Motionless In White sind eine sehr gefragte Metalcoreband aus den USA. Sie stammen aus Scranton, Pennsylvania, und haben schon mit Größen wie Slipknot, Beartooth, Marilyn Manson und mehr getourt. Nach sechs Jahren waren sie erstmals wieder am 23. Juni zu Gast auf dem deutschen Festival "Full Force". BLICK-Reporterin Anika hatte die Möglichkeit Sänger Chris Motionless zum Interview vor Ort zu treffen. Als heimlicher Fan der Band hat sie sich nicht gescheut Chris bei der ein oder anderen Frage auf den Zahn zu fühlen. Hier erfahrt ihr, wann neue Musik der Band kommt, welchem Popstar Chris musikalisch heimlich verfallen ist, welchen Beruf er im Mittelalter gehabt hätte und an welchen Leckereien er beim Hotel Buffet niemals vorbeigehen kann. 

BLICK.de: How does it feel to be back in Germany and to play festivals? Are the crowds similar to american festivals?

  • Chris: It's our first time here since 2017. So it's been a long time. That was the last time we played here and I think the festivals seem like they are the same except for like... there is a lot more people coming to see us, a lot more crowd interaction, the sing-alongs are crazier. We put out two albums since we've been here before. You can definetly tell the difference between the energy, the excitement and overall the whole tour has been one of the best european tours we've done in our whole career.  

BLICK.de: So more people know you now and everything gets bigger and bigger. We saw your tour schedule and we thought you are on tour the whole year. Like, when are you coming home?

  • Chris (laughs): Yeah. I think we have only a few days off from now until halloween. So this is the first of three tours.

Neues Album soll 2024 kommen

BLICK.de: A year ago your sixth record was released "Scoring The End Of The World". Are you working on new music right now, if so can you tell us something about it?

  • Chris: We‘ve started to kinda like introduce working on stuff, but haven't really like sat down to do it. There has been a few days here and there some ideas were recorded or pieces were kinda put together. It's really hard to do that stuff, either on tour or between tours. So I think as soon as this stretch of touring is over, it's gonna be right into writing. You know we wann put a record out next year, so we don't have a ton of time. I'd rather use the time until touring is over to continue to build ideas and then bring it all to life at the end of the year.

BLICK.de: We look forward to it. Something we often wonder about is: How do you create melodies these days, because it's really hard, ‘cause somehow it seems that everything exists already.

  • Chris: Each song is different and each band and writer is different. A lot of artists start with like a melody or lyric which I've never done. It's weird and bizarre to me. I want the music to exist first, so I want to know what the music is making me feel first. I or we write music… then I let each songs energy kinda tell me... this song feels like it should be about this. Or the melody should be darker, because the energy is darker. That's how we work.

BLICK.de: Does it happen that you have an idea in places like the coffee shop or somewhere else?

  • Chris: Yes, that does happen. You know that's funny, because actually that happened to me yesterday. I was just working on some stuff on my computer and I just started singing something in my head and I just recorded it into my phone, so I can listen to it later. And then maybe put some music to it. But that's kind of rare. I don't feel like I just like randomly have a melody come pop in my head. It does happen, funny that you ask, because it happened yesterday.

BLICK.de: You made a track with the DJ Illenium called "Nothing Ever After". How did the work come about?

  • Chris: Illenium, Nick, is friends with one of our producers. And it was kinda like a mutal like "Hey does Chris have an interest in working on a track" thing. So we all got together in california and just sat down for a day, tried out some ideas and it was really cool, ‘cause it happend so quickly. It felt like four friends in a room that all having a unique approach to music. It just matched so well. I think the song was like written in 5 hours, which is also rare for me, because I take a lot of time and I constantly revise and try to make stuff better. In this case it was just like everything seemed to be perfect as it was happing the first time.

BLICK.de: Are you a perfectionist?

  • Chris: Yeah. I'm trying to get better with it. I think on the last couple records it's just a matter of like I try to look of what has happen in the past. If I feel like we've done something in a song where fans reacted well to it and I know when I want to accomplish that I'll spend more time on it. But if it's a part of a song that I feel like is it a particulary special moment in the song, then I can stop spending as much time and effort towards that and put it towards things that I think are more important. But it is tough to not wanna constantly be perfect. You'll never gonna accomplish that and I realised that. It's tough.

BLICK.de: Is there an artist you listen to right now in your free time?

  • Chris: I do. I'll go in phases where like only listen to heavy stuff or only chill relaxing stuff. But right now, there is no specific band or artist that I listen to more than anyone else.

BLICK.de: Do you know some of the artists that are playing here today?

  • Chris: Yeah! We are all very excited to watch Electric Callboy today. On this tour, before we go on stage there's a playlist of songs that plays and I think one of their songs is on there and the crowd goes crazy every night. So I'm so excited to see them.

BLICK.de: Will you ever play "Holding On To Smoke" live?

  • Chris: (laughs) We have. You know what's really interesting: The first time we ever played it was in Germany.
  • BLICK.de: And we were not there.
  • Chris: Whenever our last european headliner was, we played and it was the biggest show in Germany that we had ever done headlining, so we were like, let's play our new song just to make it feel special. We played it a few times. It's just a little hard, because it's a longer song and it's kinda like a low energy song, so we like to put more the high energy songs in the setlist…
  • BLICK.de: You mean like masterpiece… (laughs) (irony off)
  • Chris: That song and "Another Life" are like spread out and we usually put them in between heavier songs. It's tough to bounce back from the sad stuff.

 

BLICK.de: How do you deal with fame in general and how does it effect your writing? We can not imagine how it feels to be famous, but when all these people waiting for you at the tour bus screaming, it must have an effect on you, haven't it?

  • Chris: I don't feel we really think about it. For me we're not famous. People like f*cking Taylor Swift are famous. That's what fame is to me. People know who we are and they do wait outside the bus and they want photos and they wanna meet the band and that's cool. But it's never like this sense of like millions of people around the world.
  • BLICK.de: We will see today… we will see.
  • Chris: We're a band and we like doing what we do and as long as the fans are respectful. That's all we ask and if that's the case then we don't mind it at all. We'll take pictures, we'll meet people and give some time and it's fine.

BLICK.de: You told you are a Taylor Swift Fan. Will you go to Eras Tour?

  • Chris: I have gone.
  • BLICK.de: OMG! You have gone?
  • Chris: Yes. It was great. I know she just announced the european tour dates. You should get tickets.
  • BLICK.de: We'll try our best to get tickets. But now we have some short questions that aren't related to you music. It's more random stuff. Are you ready?
  • Chris: Sure.

BLICK.de: If you lived 500 years ago your job would have been...

  • Chris: I think it would have been still a musician.
  • BLICK.de: You could've been anything… a baker… a joker..
  • Chris: Right. A court jester… No I think I‘d still like to play music.

BLICK.de: On the breakfast buffet in the hotel you cannot miss...

  • Chris: Hash browns. I'm a succer for fried potatos at any form.
  • BLICK.de: So you're not a sweet guy?
  • Chris: I am but if it's on the hotel buffet I'll go with hash browns.

BLICK.de: Okay next question. The song you sing when no one's around….

  • Chris (breathes deeply):  I don't think I have one. So there is no answer to this question.

"Ich wäre lieber ein Bösewicht, anstatt ein Held"

BLICK.de: That's okay. If you were a superhero out of Marvel or DC you would be...

  • Chris:  I don't wanna be a superhero. I  wanna be a villain, I wanna be the joker.

BLICK.de: A song that needs to be on the MIW live setlist that wasn't before…

  • Chris: We have not played yet… At this point I think we may have played every song we have except for "Wasp". I would love to play that song. It is a seven and a half minute song and it's a slow song. That would kill the vibe. It would have to be a special event or type of show to play it.

BLICK.de: Your favourite Taylor Swift record is…

  • Chris: "Folklore" all the way!
  • BLICK.de: Did you join the fan community at that point?
  • Chris: No. I've always liked her stuff. We actually… I don't know if fans have ever dugged this up or not, but a friend of ours, it has to be 2008 at this point had a band and they asked me to sing on a cover they did of "Love Story". There's a version of that band, the band is called "Sky tells all", shout out to Josh Currel, where I sing on it. (laughs) They covered it and I was a fan back then and I‘ve always listen to her [Taylor's] records when they come out. But when "Folklore" came out, that album just really hit harder then all the rest. Something about the lyrics were really relevant to some stuff going on in my life and that catapulted me from being a big fan to a super mega fan.
  • BLICK.de: We didn't expect you to be such a huge fan. Great. 

Wir haben die Nummer natürlich auf Youtube für euch ausfindig gemacht: 

 

BLICK.de: If you were an animal you would be...

  • Chris: I always answered I would be an giraffe, because of the tall correlation. 

BLICK.de: And what would be your superhero power?

  • Chris thinks about it.
  • BLICK.de: I would like to talk to animals.
  • Chris: Yeah, that would be awesome. I'll agree with that cause that is a good answer.
  • BLICK.de: Do you have a pet?
  • Chris: I don't, no. It's hard having them, when you're on tour.
  • BLICK.de: Yeah, they need time and space…

So thank you for your time, Chris. 

erschienen am 27.06.2023