MOVEMENTS // Head In The Clouds, Feet On The Ground

If you’ve paid even a minute’s worth of attention to the international emo scene of late, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the name Movements pop up somewhere (or, like, everywhere).

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The Californian sadboi scorchers burst onto the scene in 2015 with… Actually, nothing. It was after only one live performance that Fearless Records signed the quartet, buzz abound on demos and gig footage until they released the six-track Outgrown Things EP in March 2016. Co-written with scene mainstay Will Yip, the record flipped the band from small-time up-and-comers into a powerhouse of unfuckwithable emo fury.

Things only got more hectic when their debut full-length—the searingly melodic and savagely emotional Feel Something—dropped last October, and before long, they found a home kicking it with bands like Knuckle Puck, Tiny Moving Parts and Pierce The Veil. Critics were floored by the album’s phenomenal balance of musical dynamism and emotional depth, and fans have been ravenous over their love for the inimitable riffage. In our 8/10 review, Hysteria called it “a culmination of moody, gut-wrenching guitar tones that trudge beneath yearning vocal melodies, providing perfectly miserable ground for genre faithfuls to revel in.”

But sudden breakthrough be damned, Movements have, time and time again, proved time their weight in the industry as a band making waves strictly on their own merits. They wear their hearts on their sleeves, and it isn’t just talk when frontman Patrick Miranda says the fans come first—take for example the origins of their upcoming Australian tour.

The band were intially due to make their way Down Under in support of Moose Blood‘s 2018 theatre tour. But when fans voiced their concerns following recent controversies surrounding the UK headliners (ICYMI, Moose Blood switched drummers last year after allegations of sexual harassment, but ignored those against other members who remain in the band), Movements stepped back and re-planned, eager to ensure their Australian devotees could see the band’s live debut here without reneging on their morals.

So, punters can instead catch Movements on an intimate (and extensive) headline tour throughout the back end of August—they’ll be hitting Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Wollongong, Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane with fellow Fearless pop-punks (and one of our favourite up-and-coming local acts) Eat Your Heart Out in tow. Before they hit the road, we caught up with Miranda to gain some insight on their cancelled, then un-cancelled Australian debut; million-miles-a-minute trajectory to the top of the emo scene; and what’s next instore for their infectious brand of shred.

It’s been a pretty wild few years for Movements—you’ve been a band for three years, and you’re already playing to these huge-ass crowds all around the world… What’s it been like adapting to this life of international chaos?
It’s been really crazy, man. It was definitely a culture shock for us going overseas for the first time, because it was the first time that I’d ever been out of the country—well, with the exception of Canada, but I mean, Canada is basically the same as the US, so… It was the first time I’d been out of North America, so getting able to experience other cultures and different parts of the world, and seeing so many things I’ve already learnt so much about—whether it be in history class or just through the internet—being able to see it all with my own eyes was really, really incredible.

And honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better tour. The shows were all amazing, and the kids that came out to the shows were so cool and so supportive, and they were just so stoked that Movements was in their country. And that was such an incredible feeling for me because none of us thought we would ever be able to do this. None of us ever figured that Movements would go as far as we have, and especially not as quickly as we’ve been able to do so. It was really, really incredible, but it definitely… It was a little overwhelming at times, y’know, being out and realising, like, “Holy shit, I am so far away from home right now, and I’m out here because I’m playing music for people that enjoy what we write.” That’s so crazy.

A lot of times, I’ve had to sit back and really just take it all in, and just think about where I am. But dude, we’ve had so much fun and we’re just so stoked that we’ve been given so many incredible opportunities. We can’t wait to come to Australia, too!

Do you feel like you’ve sort of been thrown into the deep end with it all, or has it been a pretty natural thing to find your footing in?
I’d say it’s been a little bit of both, really. I don’t think there’s anything that could prepare you for touring full-time and being a musician as a career. It’s so different from anything that any of us had ever done, y’know? And although it’s the most fun job I’ve ever had, a lot of time it’s also the most stressful job that I’ve ever had, and the most tiring job that I’ve ever had. So to a certain degree, yeah, we’ve definitely been thrown into the deep end and told to swim. But on the other hand, we do have a lot of experience touring domestically, and for the most part, touring is the same wherever you go.

It’s basically the same structure: you get to the venue, you unload the van, you soundcheck, you play the show, you get drunk. And that kind of thing is easy. It’s not the shows that are stressful, it’s moreso just everything that leads up to it. It’s kind of interesting, because I look at the music industry—or at least being a musician in a touring band—as, like… Playing music is only ten percent of what you do. The rest of it is travelling or doing press or writing and recording, and y’know, a lot of it is just waiting for something to happen. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and it can get a little stressful sometimes. But like I said, we’re just so thankful that we’ve had the opportunities to do what we’ve been able to do so far, so honestly, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

We have a commitment to our fans that we’ll hear their concerns, and we obviously want them to feel safe and to know that we support them…

– Patrick Miranda

When you’re not tearing shit up behind the mic, what are you most excited to do in Australia?
Dude, I am just so excited to see Australia! It’s one of the places I’ve always wanted to travel to. I am a little bummed because I wanted to come when it would be summer for you guys, just because I know that swimming and doing all the outdoor recreational stuff, like at the beach and whatnot, is just so… It all looks so beautiful in Australia! We have friends in some bands that toured Australia when it was winter for us and summer for you guys, and seeing all the pictures of all the things that they got to do and the places they got to go, I was like, “Damn, that looks amazing.”

Because I just love warm weather, I love going to the beach and I love going outdoors, so I am a little bummed I won’t get to do a whole lot of that on this tour—but regardless, I’m excited to see all the different cities and see what it is that Australia really has to offer. I’m a big foodie, so I like trying all the different food from all the countries we get to go to. I’ve always been curious about what Vegemite tastes, like so I’m going to try that. I’m just excited to be a tourist, really.

Of course, it has been a bit of a bumpy road to this tour being a thing. I have to be honest, the cynic in me is actually a little surprised you dropped out of that Moose Blood tour, because it wouldn’t be easy when you’ve got an opportunity to play this big, international theatre tour, to go, “Y’know what? We’re going to take the higher road and take a stance for what’s right.” Was that a difficult decision for you all to come to?
Yeah. I’m honestly not supposed to say much about it, just out of respect for Moose Blood’s management, and not really wanting to shed too much light on that situation. But what I can say is that it was obviously a very difficult decision for us—it’s not something that we would have wanted to do, y’know? It would’ve been a great opportunity for us to go overseas with a band that was really big and use that to help us build our musical career internationally.

But we have a commitment to our fans that we’ll hear their concerns, and we obviously want them to feel safe and to know that we support them, and we support victims of… Y’know, whatever, in all of that. And it’s only fair that if we’re going to preach that sort of thing, that we practice it as well. So yeah, it sucks. It wasn’t the most fun thing we’ve all had to deal with, but we’re going to get through it, and we’re just happy we still get to come to Australia.

I’m really glad that you guys took a stand and really made the effort to show that the voices of your fans are heard and valued. I think that’s something a lot of bands could learn from. Like yeah, that tour was probably a super huge opportunity for you guys, but it’s important to show that you’re not just in it for the money or the exposure.
Yeah, totally. It’s never been about the money, and it’s honestly never even been about the fame, either, for lack of a better word. We don’t care about any of that stuff—it’s just about playing the music that we like to play and spreading a positive message through our music to the people that know what it’s like to deal with the things that we talk about. So taking into consideration all our fans’ perspective on the situation and everybody’s concerns, it was really, really important to us.

Was there any worry that making a move like that could hurt your standing in the industry?
I mean, yeah. There’s always a concern regarding the industry side of things when you have to cancel a tour for any sort of reason, y’know? There are a lot of people behind the scenes who put these tours together and who work with getting bands to come out to Australia, and obviously, it was never our intention to have any sort of bad blood with anybody.

I always like shows that are a lot smaller and shows that don’t have barricades—the ones where security is a little more lax about going crazy and getting rowdy, and things like crowdsurfing and stage-diving.

– Patrick Miranda

We definitely wanted to make sure that we were still in good standing with the promoters and the venues who are all behind putting these tours together. Just because we had to make a personal decision, that doesn’t mean we wanted to hurt our future with touring in Australia—or in other places—or with said management companies or promoters or whatever. There was definitely a little bit of worry there, but I think it’s all good now and we’re definitely making up for it. We’re just trying to move forward with as much positivity as possible.

Did you guys have much to do with these new dates coming together, or did the crew at Destroy All Lines just swoop in with the idea?
It was definitely something that we both talked about mutually, trying to figure out what we could do after the fact. We obviously still wanted to come to Australia, so we were trying to figure out what the best move for that was going to be, and then we were both kind of like, “Well, what if we just did a headliner?” We had to do the same thing with the UK and Europe last year because we were supposed to go over with Knuckle Puck, but unfortunately they had to cancel for some personal reasons. It was all good, but we were like, “Well, we still want to go over,” so that’s why we ended up doing the headline tour we just got back from.

It does seem like the natural move, y’know? Obviously it’s not the most ideal move—I think we all would’ve preferred to go out as a support band just so that with whoever we’re supporting, we can get more of their fans out of it and try to convert them to Movements fans [laughs]. But either way, we’re just happy to be doing this tour and I’m really glad that it was all able to come all together. Not to mention, we get to tour with Eat Your Heart Out now! They’re one of our favourite bands and some of our best friends, so we’re really, really excited about that.

I love that you guys got Eat Your Heart Out onboard for these shows, especially since the whole idea of you guys touring with each other has been a thing on Twitter for at least a year now. How did that all come together?
Not to sound arrogant or cocky in any way, but we’re kind of the reason why Eat Your Heart Out was able to sign to Fearless. We found them through a YouTube channel called Dreambound; they were one of the channels that first put out like some of Movements’ stuff when we were starting out, and Eat Your Heart Out was a Dreambound band as well. I showed them to A&R at Fearless—I was like, “Dude, I love this band, and I think they would be really, really good on our roster.” It took probably, like, a year to a year and a half worth of convincing, but I was like, “Please sign this band! Please sign this band!” And so they ended up getting signed at Fearless, and ever since then, it’s been our goal to tour together. They’re a band that I really believe in, and I think they’re going to go really, really far.

This tour is a good mix of really nice and established venues, and some DIY-ish punk venues. Do you think there’s a dissonance between a Movements gig at a theatre versus one at a dive bar?
Yeah, I think there is. It definitely depends on the venue, but I always like shows that are a lot smaller and shows that don’t have barricades—the ones where security is a little more lax about going crazy and getting rowdy, and things like crowdsurfing and stage-diving. Because that’s something that Movements have always been about, y’know? I think having crazy shows is part of the culture—it’s definitely the culture of shows that I grew up going to! I would go crazy and I would roughhouse with my friends and mosh and stage-dive and everything, and that was just how I had fun.

So I’ve always been a huge supporter of that in our music scene, and I think some bigger venues aren’t necessarily as inclined to be okay with that, so I usually prefer more of the smaller, punk-y sort of shows. Just because you can have a lot more fun that way. But at the same time, I have been to plenty of larger venues that are completely cool with crowds going really hard and getting rowdy. I think it just depends on where we are, but I’m definitely looking forward to more of those intimate settings that are a lot more tight and a lot more packed in, less regulated and more… Punk.

We want to grow with our music and evolve as musicians so that we’re not getting pigeon-holed into one genre or music scene for our whole lives.

– Patrick Miranda

And of course, the record that you guys are pushing with this tour is your fucking phenomenal debut album, Feel Something. How do you feel now that it’s been out in the wild for almost a year?
Dude, it’s been incredible! It’s so cool to see the connection that some of these kids have with these songs—we get kids that come up to us every night after a show and thank us for writing the music that we write. It’s just been so incredible to see how so far we’ve been able to reach just by writing the music that we care about. Obviously we were a little… I don’t want to say skeptical, but I think we were pretty anxious about putting it out because there’s always a little bit of, “Oh, what if people don’t like it? What if this, what if that?” I think there’s a little bit of that with any release, but honestly, all of our preconceived notions were put to rest once we started to see those crowds and see how much love and passion that these kids are putting into the shows.

Have you guys been writing much new music since it came out?
Actually, no! We haven’t really had time to write, honestly. It’s just been “go, go, go” ever since the record came out, and this year actually will be the busiest year we’ve ever had, touring-wise. One it’s all said and done, we would’ve been touring for eight, maybe nine months this year. And so the little downtime that we do have is just mostly just spent with girlfriends and family members, because we don’t get to see them very often. I’m sure we’ll start writing again relatively soon—we have the Warped Tour coming up, and then obviously Australia, and I think once that sort of settles down is when we’re gonna look into getting some studio time in, and really just jam out what the next record is going to be.

Do you have any idea of where you’d like to take Movements in the future?
I think obviously, we just want to continue to grow. The goal for us has always been that, no matter what we do, we never want to grow stagnant, y’know? We want to grow with our music and evolve as musicians so that we’re not getting pigeon-holed into one genre or music scene for our whole lives. Ultimately, our goal is to be career musicians—we want this to be our job forever, or at least for as long as we can handle it. So y’know, we’ll see! It’s kind of up in the air right now. I don’t think we’ll ever write to cater to a certain scene. I think we do want our music to be on the radio, but we’re not going to write ‘radio songs’, if that makes sense—we’re not gonna seek out a certain sound just because we know it’s going to sell. We always gonna do what we want to do and write what we want to write. It’s a little early to say exactly what that is right now, but I think it’s going to be a cool progression moving forward.

Movements are touring Australia this August with Eat Your Heart Out. Catch them at the following dates:

Thursday August 23rd – Amplifier Bar, Perth (18+)
Friday August 24th – Jive Bar, Adelaide (18+)
Saturday August 25th – Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne (18+)
Sunday August 26th – Wrangler Studios, Melbourne (AA)
Tuesday August 28th – Uni Bar, Wollongong (18+)
Wednesday August 29th – Red Rattler, Sydney (AA)
Thursday August 30th – Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle (18+)
Friday August 31st – The Brightside, Brisbane (18+)
Saturday September 1st – 38 Berwick Street, Brisbane (AA)