Interview With 'Mountains To Move'
Firstly, introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about the band and how you came to be?
Mountains To Move is a four piece from Antwerp, Belgium, who play some Pop Punky Emo music. I never really know how to describe the music we play, we just create what we like ourselves. We formed around four years ago, just four friends who had the same interests, who liked the same bands and went to the same Punk shows. One drunken night at a bar we just decided to do something ourselves and started MTM. Half of us didn't even know how to play their instrument properly, but we kept pushing through, writing things we liked and trying to find our own sound.
What were you all up too prior to the band, was this always the chosen path or did you have other dreams and aspirations?
In secondary school me (Quinten) and Sander played in our own shitty Punk Rock bands, but it's safe to say that Mountains To Move is our first real attempt at creating music that we love. To be honest, I don't really know what my aspirations were back then. I always enjoyed being on stage that I can even hardly remember what else I'd want to do with my life.
Tell us about your latest release and why our readers should check it out.
In 2015 we released our EP, called 'Cotard'. Back then we still were figuring out our sound a bit. Last year we dropped three singles each with a music video, to which the response has been pretty great. They are a pretty solid representation of how we sound live and focus on the balanced mixture between fragile calmer parts and the heavier choruses. Although I like to believe that with each new song we write we try and experiment more with how want it to sound live.
Who would you say is the bands main song writer or is it a group effort and where do you draw your inspiration lyrically and musically from?
Usually I come up with a general idea or concept of how I want the song to sound and then we just practice as a whole to create something we as a band are proud of. Lyrically I tend to focus on the rather negative things in life. Music and writing kinda has a therapeutical effect on me, the minute I write these lyrics down and write them into an actual song I feel better. This however, contrasts greatly with our overall sound, which is rather happy and poppy sounding, but this contrast I think perfectly describes me (and perhaps everyone else) going through life: happy on the outside, but sad on the inside.
As a band what do you believe is your greatest achievement to date and why?
It's hard as a non-native English speaking band to get your name out there and have the same opportunities as US or UK bands. That's why we don't take anything for granted, so every show or every opportunity we are given we consider to be an achievement. Our first tour ever felt pretty great though, but also playing support slots for bands that you look up to, such as Lower Than Atlantis or The Front Bottoms. Last summer we played a Belgian festival called Rock Herk, at which we played for 500 people. That felt insane.
Have you ever come face to face with someone within the music scene who has left you awestruck and why?
I mean it happens every time to me when I go up to one of the members of a band I like at one of their shows. I'm not that bad at speaking English, but for some bloody reason each time I approach someone I genuinely look up to I immediately forget how to properly speak English and make a fool out of myself.
What do you enjoy most about touring? Meeting new people and seeing places we thought we’d never see. The overall experience of being on the road, so far away from home is mind-blowing and something we’ll be proud of when we’re 40 years old. If we were to head out to one of your live shows what can ourselves and others expect? A lot of people say we sound heavier live than we do on record. Expect a wall of sound and a lot of energy.
If you had one artist/band that you could go on tour with tomorrow who would it be and why? The list is endless, but these bands are such great influences. Bands such as Brand New, Movements, Moose Blood, The XCERTS, Lower Than Atlantis, Counterparts… We like a lot of music and lots of different genres, and if it were up to us we would play every show. You can spend an hour with a musical icon living or dead, who would you pick, why and what would you speak about?
For me personally it would be Tom Delonge, not really to talk about music, but just trying to figure out what goes on in that head of his and if in fact aliens do exist.
What is next for yourselves?
Recording new music this summer and hopefully finding new partners to release new music with and of course playing a lot of shows. Some of us are still studying so that will be a huge parts of our lives these next months.
And finally and most importantly is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?
I’ll answer this with a question: Is Home Alone a Christmas Movie?
Website - vi.be/mountainstomove
