PropertyOfZack sat down with Tony Thaxton from Motion City Soundtrack just a few weeks ago for a brief interview. Tony and I discussed the 4 Albums. 2 Nights. 7 Cities, Motion City’s departure from their major label, the environment that their new album was created in, and more. Read up and enjoy, it’s a good one!

This is the third stop on the discography tour. How were the first two cities?
They were good considering I didn’t know what to expect. We started in LA and it went really well. It was a really fun way to start, so I hope it continues. It’s so spread out. We even had a few days off where everybody went home and then we’ve had random shows and lots of days off. We started it two weeks ago and this is only the first city. I’m looking forward to tonight though. It should be fun and we have lots of friends coming out.

Motion City played the first three albums one time in Chicago before Dinosaur Life was released, but this is the first time you’ve done a tour of your albums. Was it daunting learning everything over again?
The first two records are kind of easy because even though those are the oldest songs, for years those were the only songs we had so we played all of them and played them a lot. Doing the second night, our catalog got bigger so some of the songs got lost in the mix as far as live performances go. Now we have a few shows out of the way, but the LA show [Laughs]. There are a handful of songs that we’ve never ever played before on those albums.

Have fans been going all out for the shows so far?
It’s been great. It’s a weird tour, but that makes it fun. The super fans are really excited about it, but the more casual fans aren’t as into it. The people that are coming out are the hardcore fans and are having a really good time.

Was this just the perfect time to do this tour considering there’s a little bit of a stand-still on releasing the new album while you figure things out?
Yeah, and we haven’t really toured this year. We did Brazil and some college shows. This is really the first US tour we did this year.

In terms of everything that’s going on now – When did it sort of become apparent that you guys were splitting with the label?
I honestly can’t remember. I think it was at the end of last summer. It was nearly a year ago now. I don’t think any of us were too surprised by it or anything. Everyone was cool with it. I think we didn’t necessarily see it coming, but we weren’t surprised by it either.

Many would say it was quite ballsy for the band to record this whole record out of your own pockets without label help. Was there anxiety through that whole process?
Maybe a little bit, but kind of not. We knew that we were just going to go in and make a record and do what we wanted and make it how we wanted to make it without dealing with outside comments.
POZ: Was it freeing to do it that way?
Tony: We were lucky in the past. We never got anyone too heavily involved trying to make us change things. We’d get notes here and there, or you at least had to get demos approved. I know everyone says they’re excited, but I’m really, really excited about this record.

When did the writing process for the album finish up?
Because of not having to get demos approved, there were songs that sort of just happened in the studio, which isn’t really something we had done before. We worked with our producer before on some acoustic EPs, but they were songs that we had already done with new arrangements. We didn’t quite know what we were going to do with those, we’d play with it in the studio. We really liked working like that with him, so there are a handful of songs on the new record like that. We’d make a skeleton of the song and go from there and just try all these different things until something made sense and sounded good. Sometimes I’d have played drums early on, but the song would grow like crazy so I’d redo the drums because the song changed.

Did you guys enjoy that change for a full-length?
It was a new kind of frustrating. We got frustrated with each other many times throughout the process. We didn’t really have any pressure because we were just doing what we wanted, but we were all driving each other crazy at times. We’re all way more stoked on the end result than we have been in a long time.

How many tracks were recorded?
I think we at least started sixteen songs. Obviously we’re not going to release all of them though. There were a couple that never ended up getting done. Some songs got abandoned for the time being. We’re leaning towards having 10-ish songs on the record, but it’s still being discussed.

Do you think the content of the album sort of reflects the rockyness the band was going through at all?
I’m bad with the lyric questions, but I don’t really see it that way. Bottom line, we made the record that we wanted to make and said whatever to everything else.
POZ: How would you compare the musical progression to My Dinosaur Life?
Tony: I feel like there is a progression there. There are still songs that sound like us, but we’ve done some things we’ve never done before too though. There are some songs that I love the direction on and I would love for us to keep going in that direction. I don’t think it’s going to freak people out or anything. There are just some things we haven’t done before, which is what you hope for.

It really seemed like that album did great among fans and even album sales for the time in the music industry we’re in. Was it sort of just a weird cycle of events that happened after the release of that album?
It was weird because that was our one and only major label experience. It wasn’t necessarily bad, it was just different. The record came out and it was our best reviewed record and had the highest chart debut we’ve ever had. Overall it went pretty well, but I guess it wasn’t quite good enough to keep us there. Things are so much different now though.

Are we shooting for an early-2012 release?
I hope so. I was hoping sooner than that even, but the way things are going, we’re still figuring stuff out. All sorts of stuff is being discussed right now. There is talk about doing it ourselves, and we’ve spoken to some labels. There’s more stuff that is getting out to other labels too. We’re playing the field and seeing what feels right to us.

Are you looking forward to the dates with Jack’s Mannequin?
It’ll be fun, but it’s really short too. We’re only on it for like two weeks. We go back a-ways with those guys. It’ll be nice to do another US tour.  A support tour is always weird, but good too. You get your fans and a lot of people who don’t know who you are.
POZ: Could we hear a new song on that tour?
Tony: Maybe. It’s always possible. We ran through a new song in sound check the other day, but it was pretty sloppy. We might have to do some serious work before then.

Will you be touring again after the Jack’s run, or will you be taking off?
That’s up in the air too. There’s been some talk about some possible things. I haven’t heard any updates in a while. November and December are up in the air.