Focus: m o t i o n s

Who are you and where are you from?
We are m o t i o n s from Teesside, in the North East of England.

What is it you do?
We play melodic post-metal which blends crunching heavy riffs with angelic, soaring choruses.

How long have you been doing it?
Individually we’ve all been playing music for over a decade. Paddy, our drummer and producer has had his solo project for many years, and has been in several local bands. Dave and Jay were previously in a signed and touring band called Exit by Name. I (Jonny) was in a band called Massacre on Broadway for six years. Collectively though we’ve only been a band since June, so around five months. 

What inspires you?
We’re inspired by a lot of bands old and new. There’s a clear and obvious love for Deftones in most of our songs. We like Will Haven, Helmet, Devil Sold His Soul, some more old school heavy metal such as early Machine Head and Metallica. Then some metalcore – The Devil Wears Prada, Architects, BMTH, Converge. But more recently we’re fans of Bad Omens, Fit for a King, Loathe, Knocked Loose. Oh and Taylor Swift. Obviously.

We’re aiming to be as experimental as possible. We don’t just want to create a generic rock record, we want to push boundaries and see how creative we can get. We’re fans of a lot of ambient and digital music – DJ Shadow etc. We wrote a track with trance DJ Synergy for our upcoming album,  and we’re big on cinematic soundscapes and atmosphere. We’re really trying to create a vibe for our live show that will make the hairs on peoples’ necks stand on end. 

Personally, when writing lyrics I’m inspired a lot by the work working in safeguarding and addiction support. I developed a lot of empathy for people in less fortunate, often impoverished situations and it was often difficult to process. It can take its toll mentally, seeing that level of suffering on a daily basis. You see people struggling to survive, as well children being privy to aberrant and often desperate behaviours because of the endless poverty stricken culture their families are trapped within. So I guess in a way, through our songs I’m trying to make sense of it all. I put myself in the shoes of going through emotional trauma, or whatever emotion the particular song is about, and let it all come out. It’s a form of catharsis. 

Tell us about your music.
Melodic metal, with an ambient, ethereal, atmospheric edge. We like to use a range of instruments including strings, keys, synths. We’re basically trying to create a layered, textured sound that will thread through our album. We want to take the listener on a journey so that when they listen to it from start to finish or see our live show they feel like they’ve experienced a range of emotions from joy to sadness to anger and back again. We want it to be an emotional experience.

What have you got coming up in the future?
Our single ATAC will be released on Friday 13th January. With DEAD SEEDS (featuring Krsys Fox and Dan from Raging Speedhorn) coming out on Feb 3rd.

We’re playing the Black Bull in Gateshead on 27th January. Then our DEAD SEEDS single launch is on Saturday 11th February at Westgarth Social Club in Middlesbrough (tickets are on sale now on Eventbrite).  We’re being supported by Boadicea and some very cool guests. Our album HOLLOW HEART will be released April 28th. We’ll announce a special gig to celebrate that soon.

Where can people find out more about you?
You can follow us on Linktree, Twitter and Instagram: @motionsmetalband.