Motionless in White Interview
by Max Giffin
On November 19th Motionless In White, a dark screamo band with a repertoire for black hair and body paint, played at the Marquis on the Fearless Friends Tour. The band is well known for being highly controversial, particularly as far as religion is concerned. Their recently released music video for the song “Immaculate Misconception” touches on this when the lead singer – best known as Chris Motionless – is shown being crucified. We got a chance to talk to Chris before doors opened and ask him a few questions. He divulged information about his band, the music industry, and a book that he will someday author.
CMB: For those who have never heard of Motionless In White, please introduce yourself and explain your band’s sound.
Chris Motionless: I am Chris from Motionless In White. I use adjectives to describe our sound and I usually say scary, heavy, and pissed off.
CMB: Is there a story behind your band’s name?
CM: There’s a band called Eighteen Visions that broke up a couple years ago and they were a huge influence on our band when we started. That’s one of their song titles, “Motionless in White.” So when looking for band names we wanted to do something that was a song title from another band that was a big influence to us and that was what kind of fit us and what we wanted to do.
CMB: Do you have any band traditions?
CM: I don’t know. Not necessarily band traditions, more band routines like things we do every day. We found out what works for us to tour, stay alive, and survive on tour. So we don’t really do anything that’s like pre-show traditional, ‘Go Motionless In White!’ or anything like that; just normal stuff.
CMB: If you could have a super power, what would it be?
CM: I would like to be invisible at the snap of my hand so just no one could see me.
CMB: What would you do if you were invisible?
CM: I would beat the s#@t out of a lot of people I hate. I would just hunt them down and murder them. They would never know, ‘cause I’m invisible!
CMB: How do you intend to make future music stand out from what you’ve done before?
CM: Some people say that we sound different as a band from everyone else; some people say that we suck and we’re a generic band like everyone else. So, my goal is to just do what we’ve already been doing since it’s who we are, but for the next record we want to take another approach of mixing more things that we haven’t done into our band and just try to expand musically.
CMB: If you were to live in one movie, which movie would it be and which character would you be?
CM: That is tough. I have to pick two: ‘Edward Scissorhands‘ for sure or probably David from ‘The Lost Boys.’
CMB: Which of your songs have the most meaning to you?
CM: We actually, ironically, have a song called “Scissorhands.” It’s one of my favorite movies. It just relates to lots of my life in some weird aspects. That means a lot to me because it’s just about the movie, but it’s written through my own eyes rather than Edward’s. Or a song called “Puppets,” which is the same kind of idea. It’s very relationship based or heartbreak based like that movie is. Both of them kind of coincide with each other, so, either one of those two.
CMB: What’s one little known fact about your band?
CM: A lot of people think that our ex-guitar player – his name is TJ, he got fired a couple months back – a lot of people think that he sings on our records. They think that he’s the singer and I just scream when really he’s never sang (sic) anything. I sing and scream everything. Like everyone in the world that knows our band thinks that he sings. It’s really weird because if they’ve ever seen our band, they see that I sing and scream everything yet people are like, ‘Oh, TJ is gone! Who’s gonna be the singer?’ I’m like, ‘Are you f@#%ing serious? If you’re a fan of our band then you should clearly know that he doesn’t sing.’ So it’s definitely just a little-known fact that I sing and scream everything.
CMB: What’s your favorite memory from this tour so far?
CM: Last night in Salt Lake City was ridiculous. Like one of the best shows we’ve ever played. There’s a part in one of our songs where we stop the music and everyone’s supposed to scream a line and it was so loud that I couldn’t even hear myself. Like, I couldn’t even hear myself screaming because the crowd was so loud. It was awesome.
CMB: What’s one thing people wouldn’t guess about you at first sight?
CM: Probably just the range of music that I listen to. It’s probably because I look like this or because I’m in a band that sounds like other bands that’s the only kind of music I listen to. I listen to everything. I post stuff about it on Twitter or FaceBook like, ‘Oh, that new Killers‘ record was awesome.’ Then people are like, “You like The Killers? What?!’ Yeah, just because I look like this doesn’t mean I only listen to Asking Alexandria or whatever these kids think that I listen to. I like everything.
CMB: How is free time on the tour bus spent?
CM: Most of our days off are spent driving. Free time like before shows takes a while for us to get ready because we do all the paint and the make-up and stuff. So it’s mostly like getting ready and eating. We watch this show called ‘The Office’ on TV, just normal stuff. We don’t party or anything. We’re boring; we sit there and watch TV.
CMB: If someone was to write a book about you, what would it be titled?
CM: ‘The Truth’ and I would write it because I want to write a book so bad about the truth and things that people have no idea about that I’ve seen; specifically about the music business, bands, and everything involved in the music business. I would like to just write an autobiography about the things that I’ve been through and call it ‘The Truth’ to show everyone things that they have no idea about.
CMB: Do you want to give us a little excerpt of what will be in it?
CM: I see a lot of people idolize these band members and stuff. We get a lot of s%*t for not being a Christian band. We’re not a Satanist band; we just aren’t a Christian band. That’s a huge thing in music now; everyone’s a f#@ing Christian band. It’s all, ‘God, God, God, God, God’ and it’s bull s%!t because I’ve seen these bands that swear to God they do this for God and they’re drug addicts. All they do every night is just bang a ton of girls and get f*@$(#d up on drugs. They don’t give a s*&t about being Christian. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. I know it’s real, but all these kids just see what is written on the internet and they see what they say on stage. They’re cheering hooray for God and such, and they have no idea that behind all those closed doors that same guy is snorting a line of coke off a hooker’s tits and drinking himself into oblivion. It bugs me. It’s even more f*&$^d up because people think that’s what we do and we don’t party at all. We don’t drink; we don’t do drugs, or anything. So I want to expose the truth.
CMB: Which line from one of your songs has the most meaning to you?
CM: I guess it kind of goes in line with what I just talked about. I have a line from one of our songs that says, ‘I am the deepest shade of jaded.’ I’m an extremely jaded person because of the things I’ve been through and seen in life. On all aspects: family, relationships, and the music industry. I’m just bitter towards it all. So that line means a lot to me because music is about self-expression and saying who you are and getting a message across, and that’s the biggest self-expression message I could send; is that I love what I do, but I’m bitter about the things that I wish I could change.
Category: Planet Buzz, Exclusives
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