Detroit bound with a new album in tow
Motion City Soundtrack has been sharing their upbeat sound with the world for over 12 years, and now they’re doing things a bit differently. Recently, iSPY had the chance to speak with drummer Tony Thaxton about the band’s new album “Go,” an unorthodox recording experience and the band’s upcoming November 14 show at Detroit’s St. Andrews Hall. Here’s what he had to say.
You guys had an interesting time recording your latest album, “Go.” What can you tell me about that process?
We went into the studio not having everything written yet. We spent a lot of time experimenting in the studio – time that we hadn’t really had in the past. We didn’t have a label giving us deadlines, and we just went in and did what we wanted to do and make the record we wanted to make. We had a lot of bare bones ideas for the songs and didn’t really know what we wanted to do with them. We just started trying things.
Would you say that working without a label was more liberating than it was scary?
We’ve never been in a terrible situation with labels, but they’ll give you notes on demos and you don’t always agree with those things. We didn’t have a single person to answer to other than the members of the band. It was really nice to just make what we wanted.
So you were all equally involved in the writing process?
We all got together in Minneapolis early last year and just started writing. We worked on some ideas that were already there and also came up with some new things. We had a handful of songs that were excited about.
Three singles, “Severance,” “Major Leagues” and “ ” were released on an LP after the album came out – what can you tell us about those tracks?
“Severance” was written while working on “Go,” and we just ended up not recording it during that project. It just wasn’t quite there yet, and we were happy when the opportunity for the seven-inch came along.
You guys will be at St. Andrews in Detroit in November. Have you played St. Andrews before?
No, but we’ve been to Detroit many times. It was one of the first cities that we’ve ever felt accepted in, and we started playing a lot of shows at the Magic Stick. Detroit caught on early with us, and I always look forward to getting back there for shows.
