Hailing from Southern California, the melodic post-hardcore band, Movements is experimenting in ways they never have before. Their brand new album RUCKUS! dropped today, catapulting them towards new heights. The record explores fresh sounds and themes, showcasing the band’s ability to grow and change with every lyric and sonic choice. A group known for their emotional delivery of gut-wrenching and thought-provoking music, they impressively expand their approach on this album.
Movements dropped several singles leading up to the record, including “Tightrope“, “Lead Pipe“, “Killing Time“, “Fail You“, and “Heaven Sent“. All five singles were beautifully intrinsic in their own right, but the album as a whole holds several B-sides that surface as stand-out tracks. RUCKUS! is an album that deserves to be consumed from start to finish, in sequential order, with no skips. It also will serve to be absolutely fantastic live. The band is set to embark on a headlining tour this September and October to celebrate the release of the new album. They will be joined by Mannequin Pussy, Softcult, and Heart of Gold for support.
idobi had the opportunity to sit down with frontman and vocalist Patrick Miranda and chat about the ins and outs of what makes this record so special. Check out the full interview below.
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You all have come quite a long way since Outgrown Things. Over the last eight years, have you noticed a change in your influences? There is a lot more sonic experimentation on this new album. Did you have different channels of inspiration going into RUCKUS! as opposed to your previous releases?
Definitely. I think in the past, we tried to be very conscious of the space we occupied in the scene, and we didn’t want to shy too far away from that comfort zone. But as we’ve gotten older and we’ve grown, so have our influences and our tastes. When it came to writing RUCKUS! we made a conscious decision not to pander to anyone or make our music specifically to fit what might be expected of us. Instead, we chose to just write whatever felt good.
We chose to have fun with it. Step outside of the box, and really challenge ourselves to do something different this time around. We drew inspiration from artists and styles that were wildly different from anything we’ve tried before. It was really cool to have the freedom to just sit down every day and say to ourselves, “What kind of song should we write today?” and have the answer be different each time. It’s made for a record that is very sonically diverse, but in a way that each song still rings true to what Movements has always been. I think there’s a little something for everybody on this record!
Movements seem to have a beautifully intimate, long-standing relationship with Will Yip as your producer. Can you tell fans about your bond and what draws you to him for each album?
Will is very much an extension of our band at this point. He’s had a heavy hand in everything we’ve written and put out professionally as a band thus far, and we all consider him to be the fifth member of Movements. When the band first started, our only goal was to be able to work with Will at least once in our career. He’s produced timeless records from almost all of our favorite bands – so being able to have such a strong relationship with him over the years was genuinely a dream come true.
Every time we work together, we make something better than the last. His vision and ability to take bands and help them evolve and achieve new heights are unmatched. I think it’s safe to say there’s no world in which Will isn’t involved in everything Movements do for the rest of our time as a band.
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You mentioned you wrote the entirety of this record with Yip in the studio. How was this writing process different than Feel Something or No Good Left To Give?
Writing RUCKUS! was wildly different from writing any of the earlier records. Usually, we’d put together a handful of ideas for songs on our own, bring them to Will, edit and fine-tune them, and then record the. But this time around, we wanted to build everything from the ground up. We chose to write the whole thing in the studio with Will over the course of about a year.
We’d spend 2-3 weeks in the studio at a time just writing, leave, go on tour or spend some time home, sit on the songs we’d written, then go back to the studio and do another couple weeks of writing, leave again, and so on. It was really cool to be able to have a home base to write everything from scratch and be able to really work out every detail of these songs. Studio 4 is such an inspiring place to work, and we feel that our best ideas come when we’re all there together. We’ll likely continue writing this way in the future!
Is there a song you are looking forward to playing live the most from the album?
Every song on RUCKUS! is going to be a blast at shows, but I personally can’t wait to play “Dance With Death” live. The energy, the feeling, the meaning—that song just pumps me up. I hope everyone goes as crazy for it as I do!
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“A.M.P” is my personal favorite from the album. How do you choose which songs will be singles? Do you have a favorite from the songs that were released ahead of RUCKUS!? Which track is your favorite B-side?
“A.M.P.” is a fun one for sure! Definitely one of the weirder tracks sonically, but such a bop! I think when it comes to picking singles, we’re usually all on the same page about the songs we feel are strongest. However, it was a really, really tough choice this time around. Every song on the record felt strong enough to be singles, minus maybe one or two. It’s a big reason why we decided to have a longer rollout with a bunch of singles and music videos! Narrowing it down to just a couple of singles felt really hard to do for this record. My personal favorite single from the record is ‘Killing Time’ and my favorite b-side is ‘Dance With Death’.
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Patrick, you have always had an incredibly impressive voice and have shared that you are classically trained. On this album, you showcase a wide range of vocal deliveries. For example, the difference between “Tightrope” to “I Hope You Choke!” When you perform live, do you look forward to singing the softer or more aggressive parts?
Thank you! I definitely love being able to showcase my abilities more on this record than I have in the past. I’ve become a much more confident singer as I’ve gotten older, and my voice has developed to a point where I can nail different deliveries that I used to struggle with. At the end of the day, I’ll always have the most fun performing when I get to be aggressive and yell, but I really look forward to all of it!
What is your favorite part of being in Movements? Is it the writing, recording, performing? Do you have a favorite memory from creating RUCKUS! as a whole?
I just love being able to write music that means something to me and have other people appreciate it. This is all we’ve ever wanted to do, and none of us ever thought it would come this far. Being able to make a career out of something I thought would just be a passion project has been the most fulfilling and precious thing in my life, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for listening! I hope you like the record!
