A Q&A With Movment

Intense dark wave, from Mullingar, Ireland…

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Martin: Our new album is called Reinvention. We wrote most of it in 2022/23 and we felt that we needed to reexamine everything about us, after our previous album release. So, Reinvention describes that collection of songs we wrote. To an extent, every album you write should be a reinvention, but this one particularly is.
Kevin: We put a lot of thought into our album titles, so Reinvention, is an album name that stuck with us, and it felt like it described the songwriting process at that time. It also describes how we felt ourselves when writing a new album. We had put a lot of effort and time into our previous album, Transformation, and once we had decided to start a new album, it felt that we had to rethink all our ideas, from songwriting to recording, to every instrument played on the album. It was like starting afresh for us. It might sound similar to what we had written in the past, but the whole process was fresh and exciting to us.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
Kevin:  I think it just takes a long time to work through the process of bringing initial ideas and jams to completing a song, and then recording that song, with all the instruments, so that it gets to a stage where it is ready to mix. This process has got much easier with hardware and software. I would not consider this difficult, it is actually an enjoyable process, but it takes a long time.
Martin: We are very experienced at writing songs and recording them. We have tools available to us that make it easy to write and record songs. As Kevin said, it is the time involved in doing this that makes it difficult. But we are writing new songs again now for our next album. It takes at least a year to get from writing and recording to mixing and mastering. So, although an album can be ready for release, it could take another 6 months to plan that release. Everything takes time!
We have released albums on our own label, Distort The Scene, in the past, but we have signed a record deal with Epictronic for our last two albums. One of the hardest parts of any release is getting people to listen to it, as there is so much music being released, so we understand it takes a huge effort from any individual to listen to new music.

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it?
Martin: We have been producing our own albums since we began recording as Movment.  We feel that we understand what we want from a recording so we feel we should have a big say in our sound and our releases. This may change if we meet someone in the future that can add to our sound and make our songs better.
Kevin: We have improved the way we write songs and record them. Technology and instruments have improved immensely. So, I think production is tied into all this. In order to bring our recordings to the next level, we used Alex as our mix engineer on the last 2 records, and he has been able to get the most out of our recordings.  His experience and technical expertise are vital in creating a sound that is modern and at a high standard. Mixing is a vital component of any recording process. For me it is a way to combine and complement the sounds we produce when writing and recording, and the final mixes bring these to life.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
Martin: We are music fans ourselves, so the feeling and emotions we feel, when listening to music we like, is something we would hope listeners to our music will feel also. Songs affect you in different ways so really it is up to the listener to decide what they get from a particular song. Music and songs can have a huge impact on your life, so we hope listeners get something meaningful from our music.
Kevin: Obviously we would like listeners to like our songs. It can affect their moods, make them think, and help them get meaningful thoughts and ideas from our lyrics. Music can have a deep impact on you. But ultimately, the listener will decide themselves how our music affects them.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Kevin: We start songs usually with a jam, a beat and a bassline and/or a guitar riff. More recently we have been using sounds and keyboards to create an atmosphere and adding a beat to this. We build songs from basic ideas and add and subtract riffs and melodies from that. The atmosphere we create has a big impact on the song, and the lyrics and vocals are added on top of the basic demos.
Martin:  We normally write our songs as a 2 piece, so it could start with a drum beat and bass line, or drum beat and guitar riff. We are beginning to record various rhythms and add instrumentation to that. Once we have a basic demo with multiple parts, and these include drums, bass and guitars, and perhaps some keyboards and synth sounds, we will then add lyrics and vocals. We spend time improving the demos and adding more parts and sounds if necessary.  So, a song is layered, and we try and leave in what works and remove what doesn’t. Ultimately every song is different, so some songs come together quite quickly while others can take months and lots of additions and removals.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
Martin: I listen to lots of different artists from multiple genres and these have been an influence on the direction of our music. Iron Maiden, New Model Army, and Nine Inch Nails have all impacted our songwriting process, but there are many other artists that have been influential on our music process.
Kevin: I am a big fan of Joy Division, The Pixies, Fugazi, and The Wipers and these have had an impact on our songwriting. But there are countless other artists I like. Sometimes it is the attitude of the artist, or it could be their basslines or guitar riffs. Their music feeds into our songwriting in lots of ways. But ultimately, we are trying to create something that is unique to ourselves.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Martin: We would like to tour in Europe, or any country where the opportunity arose, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, or Denmark, or Austria, we like the idea of a European tour.
Kevin: Yes, I would like to play some iconic venues in Europe, the Paradiso in Amsterdam of course, and the Lido in Berlin or the Sala Apolo in Barcelona.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
Martin: ‘I Believe In Noise’ from our latest album Reinvention is an outstanding track and is a good representation of the music we create.  It has all the elements of a Movment song.
Kevin: I am very fond of ‘Propaganda’ from our last album Transformation. It is rock-fused electronica and is one of the best songs we have written.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
Martin: Our main ambition is to record and release more songs, as singles, or albums. We are at a stage where writing new songs is the most important thing we do.
Kevin: As Martin said, recording albums is our main focus. We should be able to release 2 or 3 new albums over the next 3 years, and that is where all our energy is directed at the moment.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Martin:  There are some excellent lyrics on our latest album – “Go by what you feel” from the song ‘I Believe In Noise’.
Kevin: Yeah, words that mean the most to us are in our lyrics – “There must be a better existence than this” from the song ‘Existence’.

For more information about Movment, visit their website: movment.ie