soundtrack, because on this album we have, what is it? 4 years worth of songs, and now this time we're going to have.... A few months worth! Matt: If we're lucky! More like several weeks worth of songs, but it's exciting. Work best under stress! Justin: Yeah! Well, it's funny, going back to what I said earlier, we work best when things happen spontaneously, when things just happen. I mean, this album was nice because we could just keep going back to it and going back to it, and like we could go for a month and then come back and say "oh, how about we trash this part?" You know, just really clean it up. But, you know, I don't want it to be in one of those situations where we only have a month to write and a month to record. We just want to write everything beforehand, and then just go in to the studio and do what we did before. Okay, because you guys are a fully formed band now, can we expect to hear something different from you? Justin: I would hope so, yes. Matt: Yeah, I hope so. I like it when bands just constantly evolve, and just...I dunno, I'm a huge Radiohead fan so it's like a Pablo Honey and Hail to the Thief kinda transition and I don't care what they do, I'm going to like it because I've grown with them, and I've grown with the band. That's dorky, I know but I like it when bands evolve. The brand new record is very different from the first record but it's very good. Reality TV. Do you think it's gone too far or not far enough? Matt: [throws his thumbs up in the air and then down in disapproval] Justin: I'm not a fan... I don't think any of us are fans. Didn't it start with 'MTV's Real World'? I remember watching that when I was a kid and thinking, oh, this is interesting. Matt: Yeah the first two seasons were interesting, and now that we're on the three-thousandth season... It's just a little drab. Justin: You can go back to all of those shows like, 'The Gong Show' and 'The Dating Game', and basically all it is, is exploiting real people and, that's what they're doing with these reality shows. Matt: Yeah, you just can't tell if they're reality shows because you don't know if there's a producer in there going, okay, we need you guys to fight now, okay... we need to change this because it's kinda boring... you know, stuff like that. There's just no way you can convince me it's real. And of course people act differently when they're around cameras. Matt: Exactly! Earlier this month, you guys had the opportunity to play in your hometown. Was that different for you now that you are more established? Matt: It was, it was different... we noticed a difference. It was great! Justin: Yeah, it was different. Matt: We had all the family members there so, I think we were all kind of nervous. Justin: OH YEAH! Matt: His dad was up front clapping along! [Matt starts clapping and acting out the story] But not to the beat, at all! Justin: He was so excited! He was like, "WOO!" [Justin starts clapping in a random pattern] Matt: It was so funny it was throwing him off so much! Justin: Yeah, and then I started laughing and I was just like... Oh god, please stop! [Matt and I burst in to laughter as Justin buries his head in his hands] Justin: And he went on for half the song, and I mean I could hear him because it was just me and a guitar and he's like, "YEAH! WOO! That's my son!" Matt: Horse! Justin: That's my horse! [earlier on, Matt and Justin had informed me that they were replacing the popular expression "Dawg" with the much cooler "Horse" which is actually pronounced "Hahs" but despite having set their own rules to the game, Matt is content to pronounce it "horse" and so we all burst out laughing when he says it.] Matt: That is great. Are you guys looking forward to finally crossing the border in to Canada with Rufio in the fall? Matt: He is! Justin: Yes! Yes, I have to go to the Canadian Consulate in Minneapolis before I get let back in to Canada due to a... oh... indiscretion of some kind. Is that the right word? You can keep it off the record if you want to tell me! Justin: Oh, no... all I will say is that some things happened in my wilder, youthful days...some things that aren't exactly well thought of in Canada or elsewhere. Matt: And now being the role model he is! He's clean and good and... Justin: Oh yeah... no problems! [he winks] Gigantic wink! But yeah I have to figure that out. It was really funny because they let me back in for one day for, what was it, 150 dollars. Matt: Yeah, 150 dollars. Justin: 150 dollars to become a Canadian citizen for one day, however, I had John Samson from the Weakerthans to make it official! To sign my Canadian residen--what was it called? Matt: It was some sort of temporary residency. Justin: Yeah! Temporary residency, yeah... he signed it and he wrote something like, "Give this man 5 dollars and one balloon, signed John Samson - Fellow Canadian". I was a little worried that we were going to get pulled over and that I was going to have to show them that. I probably would have gotten thrown in jail. Luckily that didn't happen! Are there any specific places you're looking forward to playing up there? Like Vancouver or Toronto? Justin: Toronto! Matt: Yeah, Toronto Justin: I think that's all we've played up there... although, I like the movies that I've seen that have been shot in Vancouver. [thinks about what he just said] I like what I've seen of Vancouver by the movies I have seen that have been shot there. That I've seen. [we all laugh] Matt: Whoa! Justin: That was like 3 sentences and they all said the same thing! What are you planning to do once you get a break from touring? Matt: I'm going to Virginia and my family's moving so, I don't really get a break! We're just moving across the city but the new house, I've seen pictures of it, it looks sweet! So I'm excited... pool, hot tub, all that good stuff! Justin: My parents just put in a pool and a hot tub! Matt: Did they? Justin: Yeah! Maybe I'll go swimming, I haven't swam in awhile. Matt: You should, man! You need to get some sun, you're not dark enough! Justin: [pulls up his sleeve and inspects his touring tan] Do you have any touring war stories to tell? Justin: We've had a lot of van and trailer problems. We had an antelope or an elk or... I dunno...where things are from, but it was in Washington. Some sort of deer-like creature? Matt: Yeah, a deer kind of animal. Justin: Some sort of deer-like structure. So, we did a little bit of damage--Motion City Soundtrack has one kill! We did a three-sixty on the road sometime during the winter going 70 miles an hour, we landed in a ditch. Matt: Yeah we landed in a ditch but then we just drove out of the ditch and kept going. Justin: Yeah! We just kept going! Then I had a panic attack as we were driving back out on to the road. Matt: Yeah, I almost had a panic attack as well. Justin: Just the idea of another accident happening... I mean, when the accident happened I was really calm! And then afterwards was when I got really panicked! Has Jesse ever injured himself, or anyone else, while performing his aerial tricks? Justin: Yes! Yes, in fact, he hit his head tonight. Remember how I was telling you earlier about how he always hits his head? Yeah Justin: Well he hit his head somewhere tonight and so he came over to me and said, "feel my head!" and it feels like a mountain range! And, and he hit his head on the trailer when he was helping move the equipment! He has this thing about his head, he's always hitting it! He's going to have a calloused, hard head! Justin: [sings] He's a maniac, maniac, that's for sure!