Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Causing A Ruckus With PATRICK MIRANDA From MOVEMENTS

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Causing A Ruckus With PATRICK MIRANDA From MOVEMENTS · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Californian band Movements are kind of difficult to categorize. They're all seeing, all
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  knowing Internet says their post hardcore, emo, indie rock, pop rock,
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  alternative rock, and you may well designate them to an entirely different musical genre.
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  Regardless of the box that you may put them in. Movements is creating
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  music that is resonating with you know, just a measly one point one million
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  Spotify listeners, currently with a new album Around the Corner Ruckus, which is
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  to be released on August eighteen. I scored a small window of time to
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  chat with Pat amidst a busy schedule of press interviews, and I received some
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  insight into what's up with Movements. I'm as, this is the Heavy Podcast,
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  and you're about to listen to my chat with Movements vocalist Patrick Miranda.
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  Let's go back. Are you doing? I'm good? How are you?
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  I'm good, Welcome to the Heavy Podcast. No dramas. Thanks for giving
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  me your time. I believe I'm one of many interviews today, so I
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  will I'll try my best not to ask you questions that you've answered like eleventy
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  billion times, but I can't promise you anything I'm sorry, I'll probably failed
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  me. Don't worry about so movements on the cusp of an album release.
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  You've already given us a taste of is it five it's five singles, right,
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  Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you've delivered those to the world, and
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  look, it would be safe to say that those have been really well received
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  by your fans. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, for the most
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  part, What has got you most excited about this new release in comparison with
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  maybe your previous albums. Yeah, I think I think more than anything,
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  I'm just excited to like play these songs live. The energy and like the
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  overall feeling of this record is so fun and like youthful and exciting, and
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  it makes me so happy that, like, I know that these songs when
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  it comes to like playing them live, it's just gonna feel even even better.
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  So I'm really really excited for that. I think that's gonna be a
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  huge, huge thing for this band, just because, you know, for
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  the longest time, I think that we've kind of all the you know,
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  we're used to having pretty like fun reowdi shows. Don't get me wrong,
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  but I think with the with the last record, it was all kind of
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  living in the same sort of sonic, mid tempo, kind of maybe not
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  super energetic world, and when it came to playing those songs live, we
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  kind of noticed that they're was like a visible shift in audience performance or audience
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  engagement like that sort of thing. And I think with this record, we
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  went into it knowing that we wanted these songs to like really hit live,
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  and we really wanted them to feel like fun and bouncy and yeah, again
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  exciting. So yeah, I'm just looking forward to finally having them out in
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  the world and having people be able to get to know them, and then
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  being able to play them and hopefully see where, you know, where they
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  take us. Maybe it'll mean some bigger tool opportunities, who knows, but
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  yeah, just excited. In general, it would be safe to say then
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  that you guys are very much a live band. I always find it interesting
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  to talk to bands and musicians about where their preferences lie, whether it's in
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  songwriting and recording or whether it's getting out and playing shows, And often it's
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  a hard question for people to answer. But given what you've just said,
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  you write songs for the outcome to be that you're going to perform them and
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  have a good time, right, I think we do now. I think
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  that's the that's the safe thing to say now. But I think in the
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  past we didn't think about that enough, and now it's something that's definitely more
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  on our minds. But yeah, I mean, I I've always kind of
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  prided myself on being one of the vocalists in our world who maybe, and
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  this is not to throw shade on anybody, but like who maybe sounds better
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  in a live setting than I'm I really even do, like recorded I do.
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  I hate tooting my own horn, but like I you know, I
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  do have like a good voice, and like I I know that I am
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  capable of doing, you know, really really well in live singing scenario.
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  So being able to like, you know, do what I do best and
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  do it really really well is extremely important to me. So yeah, I
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  mean, it's it's funny because I do think that we are, in my
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  opinion, like a like a live band. And I think in many cases,
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  maybe if you don't like the band, once you see it live you're
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  like, oh okay, I get it, you know. And I think
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  Movements is definitely that sort of band for a lot of people. Yeah,
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  I actually I love discovering bands that way. I love going in and not
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  knowing what it's going to be about, and then seeing them live loving it.
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  And then often you go you toddle on back and you listen to them
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  on Spotify or whatever, and you're like, oh, it's I wouldn't I
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  don't think I would have got it if I hadn't seen them live first.
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  So I totally get I Also, I also completely know where you're coming from
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  with the performing like sing or singing better live. You can't replicate emotions in
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  a you know, very clinical setting like a studio the same way you can
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  when you're facing people and singing at them, compared to just singing at a
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  microphone attached to the wall. So absolutely, I did actually want to ask
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  you a vocalist question, probably for my own self indulgence because I am a
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  vocalist myself. But I read that you're classically trained. Is that right?
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  Yeah? I am, Yeah, so I'm not. And I often wonder
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  where the people like yourself whether it hinders your vocal ability sometimes because you know
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  when you're doing something wrong or right or wrong. This is the thing I
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  think that I I am conscious of when I'm doing things the wrong way,
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  and I used to ignore it because because if I was following the rules,
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  I probably wouldn't be able to be doing the things that I do. And
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  I know that my my choir teacher would probably hate the way that I sing
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  these days. But you know, it works, and I try to,
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  you know, I try to still be doing it in a way that's healthy
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  and that's going to mean longevity from my voice. But yes, there's just
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  some things you can't do the right way in this in this sort of genre.
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  You know, you just got exactly yell and it's part of it.
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  So yeah, yeah, I totally understand that. And that's why I asked
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  you the question, because I think the people I do tend to come across
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  that are classically trained, they really limit themselves because they know what's right and
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  wrong. And listening to your style, like you're you're such a versatile vocalist,
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  and when I found out you classically trained, I'm like, but you
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  sing like this in this song and you sing like that, so you're either
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  going to impart some amazing wisdom way you're like, no, you do it
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  this way, or no, it's just kind of wrong, and I just
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  do it anyway, Yeah, very much. That it's very yeah. Yeah,
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  And again it goes back to emotion too. You just I feel like
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  you can't box yourself into right and wrong if you're going into express emotions,
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  which I right, I think you do that very well. So do you
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  guys have a particular formula when you go into songwriting or do you sort of
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  change things up in terms of, you know, how you guys work as
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  a collective, Yes and no. I'd say that like most of our songs
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  kind of start the same way, and it's usually like a guitar riff that
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  we sort of build on and structure and kind of like see where it wants
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  to take us. But that's not always the case, Like there have been
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  certain songs where it started off with like a drum rhythm that kind of gets
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  edited and maybe changed, and then that like inspires some sort of riff or
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  that inspire is like a little bass lick or whatever it might be, and
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  then we kind of build from there. But I do think that most of
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  our songs are written instrumentally first and then I write lyrics after. And that
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  hasn't always been the case. I used to write a lot of my lyrics
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  beforehand. But these days, I find it's a little bit easier to write
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  lyrics to a song than it is to try and mold pre written lyrics to
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  a song that we've written. And I don't know why that is. Maybe
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  it's just growth as a song writer has has made me kind of more in
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  tune with like, oh, this is how you know, the vocals should
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  kind of flow in this song. Whatever. But I actually really enjoy it,
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  Like I really enjoy having like a demo of a track kind of put
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  together, and then I can go retreat into my kind of like writing zone
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  and just like be by myself and play the song over and over and over
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  again. And sometimes I'll write an entire song one way and then be like,
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  Okay, I like this, but can I do it better? And
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  then maybe I'll write that same exact song or write lyrics to the same you
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  know, instruments that is a completely different song, and then maybe I like
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  that one better, or maybe I like pieces of that with maybe pieces of
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  the new one, and I kind of get to combine them all into one
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  thing. So it's really cool because I think that it just it leaves the
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  song a little bit more open ended and allows for more creativity in the long
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  run, instead of being like these of the lyrics that I have that I
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  can work with and they have to fit this song. It's like, yeah,
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  no, it can really be whatever. So yeah, but again,
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  it really depends on the on the track. It depends on my mood.
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  It depends on if I'm feeling inspired, like every day could be different.
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  Do you guys get to either to write or do you bring things in individually?
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  Like how do you So? I know a lot of Benz these days
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  rely on technology and they don't have to always be in the same room as
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  each other when songwriting these days, and in fact, I'm finding that's less
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  and less the case. Yeah. Yeah, we prefer to be all together.
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  And with Ruckis, we actually wrote the entire thing all together. We
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  spent we did a few writing sessions because we recorded in Philadelphia, which is
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  on the East coast and we live on the West coast, and so we
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  would fly out for a few weeks at a time and we would go to
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  the studio and we would just sit in the studio with our producer Will and
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  we would just write a song. Basically every single day, sit down,
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  we'd write a song and then the next day we'd show up, we'd sit
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  down and we'd write a new song, and so on and so forth.
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  And we did that three times, you know, three weeks of writing,
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  and then we'd leave and go home and go on tour for a month or
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  whatever, go back to the studio for another three weeks, write again,
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  leave, go on to it for a while, and then we the third
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  time we went back, wrote for two weeks and then recorded for like four
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  weeks. And so it was really nice because we were all in the same
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  place together, we were all only focusing on writing the songs, and then
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  also we were giving ourselves breaks in between those writing sessions where we could sit
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  on what we've written and think about like, Okay, we like this,
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  we maybe don't like this so much. What can we change here? What
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  do we want more of? What do we want less of? Like?
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  And it gave us like a really nice clarity about the album as a whole.
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  It was a lot of fun. So I think that that will be
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  how we continue to write in the future. But you know, obviously throughout
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  COVID and whatnot, we did have to rely pretty heavily on technology to be
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  able to write together and it's just so much less real, you know,
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  And I just I so much more prefer just sitting down in a room and
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  playing our instruments together, because that's how it started, you know's how this
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  band became this band, And that's I think where we shine is just being
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  together and riffing off one another. And yeah, it's definitely more organic.
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  Is there one particular person that sort of ALEXTI? Is that ship for you?
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  Or do you all just is it a melding pot of everyone's ideas.
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  Yeah, it's it's very much a group effort, you know, like all
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  all four of us are five of us technically, I mean we we really
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  consider Will our producer to be like a fifth kind of member of this band.
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  The five of us all come to the table with ideas. We all
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  feed off of one another. If if you know, there's a riff that
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  I maybe don't love that someone's brought to the table, like I am allowed
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  to be like, okay, well what if we tried this? Or like
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  how about we try that, even if it's you know, technically not my
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  instrument to be writing, Like, We're always going to hear each other out,
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  just as like when I'm saying, you know, certain things in my
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  lyrics. The guys if they're like, oh, I don't know if i'd
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  like this exact part, then you know, they have the right to change
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  that and help me with it and fix it and whatever make it more of
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  like a combined experience. So yeah, I don't think there's one person in
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  particular who really spearheads it more than anyone else, but yeah, it is,
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  you know, I guess it depends on the song, you know.
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  Sometimes like sometimes there have been times in the past, like with Daylily for
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  instance. I mean that was a song that I wrote by myself from top
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  to bottom, just on an acoustic guitar, and then I kind of brought
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  it to the band and was like, hey, I wrote this song,
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  like what do you guys think, kind of expecting it not really to be
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  a thing and then sure enough and then being a huge thing. But that's
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  yeah, that's not always the case. I'd say for ninety percent of the
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  songs we write, it's very much a collaborative effort. And you guys like
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  dance between genres too really really nicely? Is that something that's do you think
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  that's made you more accessible to people and given you say, more opportunities as
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  a band, or has it made it so that people just sort of don't
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  know where to put you sometimes? I think probably both. I think that
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  is very much the goal with wanting to write in you know, various different
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  styles and genres and be able to have that fluidity. Is like we are
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  hoping to open the door to a wider range of listeners, you know.
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  I think that, especially with the new record, like there's going to be
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  songs that people who have never heard of this band before might really really enjoy.
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  But if they had heard one of our songs to this record, they
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  might be like, oh, well, this just isn't for me because it's
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  not what I listened to. You know. Maybe they only like more pop
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  centric stuff, maybe they only like, you know, that sort of different
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  realm of music, and maybe hearing the newer stuff on this record might draw
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  them in. You know. So there's certainly like that is a huge aspect
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  as you know, as part of like what we are are hoping to accomplish.
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  But at the same time, it's like, yeah, there's going to
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  be that kind of concern of like, okay, are we going to fit
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  in anywhere? You know, its I tuually the plan is to be able
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  to kind of float in and out of every kind of pocket of music and
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  be able to make it work with all of them. But I guess like
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  the risk you take is like potentially not being able to fit in in any
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  of them, and so yeah, you know, I think it's a matter
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  of just seeing what happens. But I think the movement is also very very
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  fortunate to have the fan base that we have in that they are very loyal.
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  It's a cult like fan base, you know, Like our core group
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  of fans are always always supporting what we do and always like, yeah,
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  like showing us love and growing with us. And I think that's really really
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  cool. And so at the end of the day, if if we end
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  up failing miserably, at least we know, like we're always going to have
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  our core, our core group of people who always fuck with this band,
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  and we're very very appreciative of that. Yeah, that's awesome. I had
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  a bunch of more questions, but we need to kind of wrap things up.
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  So I'm sorry I talk a lot. I'm sorry I didn't not probably
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  rambling. No, No, that's your job. You're supposed to be talking
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  to me, that's why you're here. I have one like little fun question
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  for you for the ending though. So I love the name of the album,
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  Ruckus, got a very plateful feel about it. So tell me which
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  member of movements is most likely to cause a ruckus? And hell, oh
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  my god, oh fuck, that's that's crazy, man. I don't know.
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  You need to dug someone in here. The answer might be our drummer,
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  Spencer. Uh love him to death. Amazing guy. He's he's just
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  he's the He's a great dude. He loves to get a little wild when
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  he's when he's having a party night, and oftentimes those those party knights go
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  a little crazy. But uh, he's going to keep your eye on the
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  drummer always. Yeah. Sometimes sometimes he just gets a little wild, and
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  we have nights on the bus that are just like crazy and no one knows
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  what the fuck is going on. So yeah, it might be Spence or
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  Sensor might be the most the most likely to cause the rockets. Pat,
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  thank you so much for your time. I'll let you get on with your
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  other interviews and then hopefully wrap your nights up. Is it night where you
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  are? Yeah, it's about five pm right now. Oh yeah cool.
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  Yeah, hopefully crazy evening ahead of you. Alrighty well, good luck with
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  the records coming out August eight awesome, and hopefully we'll see you over here
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  in Australia at some point very soon. Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna try
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  and come back as soon as we can. Awesome, all right, take
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  care of Pat. Thank you so much, thank you, yeah, thank
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  you, appreciate it. Have a good one. Make sure you check out
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  Ruckus when it drops on the eighteenth of August. Thanks again for listening to
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  the Heavy podcast and remember to keep live heavy y sweat on my ShaSS.
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  Just tell you, I don't tell you my shad. I tell that it's
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  saw me in a dream, but I don't tell you a cad