It’s been a good ten years since alternative legends Motion City Soundtrack last dropped a full-length record, making The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World feel like both a long-awaited reunion and a bold new chapter. Taking a break in 2016, the group returned for a string of live shows in 2019, not knowing where this might lead. With this new album, they lean into everything fans have come to love, while also stretching into fresh territory that proves they’re far from done evolving. I caught up with guitarist Matthew Taylor to talk about the band’s return, the making of the record, and what it means to step back into the studio after almost a decade away.
You guys took a break in 2016, and came back in 2019 for some shows. At that point, was there a serious conversation about making new music?
No. At that time we just thought we’d come back and play and have fun doing that, and focus on that. I don’t think we had made our minds up that we were never going to record again, but it just wasn’t something that any of us even wanted think about at that moment. We just wanted to get back and appreciate travelling and playing for people. I think we had just done it for 14, 15 years straight and gotten kind of tired of it. We just needed a break- and we had that break, and three years, it turns out, was plenty.
What drew you guys back into the studio finally?
In 2020, we were able to do a two-month tour, and then COVID hit the second we were done with that tour, which was crazy timing. And then in 2021, we tried to do some more but we had to cancel because it was just too bad out there. But we did three, almost four years on and off, just playing the old stuff. At a certain point, Josh started pulling ideas from old folders we had. We just started to work on stuff very casually, not necessarily a hard plan or anything…And then 2023 we were on the tour with the All American Rejects, and we had a recording setup backstage every day, and we were working hard to get songs in shape. And then we ended up going in in November of 2023 with the first four or five songs. And then that kind of started it.
Do you think that the 2016 break was beneficial to the health and dynamic of the band?
I feel like it was crucial. Sometimes it just feels like you’re going to run yourself into the ground. For me personally- I can only speak for myself- but I think it was much needed because I was able to move across the country and to Oregon, which is gorgeous. So I got to get out and just get some fresh air and miss making music. I think it was really good for all of us, it just made us realise this is what we love to do. We love just playing our instruments really loud and just having people enjoy the ride with you. It’s pretty awesome.
The album is produced by Sean O’Keefe, who you guys worked with on some early EPs, what made him the right fit for this new chapter?
Well, it’s crazy because Sean was actually a big driving force in this album. In 2022 or 2023, he got in touch with Josh and was like, ‘Hey, I love your band. I just wanted to say that. It’s been like 20 years since we’ve worked together, I think you guys should make a record again, and I’d love to do it with you’. He was really into the early stuff, and he was really pitching, like ‘let’s go, let’s dig back into that’…So he kind of fired us up. He was what we needed, because it’s easy to just tour on your old songs forever, and sometimes you can feel like your best work is behind you…but that gets a little old, you want to push yourself, you want to create, you want to have the thrill of having new stuff out there…Sean would just hop on the phone with me and Josh and get us real pumped up, so it was awesome.
When you guys were creating this record, how conscious were you of sticking to your roots? Was there any pressure to want to recapture your earlier sound?
We’re not sitting down being like, ‘OK, guys, before we play this first note, remember who we are’. When the five of us play together, we sound like us, so we weren’t really too conscious of it because we definitely have some stuff that were a little left of centre for us on earlier records… but we’ll get something down and then Josh will be like, ‘you know, we’ll think about it.’. Then he’ll listen and be like, ‘I don’t know, that doesn’t really fit our thing’. He’s done that before, and he’s really good at that.
Creating this record, were there any moments in the studio that stood out to you where everything just felt like it was falling into place?
You know, it’s funny because Josh and I, we’re kind of like the project managers, like a co-producer type role. Not exactly that, but we’re the ones that are generally like, ‘oh my gosh, we still have a lot to do.’ The further we go, we’re kind of like, ‘we’re doing great, but holy shit, we have a lot to do.’. So it was up to the last second, like, to the last minute that we had booked, we were working. The title track, “Same Old Wasted Wonderful World”, is the last song on the album, and the last sound that you hear is the very last stuff that we recorded. We finished the chapter of making that record with the last thing you hear on the album, and that was not intentional. Another moment was “You Know Who The Fuck We Are”, the bridge of that song was a beast for us, we actually recorded that pretty close to last, that was our last session. Checking that off felt really good. A sidebar with that song- if you listen to Justin singing the verses, he was singing it and doing take after take, with Josh and I in the control room… We were like, ‘dude, you’re singing about your past and the best day you ever had, you’re recalling all these wonderful memories- just think about that. Smile and sing!’, and that’s what you hear. Next time you listen, think about Justin recalling these memories and smiling while he’s singing.
Is there a particular experience or feeling you want listeners to have when they listen to this album for the first time?
I just think back to myself when I was listening to bands that I was really excited about putting out new records, like Clarity from Jimmy Eat World. Like when I heard that, I mean, it’s, it’s a hard feeling to describe. There was anticipation, but it was immediately rewarding. I wasn’t worried at all, it just felt good and it felt right, like it was leading me somewhere. I would love for people to just feel that it’s leading you somewhere, it’s a journey. I do feel like this record kind of has a kind of a journey to it, it feels like you’re going on a little trip- that’s what I want people to feel. I hope lyrically they can find some stuff that resonates or challenges them or It’s just fun to sing along to. This world is crazy right now. And it’d be really cool to just have people get lost in it and enjoy it.
The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is out NOW. Stream wherever you listen and keep up to date with Motion City Soundtrack HERE.
Header image credit: Ben Pier
