For Motion City Soundtrack bass player Matt Taylor, the band’s sound is a study in evolution.
Although its early sound was a bit over the top and aggressive, the band’s third album finds the players settled into a comfortable sound with a good mix of pop and punk.
“This time we really didn’t plan anything,” Taylor said of the band’s new album, “Even if It Kills Me.”
“It’s poppier, a bit edgier,” he added. The album moves from standard rockers to ballads and back all with a fairly crisp sound. Although Taylor struggles a bit to define the band’s attitude — at times calling it casual and at other times methodical — he knows that influences abound.
Although some musicians purposely don’t listen to other bands’ music prior to recording, Taylor eschewed that notion.
“The reason we play music is because we were influenced by [many] bands,” Taylor said. “I don’t ever try to wean myself away from all music. I listen constantly. I’d starve if I didn’t.”
Indeed, Taylor and his bandmates plunge into other music prior to recording, taking a riff here, a riff there and turning it all into a Motion City Soundtrack sound. This album may be a result of the 1960s musical influence that’s seeped into the subconscious of Taylor and others who’ve become aficionados of some of that era’s classic rock. Or it could be that because the band’s members are film buffs, that medium has melded into the sound.
Whatever the influences, the sound is pure Motion City Soundtrack.
“I actually had a conversation about this with Mark Hoppus [producer of the band’s second album, “Commit This to Memory”] when we starting writing this album, and he said the worst thing you can do is overthink things,” Motion City Soundtrack front man Justin Pierre said in a statement. “I felt like that was what we should be doing anyway, but it was really reassuring to hear someone else confirm my thoughts.”
That’s not to say the production was left to chance. The Cars’ Ric Ocasek, Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and Girls Against Boys’ Eli Janney were just part of the heavy-hitting team that worked behind the scenes on this CD.
“I think we are evolving; I hope we are evolving,” Taylor said. “It’s a very, very fine line you walk when you gain fans early on because they like you because they liked the sound when they first heard you.”
