Motion City Soundtrack

For many of us going about our daily lives, music is a hobby, perhaps accompanied with dreams of success but never something to be relied upon as a career. But for Motion City Soundtrack keyboardist and moogist, Jesse Johnson, music was more than a pipe dream.

“Both of my parents were musicians and my step parent was a musician and I just kind of grew up around music,” Johnson explains. “As a teenager I went to tonnes of shows, started bands, played shows, interned at record labels and worked in record stores.”

“It was kind of the only thing I’ve really pushed myself to do,” he admits.

With so much dedication towards his passion it’s hardly a surprise that Johnson found himself playing in a band that has appeared on some of the world’s biggest stages including the Vans Warped Tour, Reading, Leeds, and Australia’s Soundwave festival.

For the gents from Motion City Soundtrack, having the chance to travel the world playing music is one of their greatest achievements.

“I think we’re really proud of a lot of the places that we’ve been fortunate enough to see in the world,” says Johnson, listing the countries they’ve toured Australia, Japan, South East Asia, Malaysia, Korea, South America, Canada, Mexico and of course, the United States of America.

“It’s just really interesting seeing different cultures and seeing a lot of places that as a kid I never thought I would ever get the chance to go to.”

Next week, Motion City Soundtrack will return to Australia to play at the Soundwave Festival alongside Blink 182, Metallica, Linkin Park, The Offspring, and many more.“It’s just really interesting seeing different cultures and seeing a lot of places that as a kid I never thought I would ever get the chance to go to.”

Tickets to the sold out festival were hard to come by to say the least, so many punters were delighted to learn of the Motion City Soundtrack Sidewaves shows.

“Every year we’ve played we’ve done a sideshow,” says Johnson. “The last time we did it was really fun for us because it was Jimmy Eat World and Sunny Day Real Estate, RX Bandits and Glass Jaw so it was really fun for us to play.”

Motion City Soundtrack’s return to Australia will see them appear on the Soundwave lineup for the third time and the band is excited to have the opportunity to play at the festival again. Johnson believes it’s one of the best-organised in the world.

“The bands always know where they need to be and what they need to do so that everything is running smoothly. A lot of the festivals that we’ve played around the world are often very ‘disorganised’, shall we say,” the moogist laughs.

Their return also marks their first Australian shows since the release of their latest album, Go, which dropped on June 12, 2012.

The group’s fifth offering, and unlike on previous releases, Motion City Soundtrack chose to record the album without the assistance of a label. While some considered the move controversial, Johnson believes it worked in the band’s favour.

“I think it actually gave us maybe a little bit more freedom to kind of do whatever we wanted to do. We were doing it on our own time, we paid for everything ourselves and I think that in a way it gave us the sense that what we were going to make was going to be what we wanted to do and we didn’t have a management or people checking up on us,” he says.

For many fans it is the pop punks’ ability to write beautifully eloquent lyrics that makes them stand apart from their contemporaries. But Johnson believes that fans’ love for the lyrics – of which “99.99%” are written frontman, Justin Pierre – goes further than just beautiful writing.
“A lot of the festivals that we’ve played around the world are often very ‘disorganised’, shall we say.”

“I think, you know, the way Justin writes his lyrics, he keeps things somewhat vague,” he explains, “a bunch of people can listen to the same songs and make their own connection with it and often in creative ways.”

Johnson goes on to explain this using the example of “Everyone Will Die”, off the latest record Go.

“Justin puts the meaning in a way where when you first hear it, you might think it’s actually really negative, but if you pay attention and listen a few more times you realise that it’s actually a very positive song,” Johnson yelps passionately.

“He’s saying… don’t worry about the fact that everyone’s gonna die, ‘what are you gonna do? who are you gonna love? And what are you gonna do with your life while we’re all here?’ So, I think, you know, that’s a pretty special song,” he concludes.

Despite all the fame, fortune, and money, Johnson believes the band hasn’t changed all that much.

“The qualities we all had in our personalities are still there and we’ve grown obviously closer as friends just because we spend a lot of time together. But I think as far as the drive for writing music and performing on stage and the desire to create I don’t think that’s really waned at all,” he says.

A dedication and passion for music has seen Motion City Soundtrack experience an extremely successful career. With more touring, writing, and recording on the books for next year fans have a lot to look forward to.

Go is out now through Warner Music Australia. Motion City Soundtrack tour with Soundwave 2013 around the country from Saturday 23rd February, playing times here. They also play Sidewaves shows in Melbourne and Sydney with The Early November & Deaf Havana, dates and details below.