Latest / The Downbeat / CHRIS MOTIONLESS | NEW ALBUM: DECADES, PLAYING GOD + TOXIC SOCIAL MEDIA.

Transcript

CHRIS MOTIONLESS | NEW ALBUM: DECADES, PLAYING GOD + TOXIC SOCIAL MEDIA. · The Downbeat

0:00
What's up guys, Welcome back to the Downbeat podcast live but
0:03
not live from Welcome to Rockville.
0:06
My guest on the podcast this week is the amazing the
0:10
untouchable Chris Motionless from Motionless In White.
0:14
I told the Motionless a while back he's a fan of the podcast,
0:17
which is amazing to me. Just the nicest guy.
0:20
We've been talking about doing this for a long time.
0:21
We had a small window of time to get him in this festival, so you
0:24
bet your ass we got him for you. We talked about decades, the new
0:29
upcoming Motionless Innocent White Album.
0:30
We talked about Playing God, the latest single with Corey Taylor
0:34
of Slipknot. We talked a lot about the toxic
0:37
nature of social media. We talk about vampires.
0:40
We've got the scoop. I got the scoop for you.
0:42
If you want to support the podcast, you have three ways you
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could go to patreon.com/the Downbeat and Chuck is a bit of
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Check it out. It's Chris Motionless of
1:53
Motionless In White on the Downbeat podcast.
2:07
What's up everyone? I'm here with maybe the most
2:11
requested guest of all time on the Downbeat.
2:14
Yeah, no. Way.
2:15
Really. No way.
2:17
Yeah, you don't say. You are so requested.
2:21
That's very cool. Thanks.
2:22
Thanks everybody. Chris from Motionless In White.
2:25
It was the first time we met. You said something really nice
2:28
to me the first time we met. We toured together.
2:30
You took Stray on tour. Yes, correct.
2:32
Thanks for that. I love Stray.
2:33
I was, but we'll talk a little more about that later.
2:35
Oh, he's going to lead you the interview.
2:38
Before Chris got here, I was like, I wish I could do an
2:39
interview in the sunglasses. And then he turned up and was
2:42
like, I'm doing it in sunglasses.
2:44
And I was like, motherfucker, me too.
2:46
We did a cover on our new album coming out of the Sunglasses at
2:49
Night song, so this is really realistically just my press tour
2:53
for the cover. Like, who cares about the album
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Sunglasses at Night cover? I got a play the part and.
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Everything I was going to ask you later on, but we're going to
3:01
hit it right now if that was a cover or you're just using the
3:05
song title, full cover. Full Uncover.
3:07
Metal version. No, no, with covers, I know that
3:12
it's very divided and polarizing whether you stick to like the
3:15
original or do your whole new thing.
3:18
And this is straight up for me. This is actually the first time
3:21
I get to talk about it. I've been talking about a cover
3:23
that I want to do more than anything in the world for like
3:26
1213 years now. I've said it, but I've never
3:29
said what the song was. So this is finally the song I've
3:32
always wanted to do it. I thought this song is like, I
3:36
feel like motionless to do sunglasses at night.
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And it started out as just a fun thing to try out doing and then
3:44
it just eventually made its way on the album and it's it's very
3:47
much for me. And if you don't like it, I
3:49
don't give a fuck. So.
3:50
So not heavy at all, just like a cover of the song I'm stoked on.
3:54
It we brought like the guitars and and stuff in like a little
3:57
heavier. I mean, it's, it's heavier than
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the original, but it's not like there's no breakdown or
4:02
anything, you know? Where did the love for that song
4:04
come from? I think it's like it is like the
4:06
80s icon song. It's got all the synths, it's
4:10
got the huge hook, the slick 80s swagger.
4:14
You know the synth in there and everything as well.
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Yeah. Before we did that tour
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together, number one, I was stoked because I was like, I
4:22
didn't, I'll be honest with you, until that point I had only
4:26
heard a couple of things and seen the imagery and I was like,
4:31
oh, that's cool as fuck. But then I like had a thing in
4:34
my head of like what motion has sounded like.
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And then night one of that tour I was like, Oh my God, I love
4:40
this. This is like exactly the music I
4:44
would try and make if I had any talent that wasn't drums.
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But before we did the tour, everyone I knew like everyone in
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like the most niche metal and hardcore bands was like, those
4:57
guys are the fucking best. And they were right.
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But I want to, I want to know, did you come from like hardcore?
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Yes, I, I did. I feel like I came from a lot of
5:07
angles all at once. Like Metallica, you know, a lot
5:12
of people's introduction into heavy, heavier, alternative
5:15
styles of music. It waterfalled so fast.
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It was Metallica, Misfits, then all down, like the goth, whether
5:23
it be AFI, The Cure, like everything on that side to I
5:27
just wanted to consume everything.
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So like punk hardcore bands like Strike Anywhere, one of my
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favorite bands, like just so many styles.
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And the first shows I was going to were all hardcore shows in a
5:41
a local venue called Cafe Metropolis.
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So like 100 people, 200 people learning what dancing was like,
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just subjected to like the most insane world of things I never
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knew existed. All right, all at once.
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Because like early motionless shows, people are hardcore
6:00
dancing at them. I don't know how, but yeah, that
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is just the era we grew up in. Like, I don't feel like I see
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like even to call it dancing feels out of touch now, not out
6:12
of touch. Like that's just.
6:13
It's just moshing now, isn't it? Yeah.
6:14
And people just say mosh, but it was dancing to me at that time.
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So I don't know if it's just like an age thing that we've
6:21
been around for so long and I have, you know, been around for
6:24
so long or what it is. But yeah, that's, that's like
6:27
the upbringing of live music and bands that I that I had.
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Vegan. No, not until 2016.
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No, but you are vegan now. Yeah, yeah, Straight edge.
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Yes. It's a fucking hardcore man.
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It's a sexy, Cynthia heavy hardcore man.
6:43
That's funny. Yeah.
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Not everyone in the band is that, but I don't know.
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It's just like the stuff that spoke to me, man.
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Like all my favorite singers were vegan straight edge.
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Like it it just the introduction to that stuff was also vast so
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quickly. And you know, that was so
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inspired by that. So that's just like, that's just
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what became. Yeah, Who calls the shots at
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catering? Because I imagine you have the
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capability to be calling a lot of the shots.
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I do not take advantage of that. What I do take advantage of is
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the best thing that ever happened to touring Ubereats and
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DoorDash. Really.
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So you're not shout? Out to Ubereats and DoorDash,
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our sponsors for the downbeat to me.
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Have you ever talked with architects?
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No, no. OK architects do.
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A full vegan crew has to have it.
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Like it's fucking heavy. Shit.
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I didn't know if you'd be like, OK, we're going to be doing
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this. No, I don't want to be the guy
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that like everyone hates because I, you know, my choices had to
7:41
be inflicted upon them. I just choose my own way and
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just do whatever it is I want. But it's cool on this tour that
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we're on with bring me, you know, all these vegans.
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So what's even more sick is that the catering is like healthy
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vegan stuff. Really.
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Yeah. He's like Jack now.
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Yeah, it's crazy. How Long's this tour?
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This one is like Part 2 of a three-part tour.
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I think it ends on the 18th at Sonic Temple, so 17th or 18th.
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So it's been like 2 and out of three weeks.
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For it will be and you are ending it next week.
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Happy to go home. Yes and no.
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I mean, I love this, what I love doing, but in between all these
8:18
tours that we've been doing last year and this year, I've been
8:21
like racing the deadline to finish our record, all facets of
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the record. So I'm definitely like, we
8:29
basically finished it two days before I left for the tour and
8:33
then went dove right into like the launch plans and stuff and I
8:38
just wasn't like ready mentally to shift into doing a tour.
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But thankfully right away it clicked over.
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But I'm ready for just like, just give me like a two week
8:49
reset and I'll be fine. Yeah, my minimum is a two week.
8:52
If you give me 7 days, that suitcase is not getting
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unpacked. I'm just fucking.
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It's so crazy that you say that like I go home and I actually
9:00
don't unpack stuff from my suitcase.
9:02
Like I'll just leave. I'll put it in my office and
9:05
then like I'll find myself like waking up and going into the bag
9:08
in my suitcase for socks and underwear and I.
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Feel like I do that until it's empty and then I'm like, Oh
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yeah, I unpacked. Yeah, You mentioned you've been
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busy on all facets of the album. Is it you?
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Are you like, because every album is almost like a thematic
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thing and there's a real deliberate like aesthetic to
9:30
everything. Is that all you?
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No, well, those guys like their opinion comes into play like
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I'll I'll create. I don't like being a guy that
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doesn't like have anything or like if I don't like something,
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not having a suggestion to counter with.
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So like that's kind of what I present to everybody else's.
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I'll have a general idea or a a concept and then we'll discuss
9:51
it. They can say what they want to
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say and then I'll tweak it or whatever.
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But yeah, I would say most of everything starts with me.
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But then they have really rad ideas or like some people on our
10:00
team will have really cool ideas.
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So I'm not going to take all the credit at all.
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But I definitely I would say try to be the one to create the
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starting point of everything. How do you come up with those?
10:13
Depends on circumstance, situations, all that.
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Like with with the album title, it was like kind of decided for
10:19
me. I was like, this is our twenty
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year anniversary. How are we not going to put an
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album out on the 20 year anniversary and do something
10:26
that's so tethered to that? You know, like the album title
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is meant to do you even the the album cover or covers are very
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much tied to like 20 years time, torn apart by time, etcetera.
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So like I try to just get this grand visual story in my mind.
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I don't want any part of it to not feel cohesive and tell the
10:49
same story. So I kind of just think from the
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top down, everyone hates. They don't hate me but I'm sure
10:56
they would secret secretly be like if if you ask them away
11:02
from me that usually my ideas start incredibly high and then
11:06
get lowered due to budget or whatever time we have whatever.
11:10
Like I just think so grandiose and and over the top and then
11:16
come. To reality great word I saw your
11:18
mouth want to say big. He was going to say big and.
11:22
Big word can I say to sound smart?
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No, but it was a great word. So is there ever been anything
11:26
before we get on to this one, which you, you know, set me up
11:30
like a softball pitch there? Has there ever been anything you
11:32
wanted to do, like you said, and then budget was just a no?
11:36
That's more of the touring area. Production.
11:39
Yeah, I mean, dude, I want to have like a straight up like the
11:43
front facade of an entire haunted house, castle mansion
11:48
thing on stage where like there's like the steps where we
11:51
could go up into the different rooms and stuff and like.
11:54
Like an evil 1975. Yeah, exactly.
11:56
That's that's such a cool reference.
11:58
Yeah, I just saw Lady Gaga last summer and she had like, this.
12:02
Really. I've seen it, yeah, almost
12:04
Sesame Street style. It's in like all the windows and
12:07
stuff. Yes and like something just like
12:09
that where like wherever the band members are changes the
12:12
scenery of the of the show. And it's just tough though
12:16
'cause like you have to then build it, transport it, all that
12:19
stuff. And then on top of that you have
12:22
to have a million people to move it.
12:24
Like it's, it gets. People do not realize how
12:27
insanely expensive touring is just to tour.
12:30
Never mind that you had all that production.
12:31
So. I assume you would want it to be
12:33
practical and not of course. Yeah, but then we end up going
12:37
for the video stuff and then it's cool because we get to work
12:40
with other really talented artists to do multiple different
12:42
settings and scenes and that's, it's not a compromise, it's just
12:45
a different version of what we want.
12:47
You're not far off that level of being able to get the big
12:50
haunted house on stage. Yeah, we'll see.
12:52
I think these we have a summer tour coming up that will be our
12:56
like first headliner with the album and we are doing mostly
12:59
video, but the layout of the video feels much different than
13:03
anything we've done before. So we'll we'll try to create
13:06
like whatever cool. Like you feel like you're in the
13:11
world we're building per song. So where?
13:13
Where did the spookiness come from?
13:16
You're such a spooky band. And I, I absolutely fucking love
13:19
it. I was born in October so I don't
13:20
know my answer anytime anyone asks like oh why, why why is
13:24
this the stuff you're interested in?
13:26
I guess I just to me Christmas and my birthday of growing up
13:30
were like the most exciting days of the year and my birthday's
13:33
were always mostly like Halloween themed and I don't
13:36
know if it just became like in green that early.
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I don't know. I just gravitate towards that
13:41
stuff. And then that happened with the
13:43
same like what it when I was interested in bands, it was
13:46
like, oh, that guy looks really scary.
13:49
You know, Davey Havoc looks like Jack Skellington or, you know,
13:52
like different time periods of my life have just had like these
13:55
different icons that look like that.
13:57
And I don't know, just translated into what we did as a
14:01
band, you know? I love it.
14:03
I love a bit of spookiness. If you want you, we can paint
14:06
you up and get you up there again today.
14:08
I'll do it, I'll do it, don't I deliberately I've done it twice
14:12
now and I deliberately was like, I ain't going to ask today.
14:14
You know, it's a fucking you are like almost headlining.
14:17
I'm not going to ask. However, if everyone was to say
14:19
they wanted to happen, I would fucking I'll.
14:21
Talk to many about it. We'll see.
14:22
We'll get back to you. Oh God, two of my favorite
14:25
moments fucking ever, by the way, was doing that.
14:27
We talked about it before. We love that.
14:31
I just want to have fun on stage.
14:32
Like, first, you know, you bring up like the spooky and the
14:35
production and stuff and like, yeah, it's a serious thing that
14:38
we do. But like, I just want to have
14:40
fun. I wanted to feel unserious and
14:44
just enjoy what we're doing, especially when you're doing it
14:47
as often as we are. So like, when these moments
14:50
happen like that, it's so fun and like, breaks up what feels
14:54
like a minor monotony of touring.
14:57
And you're always welcome. I'll never forget like the
15:00
second time I did it, Vinny had mentioned it and then he was
15:04
like, yeah, I'll have to talk to Chris.
15:06
And you walked in and went, oh, what's up, man?
15:08
And then then he goes, can he play?
15:10
Can he play Salt House tonight? And you went, yeah, awesome.
15:12
And that was it. And it was like you, I think you
15:15
headline or you nearly headline, it's like fucking probably
15:18
60,000 people in there. And you were just trusting that
15:21
with me just for fun. It was awesome.
15:24
I appreciate. It even if it were terrible, I
15:26
would still have had such a great time because I don't, I
15:29
don't care. I just want to have fun.
15:31
I want to do cool shit with my friends, you know?
15:34
Do you think that's because you work so hard off tour?
15:36
On tour, you're like, I just want to have some fucking fun
15:38
right now. That could be it, yeah.
15:40
But I would say like touring is the biggest attraction to this
15:45
for me. Like I, I love creating music
15:47
and and recording and all that stuff, but touring is the moment
15:50
where like that that passion comes the OR that fire burns the
15:55
hottest, whatever you want to say.
15:57
I use Torres as a way to try to have the most fun that I can.
16:00
Is like the reward for working so hard.
16:03
Which is unique for a vegan straightish person.
16:06
Sorry. And it was a joke guys.
16:08
It was a fucking joke while we were just talking about it.
16:10
I really want to know and I ask a lot of people this on here
16:13
because I like getting the insight and hopefully these
16:15
people like getting the insight. How does a motionless song get
16:19
written? Because everyone has their own
16:21
different ways of doing stuff. Most of them start with some
16:25
singular idea like we're like, I'll just take Afraid of the
16:30
Dark. We just put that out in January.
16:31
Let's take that for example. That to me was like, we need to
16:36
have a song. I want to have a song that feels
16:39
like a throwback metal core motionless song that captures
16:44
all the emotions, like basically like what is the heart and soul
16:47
of the band? And let's create a song around
16:50
that. So it's like idea.
16:52
And then I know that to do that, we got to have the wrist, we got
16:56
to have the breakdowns, etcetera.
16:58
Like all the all the callbacks to like the classic creatures
17:02
motionless stuff that people like and that we like.
17:05
That's kind of like the general sense of that.
17:07
And then we'll just sit down and riff it out and or like, I'll
17:11
try to have like a lyric in mind that I want to stick to each one
17:15
and just is truly different. But that that song is more of
17:19
like you have the vision you're recognizing, like the time
17:22
period around you, what what's going on with the band and then
17:25
create from there. Is that that being your
17:28
motivation? And you're like sat at a
17:30
computer doing it. Yeah, I would say most of the
17:32
time like I'll either work with these guys or my other friends
17:35
that I Co write with. I love working with people.
17:39
I'll work alone, but like feels uninspiring to work alone
17:43
because I love getting excited about stuff and like sharing
17:46
that energy in the room. It's pretty much the gist of it.
17:49
Yeah, you also need to know Guy. I need to know Guy so much
17:53
because if everyone just let me do whatever I wanted these two
17:56
on this platform, I need a no guy because I just like we're
17:59
doing this and then someone has to go.
18:02
That's just a terrible idea. Yeah, I do appreciate that lot.
18:06
Like you could you could tell when someone's just not excited
18:09
about something, then that's just not the right.
18:11
Move. You know they need to be bullied
18:13
out of something ideally. You just mentioned decades.
18:17
You know the it's thematically about the decades of your band.
18:21
Seems like quite a few songs might be about vampires though.
18:26
Well, that's definitely like a tie into the aesthetic of it.
18:29
I do. I feel like the magic of the
18:32
title to me is that it says so much about like what has
18:36
happened where we're at, but then in my opinion also implies
18:40
that there are more to come. And in the actual title track,
18:46
you know, I used the the line torn by time.
18:49
I survived. I am eternal.
18:51
That sounds stupid to just spoken word it, but when you
18:54
hear it the way that it's. Mean to yourself?
18:57
So it's not, it's not so much I as in me.
19:00
Chris is eternal. It's the general like idea of
19:04
what this is, you know, like music is going to live on
19:06
forever. And I wanted something that just
19:10
felt like it had past, present and future all in one title.
19:14
And it spoke to just like where the band is coming from and
19:16
where we're going. What's cool about it
19:19
additionally, in my opinion, is that it also to me has like best
19:25
of kind of vibes. Like it sounds like the best of
19:28
Motionless would be called Decades.
19:31
And in the same breath, so many of the songs are referencing
19:35
other songs throughout our entire history of being a band.
19:40
You know, like the the newer song we just put out has
19:43
multiple different kind of sounds and references to other
19:47
songs that we've done. And I just think that that's
19:50
awesome. Like fans can can ride the wave
19:52
of familiarity and also discover what's new.
19:55
And it thematically is just so strong to me and exactly what I
20:00
wanted. And again, that's what that's
20:02
what I just trying to think of, you know?
20:04
Hate to be a massive stereotype guys, but what I'm about to tell
20:07
you about is I think a weekend curated and designed
20:10
specifically for me. Incarceration music and tattoo
20:14
festival takes over Ohio State reformatory July 17th and 19th.
20:19
You know Shawshank, Shawshank Redemption, the IMDb top movie
20:23
of all time for the most of time.
20:24
Yeah, that Ohio State reformatory.
20:27
It's three days of metal, Hard Rock and tattoos where live
20:31
music collides with artists, haunted history and an immersive
20:35
experience that makes this one of the most unique festivals in
20:38
the country. I told you it was for me.
20:40
The historic, allegedly haunted prison grounds will play host to
20:44
Gojira, Bad Omers, Machine Head and tons more like downbeat
20:48
alumni. Dying Wish landmarks and the bog
20:51
are going to be there. Possibly even more exciting than
20:54
that, though. More than 100 tattoo eyes from
20:56
around the country are going to be transforming the prison into
20:59
the Monster Energy Tattoo Convention.
21:02
Any psychopaths looking to take home a permanent reminder of
21:05
their festival weekend can do so at the festival.
21:08
But please, Lord, clean it. You know what festivals are
21:13
like. If I didn't mention it was
21:15
haunted. They have an unparalleled scare
21:17
experience. You know those haunted houses
21:19
where people scare the absolute? Out of you, but they're not
21:22
allowed to touch you, I don't think.
21:23
I can't remember the blood. Prison offers more than just a
21:27
walkthrough of a haunted attraction, it presents a
21:30
chilling encounter with the supernatural.
21:33
I love Ghosts Weekend and single day passes are on sale now,
21:37
along with camping packages, VIP and ultimate experiences.
21:41
Be there when it all goes down. Go to incarceration.com.
21:45
I will see you there. Before we get on to the ass
21:49
beater that is playing God. It's so funny that you just.
21:52
I have a story for you. Go ahead, tell.
21:54
Me. The fucking story.
21:54
To speak more on decades, this is just so cool that you said
21:57
ass beater. So in the studio songs have
22:00
their working title. I'm sure you guys have that too,
22:03
right? You know, they're usually,
22:04
they're stupid, really dumb names.
22:07
The worst? So decades working Title was
22:10
called ass beater. What's funny is that Decades is
22:14
very straight from the path inspired.
22:16
No way. Yeah.
22:18
In what way? Well, you've got this weird
22:19
guitar noises. There's definitely weird guitar
22:21
noises there's I definitely hit some Drew like moments on the
22:26
vocals. No way.
22:27
Yeah, there's there's a lot of cool like this interview feels
22:29
so you don't even realize how enmeshed in it is and like the
22:33
fabric of the the record because you asked about a hardcore band.
22:37
Like there's so much Hatebreed influence in the title track.
22:40
Yeah, like all. Kinds I got to hear this song.
22:43
It's it's cool. I could send it to you after
22:45
this. There's a lot of stray
22:46
influence. It was called Ass Beater.
22:48
So you say that it's just, it's just funny.
22:49
I love moments. Like, yeah, that's fucking
22:51
awesome. I was nervous before you came
22:53
here, Chris. I was too.
22:55
I'm still sweating. No, shut up, thank.
22:56
God for deodorant. You said something really nice
22:59
to me the first time we ever met.
23:00
It was and I don't even think you realized it, but you like.
23:04
Then we met what's up? And then you referenced like an
23:09
old. North.
23:10
Lane episode of the podcast and I was like Chris watches my book
23:15
stick was fucking awesome I. Loved it.
23:17
I got to know what blood rave sounds like.
23:23
Well, it's very, I mean, it's clubby.
23:26
It's very clubby. That's there to you as well.
23:29
Really, really cool moments. Like the bridge, it's very
23:34
clubby and very industrial and and awesome and like we took it
23:40
very seriously with a, calling it Bloodrave.
23:42
Is it lyrically about anything to a blade?
23:45
It's not about blade, no. OK.
23:48
It's more of a Sonic reference to that moment that whatever.
23:51
But no, it's not about Blade. The lyrics are very much about
23:55
like kind of speaking to the outsider that might be
23:59
interested in joining, you know, a festival, like the distant
24:02
observation by someone who might be intrigued by this world of
24:07
things. And I'm sort of taking the the
24:11
place of like music personified and speaking to that person as
24:14
this like sort of mysterious dangerous entity that's I don't
24:20
know if luring them in is the right word.
24:22
But like like the bloodray? Yeah, join.
24:26
That's like, I don't really don't know how to say it.
24:27
No, I get it. It's like this whole subcultural
24:30
thing. If someone was looking at it and
24:33
they wanted to get into it, you're the person that's like,
24:36
come to the blood ray. Like exactly that's.
24:39
Fucking cool. Yeah, I really like writing not
24:42
as a person. Sometimes I like writing as
24:46
something personified, and there are two songs on the record
24:50
where I am writing as though I am music or I am the subculture
24:56
speaking to an outsider or someone internally.
25:00
And it's such a cool, unique way to write songs, in my opinion,
25:04
where it's not so much like me, me, me, I, I, I all the time,
25:08
you know? You must, you know, It's like
25:10
you would run. I don't know because I don't
25:11
write lyrics anymore. It must be kind of hard to just
25:14
write about yourself all the times.
25:15
Depends on what's going on. Yeah I think forever.
25:19
It's always going to be like 4 things.
25:21
It's going to be observation, personal experiences, character
25:25
based things or fun dumb dumb shit.
25:30
You know, like not my type, you know, just fun stupid songs for
25:34
just to have fun too, you know? I wish I could do a makeup band
25:38
with stupid fucking songs. They're not stupid funny songs,
25:42
but we've got a big one to talk about here.
25:45
Praying. God, you're so angry.
25:49
I guess what? To be pissed off about, I'll
25:51
tell you that. What?
25:51
So am I? I saw your little statement
25:54
about it and I was like, holy shit.
25:56
It's like a hate letter to social media.
26:00
Dude, yeah, it's a, it's a lot of hatred and anger towards just
26:07
open. If I literally open my phone and
26:09
went to fucking Twitter now my entire feed would just be a
26:12
bunch of people complaining about shit just for the the
26:16
engagement or it's it's fucking agonizing.
26:21
It's agonizing. So I don't use it very much
26:23
anymore, you know? I don't see it stopping, which
26:26
is my problem because algorithmically what it is, what
26:31
the algorithm has picked up is that engagement, comments and
26:35
whatever means good push this. But actually what's happened is
26:41
negative stuff invokes more of a reaction from people.
26:44
So more comments algorithm goes, that's good, let's show it to
26:48
everyone. And in particular, we've
26:50
established these type of people's engage with this more.
26:54
So let's show them this. It's just fucking the most toxic
27:00
thing ever. Was there like a specific moment
27:04
that led you to this or has this been building?
27:06
No, it's been building. It's like it's nothing new to
27:09
people that the Internet is just a toxic place.
27:12
I mean, it's, it's been like that for my entire existence on
27:16
the Internet before and with with or without being in the
27:19
band. It's just a terrible place to
27:20
be. But like it feels like maybe
27:24
post pandemic where the algorithm really, I guess
27:28
decided that negativity is the thing that or maybe people, I
27:33
don't know what it is, but it's just been my feeling for forever
27:37
that this is just getting worse and worse and worse.
27:41
And the more in the public eye our band gets, the more it
27:45
continues to attract that same type of stuff where people just
27:48
it's just so hollow. It's so self indulgent.
27:52
It is straight up. You don't actually mean any of
27:55
what you're saying. You don't believe in what you're
27:57
saying. You just hate slipping into
28:00
irrelevancy. You cannot stand that someone
28:03
didn't notice you today and you need to just step into that
28:07
spotlight for five fucking people to like your stupid ass
28:11
post and, you know, stroke your ego and that's that's just, you
28:15
know, nothing new. And people don't realise it is
28:17
like most of these opinions that people have, like you just said,
28:21
like they don't really mean it. They know what they're doing.
28:24
And all you need to do is just not engage with it.
28:27
And then it will die. But it does not it.
28:29
Does not do it. If everyone complaints about it,
28:32
which they do, you can like. It's not a foreign concept to
28:36
people. They see it, they know it, but
28:39
they cannot help but to interact.
28:42
They cannot help themselves but to interact and give that energy
28:48
a platform to exist. And that's the like, why?
28:51
Why can't? Like, you don't have to like if
28:54
there's something hateful out there, you don't have to go in
28:58
there and fight the fight and engage with it.
29:01
It does not care what you say to it.
29:04
It just loves that you are saying something and I don't
29:08
know, I just wish that that people could realise that more
29:11
and help put an end to it, but that's just not the world we
29:14
live in. You got any idea on how we can
29:16
put an end to it short of not engaging?
29:19
Because I've been thinking but I got nothing.
29:22
The only one I could think of algorithmically is that the
29:26
algorithm doesn't prioritise comments as something that would
29:33
push something. So it would just be likes which
29:37
is still bad. But like I feel like it's
29:39
comments on things that usually where further negativity is.
29:44
Like someone could say something shitty but then the comments are
29:46
where it gets real fucking bad and then that gets pushed
29:50
because there's a lot of comments.
29:51
If they just took that away and it was based purely on likes or
29:55
a secret dislike button, maybe it would like.
29:58
Yeah, like where's the downvote button?
30:00
Yeah, that was on for a while. I feel like that might fix it.
30:04
I don't know. I've got no answers.
30:05
I agree. I mean, I think we're both, we
30:07
have the same train of thought where it's like minimize the
30:10
engagement. I appreciate when fans will go
30:12
and like defend us in any posts or whatever.
30:15
But unfortunately, I wish more of them realized that the person
30:18
posting whatever they posted, they don't like.
30:20
You could agree or disagree with them.
30:22
Whatever it is, it doesn't fucking matter what you say.
30:25
They're just, you know, celebrating, you know, having a
30:27
great time that you gave their post something that is going to
30:31
then get them to the next person and the next person.
30:34
So I don't know if it's maybe like an awareness thing or like,
30:37
hey, you don't have to do this. Or like maybe maybe I could
30:40
address motionless fans, be like, hey, I really love that
30:43
you guys want to defend us. I appreciate that.
30:46
Don't feel that you have to because in doing so you're just
30:50
fueling those posts to exist more because they don't care
30:56
about what you have to say, they just love that you're saying.
30:59
Something they want the number. Oh my God, I hit tweet.
31:04
Yes. I could do this all day, but I'm
31:06
not going to because I actually need people to engage with this
31:09
clip, engage with this one. Only the nice things.
31:12
This is like aunt, you know, honest, just sitting down with a
31:16
person and wanting to talk to them.
31:18
I think if you were to put this on YouTube and give it some sort
31:21
of click bait bullshit title with the like, you know, Oh my
31:26
God. But I can't do it.
31:27
And that's the thing, and I have been, this has been an uphill
31:31
battle because I refuse to do it.
31:33
So like, I don't want to be part of the negative.
31:40
Like I know this clipped out of context is going to get me
31:44
1,000,000 views, but it's also going to get me -1 million
31:48
friendship manner and -1 million like people taking me fucking
31:52
seriously. People won't want to come on
31:54
here if like it's going to get clipped out of context or any of
31:56
that shit. But as a result, the podcast
32:00
growth has been slow because I'm not doing the like you'll never
32:04
believe what Chris Motionless just said.
32:07
I just. I hate that for you, I really
32:10
do. It's fine bro, I've made my bed.
32:13
I can make an agreement that you can do that about about this and
32:17
we'll just, we'll use it as a social experiment.
32:20
No, I don't. I don't even.
32:21
Want some? Crazy shit I don't even want to.
32:24
You won't believe. You won't.
32:25
Believe. I am kind of jealous that
32:30
obviously you much more famous than me, you get more of this
32:33
shit, but I'm jealous that you have now someone that doesn't
32:37
have a band. I'm jealous that you can just be
32:39
like, I'm just not going on social media.
32:42
I have to be here. I have to do it.
32:45
And if I don't feel like it was almost really fucking mean to
32:47
me, I'm like still have to post. Yeah.
32:51
They shouldn't be a job. The freedom to ignore it.
32:54
I feel very privileged in that and lucky, you know, that I
32:58
don't have to engage with stuff. I don't have to feel like I got
33:01
to go on the Internet and defend myself anymore.
33:03
Like I know that it doesn't matter what I say, it won't
33:05
change anything. It'll just make it worse, you
33:08
know, because then more people will be cute and tipped off to
33:12
say like, oh, if I say this and then Chris, he'll engage with
33:15
me, you know, like I'm just glad that the awareness is there and
33:18
I have stepped away. Like when you just do something
33:22
over and over and over again and you are left every time feeling
33:25
like I'm not enjoying this, I'm not having fun.
33:28
In any other space of your life, you wouldn't do that thing, you
33:31
know? So why is social media media any
33:34
different? Walk away from it, take a break,
33:37
limit it. I don't know a situation like
33:39
yours. That is what you're doing, you
33:43
know, and I don't I feel terrible.
33:45
So I. Didn't want to make you feel
33:47
terrible. There's some of the same people,
33:48
some I guess some of the prime offenders that I'm thinking in
33:51
my head, the type of people that would do, you know, the sort of
33:56
negativity for clicks that we're talking about.
33:58
These people hate Sleep Token, right?
34:00
I'll say that much. They, they hate, they hate the
34:03
fact that Sleep Token are wearing masks.
34:06
My brothers and sisters and everything in between.
34:08
In Christ you are the people putting other people in masks
34:11
because they don't want to be on the Internet.
34:14
I'm so jealous of the anonymity of those kind of bands.
34:18
Let's talk for about 3 more hours so we could dive in
34:20
because sleep token is like the target of so much of what we're
34:24
talking about. The people show up to be their
34:28
most fucking rat bottom feeding scumbag sell for and there's
34:34
there's plenty of bands people do that over but.
34:36
It's weird they get it worse. Although you remember you're old
34:39
like me. Bring me.
34:41
Got it back in the day. Yeah.
34:42
Biggest heavy band in the world, like at the time, like most, you
34:46
know, fastest rising heavy band in the world.
34:48
Which Sleep token are now to look at the Internet or to talk
34:52
to primarily young men? Most hated band in the world but
34:57
they just went like this. And sleep token is exactly the
35:01
same but with masks. Pretty fucking cool masks.
35:05
I can't allow myself because we're going to start to sound
35:07
like old guys who are just pissed off at the young, the
35:09
young Internet, you know, I'm trying so hard to find that
35:12
line. We can switch it up.
35:13
I got to ask you how the fuck Corey Taylor happened.
35:16
Is that where you want to go? Yeah, I mean, you want to go
35:19
more on sleep token Internet shit, it's good clicks for me.
35:23
It's fine, it's fine. We've made our points.
35:26
Took a long time for me to like build the nerve up to ask him.
35:30
You know, thankfully we have a bit of a relationship.
35:33
You know, his wife Alicia works for us.
35:36
She is part of the cherry bombs which we have on stage.
35:39
He's been around a few times and like we've talked and I try to
35:44
like maintain a, a distance. I don't I don't ever want to be,
35:47
you know, the cringy fanboy or anything like that.
35:50
But the facts are that, you know, it's Corey Taylor.
35:53
He's like a hero of not just me, but everyone in our band.
35:57
So he's always very nice. He's like the kindest, most
36:00
sweet person. And he pretty much came to like
36:04
the final minute of like, OK, I have to ask this now or it just
36:08
won't able to be a will not be able to be a thing.
36:12
So I reached out and it was just like, yeah, sure, help or fuck,
36:18
yeah, let's do it. Awesome.
36:19
Great. I was just like I there no?
36:23
You were like worrying that was going to happen.
36:25
Yeah, shivering. And he was just this so sick
36:29
dude. And I don't know whether he'd
36:31
want me to say this or not, but he did more than I even asked
36:34
him to do. Like with with features, I hate
36:38
when it's like a verse or a bridge.
36:40
I want the feature to be a truth, you know, woven into the
36:44
song feature. So I sent two options.
36:46
Hey, you could, you know, here's what I was thinking for this or
36:48
this. And he was like, cool, Yep, got
36:50
it, went in and sent back so much more.
36:55
I was like, Oh my God. And then hearing it for the
36:58
first time, I was like, this is straight up fucking Iowa court.
37:03
This is people equal shit pissed off Corey.
37:07
I just can't really describe to you what that's like to like
37:11
think back to being in 7th grade, hearing the self.
37:13
Titled Yeah, that's crazy. Till now it's it's fucked, it's
37:17
crazy. I just think he went like
37:19
psychotic on the song. You did.
37:20
It's like you got to get the fuck up in the intro.
37:23
Like I didn't ask for. That that's a Corey Taylor.
37:25
Like fucking. Yeah.
37:27
Mark of approval. I had it in like the demo
37:30
version that I sent and then he just did it and I was just right
37:33
off the bat. I was just like.
37:35
Yeah, that that bit gives Iowa like straight away.
37:38
It's like did is it your lyrics or his?
37:42
Mine, yeah. Is that normally the case?
37:44
Is your. Most of the time, yeah, that was
37:47
actually a part of the song. I was curious if he would want
37:50
to do or not. Like the song is obviously very
37:53
Slipknot inspired, but the lyrics are very intentionally
37:56
like on the nose, you know, like some some songs we do where the
37:59
lyrics are metaphorical, you know, very poetic.
38:03
Other songs are stupid and fun, like not my type.
38:06
Other songs are sarcastic, satirical, on the nose.
38:10
And that's kind of more one of those where it's just meant to
38:14
to be what it is. And I was like, I don't know if
38:16
he would be. I mean, he's had some lyrics,
38:19
you know, I want to, you know, slice your throat and cut your
38:22
throat and fuck the wound like that.
38:24
That's pretty, pretty insane lyric, you know, So like,
38:27
there's not that in the song, but stuff similarly to that.
38:31
What's? The there's like a line about.
38:33
A boot. Lick the fucking dirt off my
38:35
boots like a good dog. That seems like a line, Corey
38:38
would have said. You know.
38:40
Yeah, that's a great line. But I was like, I don't know if
38:42
that's where he's at now, you know?
38:43
And he, I just can't tell you. I wish I didn't think to film
38:49
myself when I heard it for the first time.
38:51
Psychotic. Ballistic.
38:53
Yeah, Maniacal. He's crazy.
38:55
It's got to be bucket this year. By the way, everyone, we're on a
38:57
time crunch because we're a festival, so big thanks to
39:00
Krista for being here. I had a roomy A partial to a
39:02
massage. A massage.
39:04
Correct. Yes.
39:05
Ever had to go wrong? Not really.
39:08
I've had some pretty terrible, like I don't know if this person
39:12
really actually has a license to be a professional.
39:15
I've never tried the old. No, God, no.
39:18
Oh my God, I had it once in China where I went for one.
39:21
I was trying to get an actual massage, terrible massage, no
39:25
way. And then flipped me over at the
39:27
end and was just like started doing it.
39:28
I was like no, no, no, no, we're good.
39:30
And what I learnt from this when, So if you're trying to
39:32
find massages on tour, which I often AM, I have to do some deep
39:36
level research to find out that they're not doing that.
39:40
In my experience, what I've learned is there you, you can't
39:44
put your 10,000 hours in on both things.
39:46
No, you're either great at one or you're great at the other.
39:50
That's funny. And I just want that good
39:52
massage. That's very funny.
39:55
I'm sorry that that happened to. You that that's absolutely fine.
39:57
We, our tour manager, can definitely give you the number.
40:00
I don't actually know if it's if it's Rock Dock that is the
40:03
network that also does. Massage therapist and everything
40:06
but like if it's not rock doc, then it's something equal equal
40:10
to that where there's just like a head group of people that have
40:15
a network of like true professional therapist all over
40:19
the the world that will contact them and and kind of source it
40:22
for you I'm. Going to have to get that number
40:24
a few. It's actually amazing, like how
40:27
willing to help a lot of doctors and therapists are now like
40:31
it's, it's just awesome. So we're very lucky and you
40:33
know, we have direct links to all the different professionals
40:37
all over the place and everything's great.
40:39
Being being 661 on a tour bus, dude, like, yeah, massages are
40:44
so like required. Like it's a it's a cool way to
40:46
relax, but like it is more of a requirement.
40:50
Head banging. I don't head bang as much
40:52
anymore because I just like after sleeping in a van for so
40:57
long, the bus funks for so long. Like the pain, like the recovery
41:01
time of some. I've have pretty bad issues up
41:05
here in my neck and traps that just gets so aggravated by it.
41:09
I also have to sing a lot a lot better now these days, so head
41:13
banging makes it a little tougher to do that.
41:15
I was super impressed at #1 it's really funny.
41:17
I said run a time crunch and then I asked him about massages
41:20
side point real quick. I was so impressed those two
41:22
times that I filled in because a lot of bands in our genre,
41:25
there's like a lot of backing track going on.
41:28
I had Vinnies mix. I had everything and I was like
41:31
I'm going to find out if it was such and you are fucking, you
41:34
are fucking seeing it. You are like it's fucking
41:38
happening. I was so fucking impressed.
41:40
Thank you very much. Quick Fire because you got to go
41:42
first album. You have the board.
41:44
Weird Al Bad hair day. Insane.
41:46
Crazy dude. Amish paradise banger to till
41:51
death. Have you seen the movie?
41:52
No. Bro there was a movie with Harry
41:54
Potter, Daniel Radcliffe. No, it's like a fake biopic.
41:57
I've not seen it. Weird Al wrote it, it's his fake
42:00
story of his life. He like starts dating Madonna
42:03
and shit and it's Harry Potter. It's funny.
42:05
First show you ever went to? No doubt tragic Kingdom tour.
42:09
Bangers. Straight bangers.
42:12
Was there a specific moment in your career that you thought
42:14
I've made it? It's tough to remember there are
42:17
like different versions of I've made it.
42:20
I mean, I tore him with bleeding through was like, this is like
42:24
the ultimate dream I've always wanted.
42:26
You know, it's my favorite band. Brandon straight up grabbed me.
42:29
I was front row every night screaming along as a fan that
42:33
just so happened to be on tour with them.
42:35
Brandon just like reached down, pulled me up, puts the mic on my
42:39
hand for revenge. I seek It was like, this is the
42:41
pinnacle of my life. It will not get better than
42:44
this. So.
42:45
You know, that's fucking awesome Tour with those guys was in like
42:48
2006, like prime bang a band, really nice guy.
42:53
Last time you cried. You know how like sometimes when
42:56
like emotions just get so overwhelming that like your body
42:59
in itself like. Just needs a cry.
43:02
Whether it's crying or just like like I think turning in the
43:06
album, because I, I've been working on it for so long and
43:10
deadline just got closer and closer and closer.
43:12
And there's a billion thing. It's not just the music, it's
43:14
the mix, the master, the artwork, the photos, the music
43:17
video. Like there are so many things
43:19
that go into the roll out of an album.
43:21
And it all unfortunately, the way the timing all worked was
43:24
all so in the same block of time.
43:27
So I think turning it in, I was just like, you know, like it
43:32
wasn't, it wasn't a cry. It was that where you exhale but
43:35
you're like. Like, like you got really badly
43:39
told off as a kid and you're trying not to cry.
43:42
OK, that's funny. Anything left on the bucket
43:45
list? I guess, you know, to touch on
43:47
what we said earlier, I would like to do like at least one
43:49
tour where I feel in my mind is like the full ultimate
43:54
realization of a motionless headliner.
43:56
I think it's coming for you, see.
43:58
Any advice for anyone out there who wants to start a band or do
44:01
what you do? Especially more now than ever, I
44:04
think that you have to be willing to to seriously
44:08
sacrifice everything. And that's what we did.
44:11
That's what I did. There's obviously a billion more
44:14
technological helping hands now, but in the same breath that has
44:20
made it to the point where you're entering a situation that
44:23
is so oversaturated where everybody can create anything.
44:28
I would just say stay true to what it is that you really want
44:31
and be willing to give everything and so much more than
44:35
you can even give because that is the only way you're going to
44:40
breakthrough now. You know, especially as like
44:43
this AI infection of just not, I just saw recently on on the top
44:49
20 on like the iTunes Metal chart and AI band has like 4
44:54
songs in the top 20. That's who you're competing
44:57
with, you know, and you know, to stand out in that world of
45:00
things, just be willing to just grind yourself nearly to death.
45:05
But it will be worth it, because if you do succeed, the feeling
45:09
that you have earned it truly will be so much more fulfilling.
45:14
That's great advice, and we're done.
45:16
I'm not gonna take any more of your time.
45:18
Thank you so much. You are the fucking best.
45:20
Thank you, mate. Thanks guys.