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Estrella: What's your name and what do you do in the band?
Jesse: My name is Jesse and I play a moog.
Estrella: How did the band form?
Jesse: The band formed a few years ago, probably about four or five years ago, with Justin and Josh, the two guitarist had been playing together for a while. Had a few different members playing bass and drummers, that didn't work out for various reasons, just usually on good terms. And then they had asked me, Tony, and Matt to play about a year and a half ago and since then it's actually been a real solid touring, recording band where we all really put in the time and effort to be the cool band and what it is.
Estrella: How did you come up with the name?
Jesse: The name, Motion City Soundtrack, to the best of my knowledge was Brian Cane, which is Josh's brother, I believe he was going to open a shop or a little store and that was going to be the name of the store, and Josh just decided that he was going to steal it for the band name.
Estrella: How do you like tour?
Jesse: Tour is good. It's good, other than, I would say tour's 99% awesome except for the fact that we are away from our families, our girlfriends, and our loved ones, other than that it's awesome. Totally cool.
Estrella: What do you like most about the fans?
Jesse: I like that they seem to really appreciate it or are starting to really appreciate what we're doing, which is really cool to think that, people tell us that they listen to a certain song when they are getting ready for school or when they broke up with their girlfriend or when they are equating certain songs that we have created with their personal experiences and then coming to shows and singing along with them and feeling like that personal relationship that's forming with us as a band. And that's something that I did when I was younger and when I used to go see bands and it's awesome to be on the other side of that fence. The respect that the fans give us is amazing.
Estrella: Who writes most of the songs, lyric wise?
Jesse: Lyric wise, Justin writes the lyrics, but as far as writing the music we all do it together.
Estrella: Do you have any fan stories? Any crazy fans, who stalk you or anything?
Jesse: We haven't had much stalking yet, basically I would say that are fans are pretty fucking awesome. Like A, we have got fans that have took the bus from Chicago to New York to come see us and fans that will go to six shows at a time when we're on tour and fans that send us cookies or bring us cake. They're awesome, they're totally dedicated and totally in it, and come and have fun and hang out and go to Denny's with us. It's really cool. The best part is that we have actually created some really good friends through people that we have met on the road that started out as fans and then ended up being really good friends, that we look forward to seeing in certain cities or going to their house or hanging out with them, which is really awesome.
Estrella: What do you like about being in a band?
Jesse: I don't have to have a job, basically. I grew up around music, my father, my mother, my step father, my uncle, all played music and it's just been a dream of mine since I can remember, I remember being six or seven years old and my father lived in a practice space, I fxcked around on the drums and on his guitar and stuff, and just been around it and loved it. There's nothing I'd rather do.
Estrella: How would you describe your music to someone who's never heard it? And obviously it's different then what you hear out today.
Jesse: I don't know. I think that I've noticed a lot of reviews, that give comparisons, that it's kind of funny because they'll say we're influenced by bands that we aren't really influenced by. And I think that there is definitely, I don't think that we're 100% the most original band ever. And I think we definitely sound like a mixture of other bands, but that comes from the influence that five people have, whether it be the Pixies, Jawbox, Grade, The Get Up Kids, Weezer, Flaming Lips, and Shellac, we all listen to a lot of music and I think that it just comes together, however it's going to come together, some new songs we have been writing don't sound much like are old songs and some of them sound just like it. I tend to ramble.
Estrella: Who are your influences? the Pixies like you said?
Jesse: I definitely think that we could agree on the Pixies for all of us. Josh and Justin grew up in Minneapolis, I grew up in LA, and Tony and Matt grew up in Virginia, in completely different music scenes. We all grew up on different stuff, we still listen to a lot different stuff, and I think that's hopefully, fingers crossed, we can create a diversity for that, rather than all of us listening to the same thing.
Estrella: What are you currently listening too?
Jesse: We have been listening to the new Weakerthans a lot, the new Brand New, Straylight Run. As individuals, I can say that Matt and I have been listening to a lot of Pinback, and Josh, I think really likes the new Nada Surf record, I have been listening to a lot of old records, that I recorded onto my computer for vinyl lately like a lot of the old San Diego, hardcore stuff and Swing Kids, Heroin, Angel Hair, a lot of stuff I used to listen to I've been kind of researching into that. Which is a lot of different stuff
Estrella: Do you have any advice for other bands, or fans?
Jesse: You've got to work really hard. You got to realize that your first three to five to ten to fifteen tours are going to suck. Nobody is going to be there, nobody is going to care, people are going to throw stuff at you, it's going to be the worst experience of your life, but it's going to be the greatest bonding experience that you get with your band members and with the fans that you do meet, if you can stick through it, after that amount of time, you can start playing and writing some kick axs songs because you have created the bond between your band and what's going on, and then things start getting good, then it's fun.
Estrella: And do you have any closing statements?
Jesse: Always wear clean underwear.
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