New York’s incredible pop punk heroes The Movielife made the long journey over to play Slam Dunk festival for the first time in forever. Since the band's split back in 2003, rumours of a reunion had been rife over the years but in 2014 the band confirmed that they would indeed be making a comeback - much to their fans' wildest dreams. Fast forward a couple of years and Vinnie Caruana and the rest of the guys have finally given us our first taste of new music in 14 years.
We managed to grab a moment with Caruana and Brandon Reilly before the crowds at Slam Dunk got to witness first hand the magic that is, The Movielife live. First up we checked in to see how the last couple of days at Slam Dunk North & Midlands had been respectively. “Incredible!” Caruana tells us “A lot of smiling faces in the crowd and people seem to be so happy that we’re here,” Reilly adds “There’s so many bands playing, even when we’re on there are five other bands playing so it’s amazing that people are actually choosing us to watch over some of the other great bands on.”
Punktastic have been attending Slam Dunk for a long time and while we were sure we’d seen Carauana before, we couldn’t remember if we’d seen The Movielife play this festival. “I have played with I Am The Avalanche, my previous band, well my other band because technically this is the previous band,” he tells us. Caruana continues “But yeah this is The Movielife’s debut here at Slam Dunk and it’s made quite an impression on us.”
Since it feels like the guys have been around forever, it’s strange to think that this is the first time they’ve played Slam Dunk. “So the story with The Movielife is that we broke up in 2003,” Reilly tells us. “And we got back together about two years ago and we’ve been playing shows here and there but now the idea is to play more than just here and there, put out a record in September which will be our first since 2003 and play more often, and travel and do what we’re supposed to do.”
It’s definitely great to have The Movielife back but what sparked this sudden turn around after so many years? Caruana tells us “I personally think it was me and Brandon’s friendship. We really hadn’t talked that much, just here and there. And soon as we rekindled our brotherhood the band almost immediately started to be the topic of conversation,” Reilly explains further “It was funny too, like the escalation just went from us saying we really miss doing The Movielife shows so we should talk about doing those again some time, to us saying, okay let’s book it. So it was a pretty quick escalation from nothing to us being back.”
With the guys back playing shows it seems like a very natural process to start writing again, as Reilly tells us: “Once we started playing shows we realised we wanted to create more music.” Caruana delves further into the process: “I do remember saying to Brandon ‘you know I’ll make the phone call now and tell the management and this will go, so are you sure you want me to make that call?’ And he said yes and within two days we had all these shows booked, and here we are now.”
Moving on to the new record we wanted to know what the guys’ inspiration was for their music and Caruana had this to say “as far as the music goes it took a while to get to where it was still The Movielife but way more current. Lyrically that was a whole different mountain to climb for sure, back in 2003 I was writing about my girlfriend when I was like 19 years old. Or about things that were going on in my life when my life was completely different,” he continues “This time the lyrics were coming from a place of where we are today as human beings living on planet earth especially at such a strange time when we just want to scream out to the rest of the world ‘Hey guys it’s not us it’s them’ ya know? This isn’t what we are, more than half of our country have voted to put Trump in charge.”
Sure the political climate has shifted greatly, not only over in the states but also here in the UK and Reilly had this to say on the bond between the two countries: “I feel a stronger camaraderie with you guys than ever. I feel like we are both going through the same thing and you can just see it in each other eyes,” but have these impacted the record itself? “There’s a lot of stuff on this record not overtly political but kinda just speaking from a place where we all feel that we’re at, with that black cloud looming.” And how does he cope with it all? “That’s all I do every day. I just read and read and read and look for little rays of sunshine, we all just need to step and and make our voices heard because we’re all in it together and we all need to be together.”
But is it possible to use political opinions with music, to bring the people together? Caruana certainly thinks so. “Yes, absolutely! Music is something that comes from the heart and for the most part you can’t find heart in politics. Music is where there is compassion, heart, optimism and hope,” and as he continues to explain this may well be part of the reason that brought The Movielife back. “I think part of the urgency of saying let’s make another record comes form us needing to be doing exactly what we want to be doing with our lives. We need to be happy in an unhappy time and we’ve never been an overtly political band but it definitely has some effect on our music,” Reilly explains further “We see it more culturally, almost like cultural commentary within our music and for us that just feels like the right way.”
The great thing about music is that it’s expressive and can be used as a tool to get opinions across to the masses but is also a form of escapism for some and can be used to take yourself away from real life and into a happier place. “It’s there for all of us and you’re not going to be getting a specific message because the listener can interpret it in a number of ways which is amazing. Music is there for all of us and Jesus do we need it right now.”
The first new The Movielife record in over a decade is fast approaching and the anticipation is palpable. “We’re very excited! It feels like so far away but there’s a lot that’s gone in to making it,” Reilly adds “We’re so stoked on life and so stoked on this record and to be doing what we’re doing again. The only bummer is that we’ve gotta wait until September before everyone gets to hear it.” Luckily it seems we won’t have to wait too long until we get to see them again as Caruana fills us in: “we’ll be back in the UK as soon as we can, we’ll definitely be back this year.”
So there you have it. The Movielife have finally made their long awaited comeback with some stellar performances across the Slam Dunk weekend and ‘Cities In Search Of A Heart’, their first album in 14 years, is due out on September 22nd through Rise Records and can be pre-ordered here.