Mind Equals Blown

Interview: Moving Mountains

The guys in Moving Mountains were awesome enough to talk with MEB-staffer Pat Haynes at the Chicago stop during Warped Tour 2011.  The band discussed the live show for Warped, Call of Duty and DVD box sets.  A big thanks goes to the band. Make sure to check them out on tour this fall with Thrice, La Dispute and O’Brother.

MEB: This is Pat Haynes from Mind Equals Blown and I’m here with the guys from Moving Mountains. Do you guys want to introduce yourselves?

Frank: I’m Frank and I play guitar.

Mitch: I’m Mitch and I play bass.

Nick: I’m Nick and I play drums.

Greg: I’m Greg and I play guitar as well.

Alright, well this is you guys’ first time on the tour. How’s it been going so far?

Frank: Tour’s been good. We’ve made some really cool friends.  It’s a lot of work. It’s way different than any other tour we’ve ever done.  Everything about it is very different.  It’s pretty good so far.

Since you guys are newcomers, have there been any bigger bands that have taken you guys under their wings?

Greg: Yeah, that’s what’s cool about this tour is a lot of the bands have taken notice of us, which is cool.  Some of our best friends that we’ve made on this tour are in a band called Hellogoodbye, who have been so nice to us and so supportive.

That’s awesome.  You guys released Waves a few months back and I just want to say it’s awesome.  It’s definitely my album of the year so far.

Greg: Wow, that’s awesome. Thank you.

Yeah, definitely.  How do you guys think the reception has been with the shift in style?

Greg: It’s been good.  It’s what we wanted.  We knew that there was going to be a shift in our listeners but we kinda wanted that.  We sort of wanted to draw a line from the people who wanted to continue supporting us and those who didn’t.  The people who love our old material, they still have our old material to love.

That makes a lot of sense.  Do you think it’s a style that caters more towards the Warped crowd?

Greg: You know, I read that a lot online, but I still don’t think it caters more (laughs).  I mean, you can hear it from us being on the Warped Tour, our band is still trying to reach out to a bigger audience.  We want everyone to hear our music; we’re not discriminative towards anyone.

How have the new songs been translating live?  There are a lot of big arrangements and strings on the album.  How has that been working?

Greg: The stuff from the new record is way more catered to be played live anyways because we wrote it to be played live.  Yeah man, we just kind of fill it out with guitars and all that string stuff kind of fades away.

Frank: We used to do samples. It’s a different experience too.  The live band is completely different from the studio band. I think we wanted to get rid of samples. Tighten it up.

Greg:  Yeah. We want it to be raw.

Ok.  What do you guys have planned after Warped?  Are you going to the studio or doing another tour?

Greg: There’s some stuff that we can’t quite yet discuss but we’ll be back on the road all fall.

(It would later be announced that the band is opening for Thrice in support of their new album)

Ok cool.  Now, you guys recorded a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Should I Fall Behind,” for the street team.  Is there any more kind of goodies stuff that you recorded that you are planning on for the street team?

Greg: Not now while we’re on the road.  We don’t have any goodies yet.  We have those bonus tracks that we did for Waves.

Greg, you do a lot of studio work.  Is this a role you want to increase or something you do when the band is on downtime?

Greg: It’s kind of both.  I mean, it may be a surprise to many, but Moving Mountains is not our financial income (laughs).  We are broke.  So the way I make money when I’m home is I record bands.

You guys mentioned earlier that the shift in style is kind of what you guys wanted to do.  What led you guys to decide to make this shift?

Greg: It was just playing as a live band.  All the other releases, it was kind of as a studio band.  We started playing shows and realized that playing 10-minute songs was not an engaging thing to do.  Our fans, they’d kind of stand there and watch us, but we would have a half-hour support slot and play three songs.  And we wanted more of our songs to get played.

Ok cool.  Is there anything new from this year that you guys have liked a lot?

Greg: The new Bon Iver record was really, really good.  It’s always hard to think this year what has come out.

Right.  Well, the new Radiohead came out.

Greg: You know, I haven’t listened to it yet.

Really?

Greg: Yeah, Mitch has.

Mitch: Yeah, I definitely liked it.

Frank: Bon Iver I think is the best thing that’s come out so far.

Greg: Yeah, that’s fucking awesome.  I’ve listened to the new Cave In a lot.  That shit’s heavy as hell.

You’ve always got to count in Thrice, too.

Greg: Oh man, I’m so excited.  It’s coming out in September right?

Yeah.  Well, is there anyone from the tour that you guys haven’t known before that you like a lot?

Nick: Foxy.

Greg: Foxy Shazam (claps).  That band is awesome.  We saw them yesterday and they were wild.

The live show’s pretty crazy?

Greg: He ate cigarettes.

(Laughs) Ok, so that’s a yes.

Frank: I’ve seen him climb to the entire top of the stage and swing freely.  I thought he was gonna die.

Greg: Yeah, they are awesome.

Wow, I’ll have to check that out. If you guys had to choose any five DVDs, books or CDs to have for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

Frank: You want to do like one each?

Greg: Yeah.

Frank: Ok, one each.  I’ll do uhhh….

Greg: Cocktail?

Frank: (Laughs) Umm, I’d do like a Wes Anderson one I think.  Ummm…

Just the whole box set?

Frank: (Laughs) The Wes Anderson box set plus Cocktail.

Nick: I’d take a P.T. Anderson box set.

Mitch: Umm…Maybe Dumb & Dumber.

Greg: Ace Ventura.

Frank: Yeah, so that’s pretty good.

Alright, good choices. You guys have mentioned on your twitters that you’re pretty big beer fans.

(Frank lifts his plastic cup. Greg and Frank laugh)

Frank: It’s 12 o’clock.

(Laughs)

What’s your beer of choice: Bud or Miller?

Greg: Miller High Life.

Awesome. You’ve also mentioned you’re pretty big Call of Duty players.  Who’s the best in the band?

Nick: Definitely Greg.

Greg: (Laughs) Definitely me, but on this Warped Tour, these guys have beaten me.

Nick: None of us are very big video game players but we have Black Ops on the bus now so we all kind of just enjoy that.

Have you guys seen the preview for the new Modern Warfare?

Greg: I haven’t.  I actually just found out our good friend Rob Dogan is…

Frank: He’s doing merch for it.

Greg: Yeah, he’s doing t-shirts for it.

Wow, that’s really awesome.  What would you pick for listeners who maybe haven’t heard the band as a good song to listen to?

Greg: I would do “Tired Tiger.”

Nick: I would choose “The Cascade.”

Awesome, that’s my favorite one.

Mitch: I would choose “Always Only For Me.”  That one’s my favorite.

Frank: I don’t know.  Off Waves?

Whatever you want, man.

Frank: The “Lights and Shapes” remix (laughs).

I guess for our last question, if you guys could be on a dream tour with any other three bands, what would they be?

Frank: Three bands.

Greg: I would say Bruce, Paul Simon and U2.

That’s pretty phenomenal (laughs).

Frank: U2 in the eighties though.

Greg: Right.  But we’d be headlining.

(Laughs) Of course.  You could pull Bruce on stage for the cover.

Greg: Man, I would love that.

Alright, well do you guys have anything you’d like to add?

MovMou: Uhhhhh…..

Greg: Nah.

Just buy Waves?

Greg: (Laughs) Yeah.

Alright, awesome.  Thanks a lot guys and good luck today.

Frank: Thanks a lot, man.