Some people might have a hard time remembering the name Motion City Soundtrack, but for super-fans of early 2000s pop-punk and emo music, the band's screeching synth and idiosyncratic lyrics are unforgettable.
Motion City Soundtrack first made their mark with the song "The Future Freaks Me Out," which speaks to the anxieties of early adulthood and how self-medication can be a form of self-destruction.
Now, more than 20 years after that release, the band is back with a new album — The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World.
As the title suggests, it isn't exactly a departure from the band's unique blend of complex pop-rock arrangements and dark subject matter, but it does showcase an evolution for a group who supplied the soundtrack for many people's adolescence.
Lead singer Justin Pierre's self-deprecating, humorous fingerprints are all over this new album and its first single is an absolute return to form.
So why did it take a decade since they first broke up to release new music?
"I cannot be wrangled. That's one answer," Pierre says.
Obviously, Pierre can be wrangled, or there would be no new album to speak of, but it's at least a part-time job for guitarist Joshua Cain.
Still, it's that very quality that helps Pierre write good music.
"The reason 'why now' is that I feel like there was enough for us to be inspired to write, right? There [were] periods of our life where we had gone in to write a record and Justin's like 'I'm super happy, I don't know how to do this any more.' I mean, what do you write about when you're ****ing having the best time of your life?" Cain says.
While Justin Pierre still struggles with his mental health, he's developed better tools to deal with it, and he's more self-aware.
"I think that this might be the first time I've ever done this, but I was completely dysregulated at rehearsals one day," Pierre says, speaking to his bandmate. "I think it took me an hour and a half to get it together, but I don't know if you knew that was what I was doing."
"Yes, I did," Cain replies.
Pierre continues, "Usually I just allow myself to be in an anxious, chaotic mess around everybody else. And I just learned, like this year, that that was affecting people for 30 years." Pierre jokes, "I'm a very slow learner."
Pierre has always been honest about his issues on past albums, social media and with the new song "Melancholia."
Its chorus is a series of questions.
Why don't you say what you're going through?What's inside of you?
What you wanna do?
Why does it seem like you wanna hurt?Pierre says the song is definitely some sort of internal dialogue, but points out these questions are also universal. He's seen this from fans.
"People would write messages saying, 'I have this, too' and 'I have this as well,'" he says, "and I would think 'wait, what do you mean too ? And as well ?'"
Pierre wasn't aware that all the things fans were saying to him were what he was saying to them, through his music. "But what's really cool is that they were all right … they heard something I was doing, and I learned about who I was through the fans."
Cain adds that "Melancholia" is also sort of the culmination of the personal tragedies he and others and the band have gone through in the last ten years.
"You know we've had people we know in our lives lose people that don't tell them that they're struggling, and … maybe [they] ask these questions later," Cain says. "I love that song… it's so quirky and goofy, but sad. It's a really interesting song on the album."
When Motion City Soundtrack released their debut album, George W. Bush was in office and music streaming was in its infancy. They hand-packaged CDs inside of floppy disks and sold them out of their van. It's been a minute, but even though they've toured with mega acts like Fall Out Boy, whose frontman Patrick Stump also contributes to this album, and have a loyal fan base — their name still hasn't caught on.
It's a fact Pierre and Cain joke about with the track "You Know Who The **** We Are." It's a reminiscence about a "night that everyone almost died" at a house party that both Pierre and Cain attended when they were teenagers, before they even really knew each other.
"[Joshua Cain] was, during the day, at this kid's house. I guess his parents were out of town," Pierre starts. "I arrived at night … and, well, everybody took acid and then this dude kind of appeared out of nowhere, and he said his name was … Riff."
Pierre says, looking back, he's not sure if everyone saw the same acid-fueled apparition, but that at the time it felt like everyone had "just the weirdest, craziest night."
This "Riff" was eventually kicked out of the house after throwing potted plants and attacking partygoers, Pierre recalls, "And then we ended up chasing him down the street with skateboards and stuff… so that's how Josh [Cain] and I almost met."
Cain's not so sure about that, but he does know how the song got its name.
"We needed to come up with a bio," he says. The band didn't want to rehash all their history, "and that [title] was our official, 'you know who the **** we are,'" Cain says.
"Just so stupid," Pierre laughs.
Cain and Pierre say they're now a lot closer to figuring out who they are — at age 49. As for the future?
"Yes, the Future [still] freaks me out," says Justin Pierre, "but I also have to believe hope is a thing that still exists."
Motion City Soundtrack's Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is out now.
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