Interview: Motorists
A Conversation About The Trio's New Album 'Touched by the Stuff'
Motorists sophomore album Touched by the Stuff arrives tomorrow and it’s tailor-made for fans of edgy guitar pop.
There’s a specific energy to the intro for single “Call Control”—a naked, driving drum beat followed by punchy, pulsing bass and shimmering guitars—that exposes the framework for Motorists blend of post-punk grit and classic British pop sensibilities, both of which are on full display throughout this impressive new collection.
Tapping a range of influences from Sloan and Teenage Fanclub to Wipers, Ride and beyond, each new track delivers a different perspective on the indie rock continuum starting with the bouncy alt pop of album opener “Decider” and all the way through to moody closer “Life Against the Shade.”
“We had about half of the record worked out in 2022 when we road tested the material on a couple US/Canada runs, but some of the strongest tracks, in my opinion, were written in the weeks leading up to our recording sessions in early 2023: ‘Call Control,’ ‘Tall Tower,’ ‘Sweet William’ and ‘Embers,’” Craig Fahner told me for the band interview below.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Touched by the Stuff is that it feels more like a cohesive album than a series of singles and B-sides—a rare beast these days.
“I think there’s a tendency to front-load albums these days due to streaming, but we really wanted to give some space to some of the heavy hitters on the record like ‘The Folded Plan’ and ‘Light Against the Shade,’” Fahner said.
“Each song has a pretty distinct energy from one another and hopefully the track listing can support that. The reality though, is we are all huge nerds about that kind of thing and absolutely over-invested. We could argue about what the correct song order is for the rest of our lives probably,” new drummer Nick McKinlay added.
I caught up with the band by email as they prepared for the release of Touched by the Stuff and a run of European tour dates.
I'm really enjoying Touched by the Stuff. How did this sophomore album come together?
Craig Fahner: We first started putting the songs together for this record shortly after the release of our first LP Surrounded. At that time, our dear friend and original drummer Jesse Locke (of Tough Age and other great bands) was making a move from Toronto to Vancouver, and that’s when Nick came on board. We took the change in lineup as an opportunity to renegotiate our sound a bit, and writing some ‘bigger’ sounding stuff kind of came naturally.
Touched by the Stuff is a great title, evoking a lot of musical touchstones I hear on the album. Who are some of your biggest influences?
Nick Mckinlay: Something that makes things easy about making music together is we are on the same page as far as, like, ‘guitar’ music goes. We think a lot about bands that have multiple songwriters. The Teenage Fanclub influence will probably feel pretty clear to anyone who spends 10 seconds with the record. Sloan, who are kind of the big dogs of this kind of thing in Canada, are another one. The Beatles are also pretty good we think? Secondly, just any great power trio: Yo La Tengo, April Wine, Wipers, James Gang, Green Day. I think the three of us agree these things don’t have to feel disparate if you don’t want them to.
"Decider" really brings to mind the fuzzier end of Britpop, like indie-obsessed Blur or Supergrass at their best. Are you guys Brit pop fans?
Craig Fahner: I had a real Britpop moment in 2021 when a lot of these songs were being written. My sister played a ton of Oasis, Suede, James, etc. when I was growing up so it’s in my musical DNA. These days I’m reaching for my Ride records a lot, and I always side with Oasis in the great Britpop rivalry. And Matt is on team Blur, which maybe says a lot about our songwriting dynamics in this band.
The second track, "Phone Booth in the Desert of the Mind," adds more bounce and jangle to the equation. Would you describe your music as more pop-oriented, indie rock, or...?
Craig Fahner: Our mission as a band is to see how many genres we can tack “jangle” onto. Jangle-punk, jangle-jazz, jangle-country.
Overall I think our music fits nicely into an indie rock, power pop paradigm, though it always feels good to steer out of our lanes once in a while.
The song "L.O.W." feels like a stylistic outlier, a bit heavier and more plodding. Did you take a different approach to that one?
Craig Fahner: When I first demo’d that track, it had a kind of lurch-y, Syd Barrett feeling, really leaning into the big languorous chord changes. When we started playing it as a full band though, it kept getting huger and huger. We got into quite a bit of ‘90s alt rock/college rock stuff, and I think this one reveals a bit of a Siamese Dream combination of melody and heaviness.
Nick Mckinlay: ‘L.O.W.,’ ‘Decider’ and ‘Barking at the Gates’ all arrived pretty early in the writing of the record and had a pretty strong impact on how it turned out sonically. Just the desire to reach for larger, shinier sounds and trying not to be self conscious about throwing in some bells and whistles production wise, or just letting ourselves slosh it out a bit. We had fun in the studio with our engineer Jesse Turnbull just trying to push our own envelope and comfortability with those things. Getting silly, just sitting around being like, ‘Yeah, but what would the Stone Temple Pilots do, though?’
"Forced Perspective" is among my favorite tracks on Touched by the Stuff. I could easily imagine this one on a playlist alongside Ducks Ltd. or Golden Apples. Who are some of your favorite modern bands?
Craig Fahner: I have been jamming Class’s great 2023 LP If You’ve Got Nothing which is super underrated. The new EP by Mopar Stars is fantastic. I live in New York and my favorite bands to see here are UV-TV and Brower. I am also a huge Lemon Twigs fanboy.
Nick Mckinlay: The rock and roll feeling in Toronto is robust as hell right now. Would highly recommend checking out The Crime Family, Hobby, Only God Forgives, Imploders, Sap … I could keep going…
Matt Learoyd: All I’ve been listening to is French podcasts and baby music.
Any plans to tour for the new album?
Nick Mckinlay: As it stands right now we are going to be carting ourselves all over Europe in May and June. We suspect some more North American dates will emerge later in the year. We’ve all been through a bunch of pretty serious life changes recently so it’s become important to be deliberate with how the band spends its time in that way. We want to keep it therapeutic and keep it boppin’.
What would I be listening to if I got in the van with Motorists?
Nick Mckinlay: The podcasts Evil Men and Dogpatch are on pretty heavy rotation, the former being a bunch of Toronto-based comedians riffing nonsense and the latter more of a “stoned guys playing weirdo 45s” radio show. Oh, also the song ‘Lemon’ by U2. We listen to that song a lot.
The third volume of our semi-annual music journal features some of today's best music writers and the most talented modern musicians:
Carl Cafarelli on Ramones
Jordan Oakes in Conversation with Paul Collins (The Nerves/The Beat)
Rich Tupica on Big Star's Radio City
Mary E. Donnelly in Conversation with Stina Tweeddale (Honeyblood)
Blue Broderick on The Apples in Stereo
Kevin Alexander on The Yellow Melodies
Dan Epstein on Redd Kross
Jim Ruland on The Last
James Harding on New Zealand Guitar Pop
S.W. Lauden on Weezer
I was a fan of Surrounded and have been looking forward to this new one. First listen happening as I read this article and really digging it so far.
I wasn't familiar with these guys but really like what I'm hearing. Thanks!