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By Tiffany Razzano
Having released their full-length, self-titled debut on Drive-Thru Records in September, the group has been enjoying a steady stream of touring throughout the country. They just came off a tour with Bayside and Halifax, a tour with RX Bandits and are back on the road with The Blackout Pact and This Is Hell before hooking up with Boy Sets Fire, then the Warped Tour for a slew of dates, including the August 5 Nassau Coliseum show. These guys certainly are busy.
For six years, Vinnie Caruana was the lead singer for The Movielife. When the band broke up in September 2003, he went through an intensely troubling period, during which he started writing songs by himself for the first time. While writing his own music, he also spent some time in San Francisco with Head Automatica. He decided to record a batch of acoustic demos of his highly personal tunes.
When he returned to New York, he put his band together. He convinced ex-Further Seems Forever guitarist Brandon Swanson to relocate to New York.
"I had just literally moved from the east coast to my parents' house in Minnesota [when Caruana called me,]" Swanson said. "I was ready to go back to school or something. All of my stuff is still in Minnesota. I just grabbed a few guitars and a suitcase. That's all I need."
Caruana also hired bassist Kellen Robson, formerly of the Long Island hardcore band Scraps and Heart Attacks, guitarist Michael Ireland, of the Virginia Beach band Sirens, and drummer Brett Romnes, who quit his death metal band Reservoir to join the fledgling group. All five moved to Brooklyn, most of them not having met each other until the first day of band practice.
"All of us come from metal and hardcore, which is strange now that we're in this band," Swanson said. "You see it happen a lot. You can only play hardcore for so long. I still love it. It's part of me and who I am and getting me where I'm at right now."
Swanson said that the fact that all of them had previously been in bands has been especially helpful in garnering fans. He said a lot of fans of The Movielife check them out because they're interested in seeing what Caruana is doing with his time now. He said that he even gets recognized by fans, which he finds surprising because he only played with Further Seems Forever for two years.
The group practiced in Huntington before going into the studio with producer Barrett Jones, who has worked with Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Jesus Lizard, in Seattle. Jones helped the group to hone their sound, making them turn down their amps so they could really listen to the music and forcing them to question their musical choices.
Since The Movielife was on Drive-Thru Records, Caruana was contractually obligated to them. In fact, the group is still required to put out three more albums on the label. After the album came out in September, Swanson said, the group told their booking agent that "they never wanted to be home" because aside from their parents' homes none of them had their own places. Much to the pleasure of their fans, they've been on the road pretty much non-stop since.
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Perpetual Toxins © 2006-2007 - All Rights Reserved |
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orming out of the ashes of Merrick's pop-punk quintet, The Movielife, I Am the Avalanche has already established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the indie rock world.
