Coming Up Roses

Reveling in Technology with Motion City Soundtrack

By Daniel Taylor | Photo by Jeff Shaner

Though Motion City Soundtrack were participants in 2005’s two biggest emo rock tours—the Van’s Warped Tour and The Nintendo Fusion Tour—MCS (as their fans and lazy writers like to call them) are anything but the typical emo rock band. Similarly, though their most recent full-length, Commit This to Memory, was produced by Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and their first single, “Everything Is Alright,” is a bona-fide teen anthem, there’s certainly more to Motion City Soundtrack’s music than meets the eye; the band’s keyboard-driven melodicism owes as much to power-pop bands of the ‘90s like Weezer, Fountains of Wayne and The Rentals as it does their more contemporary emo peers. Synthesis hooked up with MCS bassist Matt Taylor via his Sidekick (ahh, technology!) and gleaned the following information about, life as a budding pop star and living with labels.

When you guys first started MCS, did you ever foresee your chosen musical genre becoming so hugely popular? Do you ever worry that people might think that you’re just playing what’s hot or what will get you on MTV?
No. I still just see us as a rock band. And I don’t tend to foresee much of anything, aside from what I want to eat for lunch. Unfortunately, people will always assume things like that. People are very fast to use the term “sell-out” when their favorite bands start getting played on MTV. It’s very funny to me. I always want to ask those people that if their boss offered them a promotion and a raise, would they take it? My bet is yes. They’d probably want to further their career and live a little more stable. If not, they need to think a little harder about things.

How does it feel to see yourself on MTV and in magazines? Do you change the channel when your video comes on? Do you send interviews home to your folks to hang on the fridge?
It feels good to see any press. It’s nice to know that people are interested. Actually, our video just came on and we watched it and laughed because we were reminiscing about when Josh [Cain, guitar] tripped and fell into me during the performance part of the shoot. It was really funny. Luckily my folks are good about collecting all of our press, so I don’t have to. My mom will buy multiple copies of magazines that feature us. I tend to lose track.

Musically, do you feel you guys are somewhat dissimilar to some of the bands who you get lumped in with, or are you comfortable with the terms “emo,” “pop-punk,” etc? Do you even care?
I think we stand out a bit from those bands, but we’re still aggressive enough to hold steady. I’m not a fan of labels. We’re all rock bands when it comes down to it. And don’t even get me started on the word emo. Name me one song from any genre that was not written with feeling. Shouldn’t every artist be considered emo then? Unfortunately, this world needs labels to differentiate things, so we still have to live under them. And we will.

Is touring less boring these days with Blackberrys and Sidekicks and PSPs and all that business? What do you guys do to pass time on tour, nerd out? Do you ever wish that you were just back home watching TV, drinking a beer instead of driving through the desert all night to get to the next show, or are you really “living the dream?”
I’m doing this interview on a Sidekick, so yes, modern technology definitely makes touring easier. We all do different things to stay busy; PSP, books, DVDs, Game Boy, campfire sing-alongs, you know, the usual stuff. I thoroughly enjoy this life. I’m not going to say that I don’t miss sitting at home with my girlfriend, but we always make time for that, too. There has to be a delicate balance of work and home in any type of career.

Did you hear that The Rentals are getting back together?
We found out yesterday, and we are extremely excited.

Is everything really alright?
For me personally, things couldn’t be better.

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