Motionless In White Interview

Formed in 2005, Motionless in White have made quite a name for themselves so far; with their dark horror themed lyrics and physical appearances they've had 2 successful EP releases and recently released their full length 'Creatures'.
I had a chat with lead vocalist Chris Cerulli, about being signed to one of the biggest labels in metal, upcoming plans for the rest of the year and 2012 and one of the biggest influential artists of the UK.

R13: So, the name Motionless in White comes from Eighteen Vision's song, 'Motionless and White' what made you choose that song?
CC: : It wasn't necessarily the song; the reason it came into consideration is because, there's this festival back home in New England, called Hell Fest, they put out a DVD every year, and in Hell Fest 2000 DVD they play that song and the vocalist from Eighteen Vision, was like this song is called 'Motionless in White' and the way he said it, I was like fuck that would be an awesome band name, so that like kind of how that got brought into it and we started using it.
That band is like a heavily influential band on our band, so that's like how it came about.

R13: You formed in 2005, how has your music and you as a band matured since the release of your first EP 'The Whorror'?
CC: : (Laughs) Well the new record isn't terrible unlike the last two EP's. Overall evolution, every aspect of our band, like image, sound-wise, just everything is now what we were trying to accomplish for a couple years, it's just took us a while to get there.

R13: You were signed to Tragic Hero Records then changed to Fearless Records pretty quickly; why the sudden change?
CC: : What we did, was we signed to Fearless first but because we were only going to only put out an EP rather than a record we wanted to wait to put out an actual record first on Fearless rather than just the EP, so then we signed to Tragic Hero Records to just put the EP out and then we went back to Fearless for the record.
Their definitely one of the few labels that I have never heard any bad things about, so to be on a label that has a good reputation is all that we really wanted, a label that treats its bands well.

R13: What was it like working with Andrew Wade on your full length?
CC: : Pretty cool, it was interesting to work with a producer that has worked with other bands and has a lot of insight into some of the things that we brought him. We had a few disagreements and a few problems in the studio, but for the most part everything worked out really good, he's a good guy to work with.

R13: Your video for Creature is quite dark and ominous what is the story behind it?
CC: : The central theme behind the video is kind of like, there is more inside of a person than what is on the outside, so we took three characters, three people that are portrayed like you see on a daily basis, a business man, a little kid and a priest, these people that are looked at as completely normal human beings, that are completely just like conformed with society, but showed that everyone in the world has a dark side, and we just exploited like what that would be.
We took the priest and had him being whipped by a dominatrix because somewhere in the world that is happening, but no one wants to accept that or no one will ever believe that because it's not something that you see, so we take reality and put it into people's faces. And that's like the idea behind creatures.

R13: What was the idea by getting fans to write the lyrics for your title track off your Debut album 'Creatures'?
CC: : We just wanted to do something that would allow our fans to be part of our band, like not just buy a t-shirt or come to a show, like give them a spot to say something in our band, and not all our fans are fortunate enough to be in a position where I am, so I figured I'd give a track on the record to them for me to be able to sing the words.

R13: Do you feel that as a "Gothic Metalcore" or "Horror Core" band you are seen differently by others in the music industry?
CC: : Ah for sure.
R13: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
CC: : It's a little bit of both, its good because I mean I love looking like this, I love that we're different, and you know that it pisses a lot of people off and scares a lot of people and what not, I love that.
R13: It's good being different, not every band should be the same, as it gets boring doesn't it?
CC: : Yeah, I just did an interview where I compared us to the dented soup can on the shelf; you know how you go into a super market and you'll see a hundred soup cans on a shelf and everyone of them is nicely packaged, but then there's that one that fell on the ground and has a dent in it, that no-one will buy, the inside is perfectly normal just like the rest of them.
R13: But just because the outside looks different no one will buy it.
CC: : Exactly
R13: People shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
CC: : Exactly, that's what we are; we're that dented soup can of the world.
R13: (Laughs) Do you feel you have to keep up with an image in order for the band to succeed?
CC: : No I don't think it's really important; actually, it's so hard to answer that because for us it is, but for other bands it's not, other bands don't have an image but I guess that in itself, is their image, they just don't have one.
Some bands don't have a message so that's their message; for us it's very important because that's what we built our band off of, our sound matches our image, it's like a package. Some bands, you know don't need that, like music is just they want to put out there and that's it. I don't think image should ever come first.

R13: Who is your biggest influence?
CC: : Mine or the bands?
R13: As a band and for yourself?
CC: : This band called Bleeding Through, for sure their definitely one of the biggest influences that has ever struck myself and our band.

R13: For lyrics, where do you take inspiration from?
CC: : Erm, for sure one of the reasons why I'm extremely excited to be here, Morrissey!?.
R13: Morrissey?!?
CC: : He's a huge, huge inspiration for me.
R13: AH, I love him.
CC: : Yeah, Yeah, you can't see it but I have his portrait right there (points to left arm) but it's covered over by black.
But yeah, everything he's done, he just does not give a fuck, he will say what he wants to say and that's it.
R13: That's the way it should be though really isn't it.
CC: : Yeah, so that's definitely the biggest inspiration.

R13: So, your soon to be taking part in the Fearless Friends tour are you excited about this?
CC: : I'm excited for it; it's cool to do a tour that's like completely based around our label, because they've done it before but this is the first time where it's been done like really seriously.

R13: Tonight will be your first time in Europe; in support of Blessthefall, you must be pretty stoked?
CC: : Some of the countries and some of the cities in those countries that we have played, were kind of terrible, like some of the places we played in Germany were really really bad; they hated us. The shows just sucked.
As far as the UK goes, I've been waiting for this, I don't even care if the shows do suck I'm in the presence of some of the best music in the world, you know to come from here, like all my favourite artists and favourite bands are from here.

R13: Who are your favourite artists?
CC: : I mean the Smiths and Morrissey for sure, Bauhaus, Peter Murphy, I saw that he just played here (London Relentless Garage) a couple of days ago.

R13: How do you think it will compare to the US shows you played?
CC: : Here?
R13: Tonight's show?
CC: : I haven't really noticed any like big differences between the shows we play here and there, there have been good shows and bad shows, same as home; just different trying to talk to kids that don't understand you in different languages.

R13: How well do you think your music will be accepted here in the UK?
CC: : I think Europe is a little bit more open minded towards this style and this image, because there is more of that here; not necessarily in our genre, there's more bands that have taken on that role from Europe like, Cradle of Filth and Rammstein, Germany's industrial central. It's just more common here than in the states.

R13: Did you ever feel, when you first started making music you'd make it this far?
CC: : I never felt it, but I've always wanted it, I've never ever felt too far ahead of myself, like I'm going to be here next year, but I've always had this sense that if I want something I have to work till I get it.

R13: Lastly, if you weren't making music; what would you be doing instead?
CC: : I don't even fucking know, probably dead. If I wasn't making music; I'm really, really into psychology which is kind of another reason why I do music, because inside of all the makeup and getting on stage and head banging and screaming and what not, a lot of this is a social experiment to me; I like watching how people react to certain things, I like watching and learning just about everything that is the human mind. I feel like if I wasn't doing this I'd definitely have some interest in a psychological career, I mean I don't think I'd go back to school or anything like that.
R13: Nah, School is boring.
CC: : School sucks; I guess it's kind of too late for me, I'm ruined after this.