After relentless touring in support of last summer’s wildly successful Billboard charting album, Disguise (currently amassing over 50 million streams), Pennsylvania band Motionless in White has just announced a return to the road for The Black and Blue Tour along with Knocked Loose, Stick To Your Guns and Ovtlier. The mayhem begins April 28th and will be trekking across North America.
Motionless in White is a band that has always worn a strong horror influence on their sleeves. It’s very much a fiber that has been woven into the band in their videos and embedded in the cinematic melodies and arrangements that bring their latest album Disguise to life. Singer and lyricist Chris Motionless is a massive fan of the genre. Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew Podcast had the chance to hop onto the tour bus backstage at a recent show.
When asked if he’s ever been asked to lend his knack of dark composition to the big screen to score a horror film he says, “No I haven’t, I would love to. I would very much love to. I have written things here and there that feel like…We did an intro track for Reincarnate that did not make the record that I still sit on all the time, I’m just like..I NEED to put this out cause I feel like, it’s like kind of, a mixture of Batman Returns with Nightmare Before Christmas. I love anything Danny Elfman related, so thats usually the go-to approach. I feel like I’ve done a lot more of the, quote unquote “scoring aspect” on the first record. A lot of the stuff I worked on, I felt really proud of. Now we went in a slightly different direction for the majority of our music but, I still have that desire to do more of it within so…if anybody wants to give me a call to score something, you let me know, cause I’d love it. I’d get together with my friend Justin DeBlieck and I think he and I would do a bad ass job at scoring something.”
Chris is enamored with the original Halloween film from ’78 and reflects on experiencing it as a kid, “It shook me to my core because I just think Michael Myers, in general having no actual face to show emotion…I guess in some way, obviously Jason doesn’t have a face either but there’s something about the stoic, emotionless face that is Michael Myers and the slow cumbersome, just constant approaching of you. Now matter how fast you run, he’s right behind you, it’s so scary.”
He also cites Joel Schumacher’s classic 1987 teen vampire flick, The Lost Boys as one of the horror movies that feel like home to him. “I loved the feeling of, being a kid growing up and kind of always being an outcast. I identified with the characters. I wanted to be one of them. I was like, this is what I want for my life, I want to be a Lost Boy! I want to be a vampire and just be everything that they were in the film and not have a life of normality and you know, oddly enough here I am in a band that is essentially the closest thing to being in a group similar to what that felt like!”
In addition to the band’s newly announced tour dates, expect more spooky surprises throughout 2020!
“There’s some interesting conversations happening for what we’re gonna do with our fall. I can say that I think, maybe not at the capacity that they want it to be, in some way…I think the fans are really gonna be excited about our decision that we want to do for the Fall so…we’ll see you on Halloween..that’s all I’m sayin’.”
For the complete conversation with Chris Motionless about everything from the writing process on Disguise, to horror movies (including the ones he CAN’T watch) and even an amazing ghost story, listen to Episode 106 of The Boo Crew available now wherever you get podcasts.
Tickets for The Black and Blue Tour go on sale Friday, February 28th. See the current dates below and check out their horror reference FILLED live music video for their track Undead Ahead 2 after the jump!
Follow Chris Motionless on:
Instagram: @chrismotionless
Twitter: @chrismotionless
Follow Motionless In White on:
Instagram: @miwband
Twitter: @miwband
Follow The Boo Crew on:
Instagram: @talesfromtheboocrew
Twitter: @talesfromtheboo
Tour dates:
Apr. 28 – St. Louis, MO – Pop’s
Apr. 29 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall
Apr. 30 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Ballroom
May 02 – Mexico City, MX – Domination Festival
May 04 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
May 05 – Corpus Christi, TX – Brewsters
May 06 – Baton Rouge, LA – Varsity Theatre
May 08 – Daytona Beach, FL – Welcome To Rockvilile
May 09 – Myrtle Beach, SC – House Of Blues
May 10 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
May 12 – Huntington, NY – Paramount
May 13 – Albany, NY – Upstate Concert Hall
May 15 – Richmond, VA – The National
May 16 – Wilmington, DE – The Queen
May 19 – Lexington, KY – Manchester Music Hall
May 20 – Ft. Wayne, IN – Clyde Theatre
May 22 – Moline, IL – Rust Belt
May 23 – Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theatre
May 24 – Pryor, OK – Rocklahoma