Chris Motionless Explains Why Motionless In White Are Taking Their Time With Their Next Album

Chris Motionless, vocalist of industrialized metalcore outfit Motionless In White, has been doing the rounds in the press lately. Among the topics to frequently come up is where the gold-certified band are at with their follow-up to 2022’s “Scoring The End Of The World“. Speaking recently with Metal Hammer, Motionless explained that the group are focused on taking their time with this effort, stating:

“The record that we’re working on now is taking longer than any other record we’ve made, and it’s partially because, in the past, we went straight from one album cycle directly onto the next. We were machines. But we had a break in the pandemic and it made me realise how important it is to step away. You need time to process feelings, hang with your friends. It’s easy to get tunnel vision when you’re a perfectionist, but every time I’ve stepped away from the album, I come back and I see the bigger picture.”

In a separate interview with Rock Sound (see below,) Motionless opened up a bit further on where the band’s head is at with the creative process. He also revealed that the delay has been in part precipitated by his own need to enjoy some downtime from the band and work on himself. He said of that (transcribed by Blabbermouth.net):

“To me, it’s so wild because that timeframe that you and I talked [last year] and then shortly after ‘Apocalypse Fest‘ [in October 2024], I kind of just had this moment where I was, like, ‘I just need to be honest with everybody and kind of just see what the temperature of the room is within the band, within our team,’ and really just have somebody say, like, ‘Hey, it’s okay, man. You can you can chill for a moment.’ And it was cool to see that everybody was supportive of just, like, ‘Hey, don’t worry about dumb shit that really doesn’t matter in the end. Worry about you and the record and the things that are important.’ And that was awesome to have that support system. I obviously think the fans saw that and they were supportive as well of the situation.”

Since then, I would say things have gotten a lot better. It’s still a slow process. I don’t have any expected release date. It’s truly just we’re going to work on it until we feel like we’re happy with it. And it’s that simple and that plain and black and white. And you’ll get it when you get it. That’s the narrative I’m sticking to, and that’s what’s best for everybody.”

He later went on to add:

“I do feel like I’m seeing an interesting shift now where it felt like back then bands were putting out records every four years. It’s just dependent. I feel like some albums were just back to back to back, and the bands were just on fire. And I think I loved that — not so much because I was impatient and couldn’t wait for new music from these bands I love, but simply just because when this band is awesome and then they give you immediately more amazing material, you’re just so energized by that.

And I liked that, but I also never minded — it never bothered me that I waited three years for another album from a band, as long as it was cool. And now I feel like because of the attention span, because of the oversaturation of content and music, there’s so many bands now that fans can migrate to and sort of move on from you if you’re not satisfying the need for new stuff, bands are kind of forced to put stuff out in a hurry.

But I have noticed that a lot of the bands that have kind of achieved a status that I feel like, I guess, grants them the ability to wait longer and fans aren’t gonna go anywhere, they’re taking it. And then, as a result, the albums are better because they spent the time on it. It’s, like, what do you want? Do you want something that’s half of what it could have been quicker or do you want the full realization of what the band wanted for the record in three years or four years? And then you get that.

And I think every single fan is gonna have a different answer, and there’s no right or wrong. You just can’t answer it. And, again, you have to default back to what is best for the band itself and your mental state while making it.”

“There’s no other way to say that other than there’s so much more to have to consider and craft and build in addition to the music. And those are types of things that I feel like are expectations of the fans of bands like that. And that’s a personal expectation. So all that lines up and you wanna make sure that you’re putting out this complete package that is just bulletproof on the look, the sound, the imagery — every component of what makes that album cycle what it is. So, yeah, we’re still in the process of that, and it will get done. [We’re] just gonna figure it out.”