Interview w/ We Move Mountains
You may have never heard of Maple Valley, Washington (I had to look it up) but you will soon be hearing a lot from their young and expanding talent. I was first introduced to We Move Mountains when I was doing some research on Rock For Reason, a local youth led group that seeks to raise awareness and support to bring clean water to Africa. While the music of WMM is definitely hard, it is far from defined by the hardcore tag alone, this is an eclectic blend of emotion, creativity and sheer brutality. Thanks to WMM for taking the time to conduct this Myspace interview…
HC What inspired the name of your band? How did your band come together?
WMM Well Bones(drummer) and I(Zesty/screamer) both picked up new instruments after the last band had fallen apart. We were tired of fooling around and not having any fun. In order to have a solid band name that we both enjoyed, time and a lot of poor names came up. We Move Mountains ended up sticking. We found it unique, fitting, and just badass! Then we picked up Keller and Barret from another fallen local band, The Wi-fi Brothers. Eventually, Barret parted ways to Afterwords, and we got Nate. Nate was a no-brainer choice, as he is amazing at every Zelda game. He ended up picking up the bass for us, and surpassed the expectations we had tenfold. Our most recent lineup change was Ethan. We knew him from a local Death Metal band, Aschemia. He had showed interest in joining before, and so when we felt I needed to choose between guitar and vocals, Ethan was another first choice. The current WMM is the best it has ever been. And here we are!
HC How would you describe your musical style?
WMM Oh man, this question is tough for us. We honestly just write until it sounds good. I’m not going to compare us to anything, because I feel have our own sound, but we’ve heard things like ” a cross between Fear Before The March of Flames/Heavy Heavy Low Low”. I’d say our music is catchy and all over the board. You never know what you’re going to get from us!
HC What is unique about your band? What makes your band/sound different from other offerings?
WMM We put our hearts into our music. That puts a band out of the crowd instantly and is the most important thing to us. Our influences have contributed a lot as well. Though there’s the number of bands we all listen to, our core influences are very diverse. Mine being The Mars Volta, Bones’ being Metallica, Keller’s being Blink-182 and so on. At a glance, I’m sure we’re just another band following the “core” fad, but if you really give us a listen, it’s much more than that.
HC You are currently based out of Maple Valley, WA, are you all natives? What do you enjoy most about the local scene?
WMM We are actually! I moved out of state for a while, but ended up coming back after a few years just in time for High School to start up. Maple Valley’s music scene isn’t there. Sure, there’s a few bands, but the supporters are limited to that and a few others. We like to head out to Tacoma to the Viaduct and Club Impact. We feel very at home at both places, and the environments of both are very family oriented, and more importantly, all about the music and helping the local scene!
HC Is there a driving force behind the composition of your band and your method to writing music? Would you describe yourselves as a political, religious or any other central cause/theme?
WMM As I said earlier, it comes from our hearts. I’ll start churning out lyrics like it’s nothing if I’m going through a rough time in my life. As for the instruments, once someone sparks, we all explode and will crank out a great song in a day or two. We like to write the guitar parts first, then add drums and vocals. None of our stuff is political, religious or any of that. Our stuff deals with hardships that everyone goes through, and looking at the flaws of ourselves and how we can better them.
HC Where can those interested best connect with you to find out about news, releases and tours?
WMM I don’t think we’ll ever jump onto the Twitterwagon. Twitter creeps us out. Texting and myspace is enough information as it is. Hourly updates on millions of people? Just creepy. Myspace is the best way to get in touch with us, whether it be on the bands page or one of our personals. We’re very friendly guys and love interacting with the fans we have, and letting them know how much they mean to us.
HC Where are you at currently in terms of releasing anything and/or gearing up for a tour?
WMM At this very moment, we’re recording round two of our full length. We had been planning a tour for this Summer, but it was way tougher than we expected and things fell through. We’re hoping to get out there sometime before the year’s over though. WMM is still young, being between 15-17, and although we’re trying to take big steps, sometimes we take a step back and realize how young we really are.
HC Where are you currently grabbing inspiration and/or frustration from and how has this been affecting your music?
WMM I don’t think we could narrow it down to any one thing. Every passing day affects our music. I wish I could answer this better…
HC What have been some of the most important lessons for you as aspiring-artists? WMM Give respect, get respect. That’s a huge one for us. And get a trailer as soon as you can!
HC Are there any favorite/funny/scary memories from recent tours or shows that you’d like to share? Have you done much touring?
WMM We still haven’t toured yet and haven’t experienced many shenanigans either. Bummer, eh?
HC We’ve recently become aware of the efforts of Rock For Reason and noticed that you’ve been playing at several their concerts, how did you get involved with RFR?
WMM Rock for Reason! Woowoo! Yeah, actually Keller and I are on the RFR Team. The whole thing is lead by our buddy, Cameron. We’ve been helping out since the very first show, and We Move Mountains was lucky enough to play it too! As part of the staff, and one of the local bands, we are lucky enough to get on most of the bills and play those AMAZING shows! I encourage everyone to check out RFR’s myspace, get informed, and help out any way you can!
*All pictures courtesy of We Move Mountains via Myspace profile
Tags: Hardcore, Maple Valley
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Pretty nice post. I just came across your blog and wanted to say
that I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you write again soon!
June 26th, 2009 at 3:04 am
Hey, have you seen this news article?
New details about Michael Jackson’s Death Emerge
I was wondering if you were going to blog about this…
August 8th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Great article about the awesome band, ‘We Move Mountais’!! These guys put on a show that is fun and entertaining. They are talented, engaging and humorous. On August 7th WMM played the ‘Warped Tour’ in Boise. They were selected out of a group of hundreds of bands by recording industry professionals and Ernie Ball Productions. WMM got to share the stage with bands such as Chiodos, Flogging Molly, and other top bands. The important Rock for Reason organization is raising money for clean water (drilling wells) in remote African villages for people have to walk 2-3 miles and carry water back to their huts. At a time when most teens are involved in self-absorbed activities, these guys are giving their time amd effort to raise money for worthy cause. So I guess the WMM guys have a good heart in addition to their musical / entertainment talents! I highly recommend WMM – check them out at Myspace and get to one of their shows – and get to one of the Rock for Reason shows.