The Movielife

This interview was conducted with Vinnie on November 10th, 2002 at The Scene during their tour with Brand New and The Reunion Show. Their new EP “The Movielife has a Gambling Problem” is in stores now.

LAPunk: Let's start off with your name and role in the band.

The Movielife: I’m Vinnie and I sing for The Movielife

LAPunk: First off, what words would you use to describe your music?

The Movielife: I wouldn’t use the word emo or pop or punk, I don’t know. Real, sincere, aggressive and energetic music.

LAPunk: How did you guys form the band and did you go through any line up changes?

The Movielife: Totally, we’ve been through several guitar players, bass players... never singers, never drummers. We started in 1997. We just all came together goin' to shows in the New York scene, in Long Island and New York, hard core and punk shows and stuff. None of us really grew up together or anything, we just all came together. We knew each other from the scene, so that’s how we came together.

LAPunk: How did the Drive-Thru deal come along?

The Movielife: We were friends with Drive-Thru because our friends in New Found Glory and Midtown would introduce us. We became friends with them and they would come see us play all the time. Pretty much we were signed to a different label at the time and we were happy with that label, but pretty soon we became unhappy. Drive-Thru was always like, 'we really want your band, so just say the word' and ya know... Well finally we said the word and they got us a contract and brought us over to Drive-Thru. Ever since then things have been going really good for us. They treat us like gold so it's nice.

LAPunk: This is your first headlining tour, did you have any fears or anticipations about that?

The Movielife: Ya, I hate headlining. It means you go on last and you go on really late and I don’t like either of those two things. But it really does put a perspective on things. I’m sitting there and its like eleven thirty at night and there’s all these kids still there singing all the words having fun, it's insane. It's just like, ‘whoa, I guess these people did come to see us play' and it's just awesome. It would be a lot harder if we weren’t out here with our friends. Brand New is an incredible band. Between us and Brand New, the combination of the two of our bands has been really incredible. Kids are just so excited about seeing the two of us. I think we share a lot of the same fans, we're both from the same area. We both kinda came up together ya know, so it's pretty cool that it worked out like this, that our first headlining tour is with our friends, Brand New. And The Reunion Show just joined, another Long Island band.

LAPunk: It is nice to have all your friends around.

The Movielife: Ya definately, moral support.

LAPunk: You guys have been really busy touring for the past year. What has been your best show, city or venue? Or favorite?

The Movielife: London, England is the best city in the world for us to play. Best city in the United States…there’s a bunch of them, LA’s been good to us, San Diego’s been good, Anaheim, Chicago, Seattle, New York of course, New Jersey. It's funny because, a month from now my answer will be different. We just get surprised when we go to these cities that we didn’t even know we had fans in. We show up and all these kids are there, and I’m like ‘whoa this is my new favorite city,’ but I guess the goal is to make every city awesome, to let kids know about our band and get them into us.

LAPunk: You toured with the Warped Tour over the summer. What were your favorite bands to watch on the tour?

The Movielife: Alkaline Trio, Glassjaw, NoFX, andThursday.

LAPunk: If you could pick any band to go on tour with who would that be?

The Movielife: I wanna do a Movielife/Glassjaw tour next year. I think we're gonna make that happen.

LAPunk: What difference, if any, is there between the east coast punk scene and the west coast punk scene?

The Movielife: There’s not really that much of a difference. Where we’re from and the area around where we’re from, we started out with the hardcore fan base. I guess that might be the only difference, that we have more of a hardcore fan base on the east coast. But at the same time, the shows are very, very similar. A lot of the scenes just learn from other scenes and a lot of kids just get into the same bands. So its like every city is a pretty similar scene as far as kids supporting touring bands. Its really important for us, that kids are supporting us and supporting our friends, 'cause that’s what makes it easier to leave home for nine, ten months a year.

LAPunk: Did you enjoy playing the L.A. show?

The Movielife: The L.A. show was really fun, the L.A. show was like a small intimate show, also a weird place, like it didn’t seem like lots of punk shows go on there, but it was really, really fun. We were just laughing the whole time and we got to play a bunch of new stuff, it was cool. It was kinda a laid back show, we just sat back and did whatever we wanted to do. It was fun.

LAPunk: When does the new album come out?

The Movielife: The new album’s coming out February 25th.

LAPunk: And what’s it called?

The Movielife: Its called “40 Hour Train Back to Penn.”

LAPunk: What should fans expect from that album?

The Movielife: It's definately more aggressive than the EP. It's kind of a different path than what we did the last time, which I’m really happy about. It's kind of angrier, more mature, also more powerful... it's nothing like anything we’ve ever recorded. It's exciting for us to be going down a slightly different road than we did last time. It's not even a slightly different road..when you turn the new record on, you’ll definately hear a huge difference. As far as music goes, as far as my vocals go, everything!

LAPunk: Will this be released on Drive-Thru as well?

The Movielife: Yes

LAPunk: What is your favorite song to perform live?

The Movielife: We have a new song called “Jamestown,” that’s totally my favorite song to play live right now. And it seems like it’s the new song that we're playing that kids are reacting the best to...every time a kid comes up and tells me if he loves or hates our new stuff, he always...he or she always gets into Jamestown. It's good to know cause we’ll know to play it when we come through again.

LAPunk: Can’t wait to hear it. Where do you get the inspiration for your lyrics?

The Movielife: A lot of times when I hear a song the other guys wrote. We’ll write the music first, then I’ll write the lyrics to the music. Just whatever feeling it gives me, the first thoughts that run through my head, 'cause each song is like a different mood. Whatever mood it gives me and whatever line pops into my head I build around that line and it always turns out to be something different. This record is like... everyone writes about girls cause that’s what guys do and girls write about guys, ya know what I mean? But this record is totally not focused on anything like that, there’s a few songs about like relationships and stuff like that, besides that there’s a lot of different shit. There’s only a certain amount of songs that you can write about fucking girls that you hate singing about in the first place. I don’t like singing about people that I’ve cared about and don’t anymore, I just don’t care to sing about them, so I’m glad that I’ve chosen some other topics.

LAPunk: What has been in your record player lately?

The Movielife: Umm, Worship and Tribute, the new Flaming Lips record, Alkaline Trio's newest record, and Sparta.

LAPunk: A lot of fans accredit you guys for your emotion filled live performances and stage presence. Which bands or performers have inspired you?

The Movielife: When I was young in New York, we’d go watch Sick Of It All like every weekend. That was like when I was 13, 14 years old. That band was pretty much the band, I was like 'this guy owns the crowd, what this guy does, this guy owns the crowd, these guys are insanely good.' Like so good that it sounds like they're standing in a booth playing their instruments, they're fuckin' going nuts. I just like a positive atmosphere when bands are playing and we try to create that positive atmosphere where everyone feels like they belong there and everyone feels like they can be a part of what’s going on. Which is all I try to do. We’re out here touring all the time and we’re not always happy. But what we try to do is make everyone else happy even if we're not, even if we miss home. The most important thing to me is that people are happy, people are satisfied with what we’re doing. Like if this band ended, I would feel worse about the kids that I would be letting down, that want to come see us play and want to be a part of our music way more than anything else. I feel more committed and more dedicated and responsible to the kids who like our music than I do to even the people in my band who I make the music with. The only reason that we're out here is because of the kids who are coming to see us. Its just really important to me that kids leave tonight totally psyched, being like, 'whoa that was really cool, whoa I got to meet him and he’s a real person.' It's cool. As long as that keeps happening we’ll keep coming.

LAPunk: Well, that’s all the questions I have, thanks very much Vinnie.

The Movielife: Definately.

Interview by Katie Plourd