Over the years, I have found that the bands I unexpectedly stumble into are often deserving of the most attention. This is one of those bands. Mountain Mover left me in awe and my first instinct was to reach out to initiate an interview. I hadn’t felt this much of an immediate impact from a band since I was first introduced to Underoath in 2004 and Silent Planet a few years ago. I wanted to speak on a personal level with Mountain Mover during this interview and I believe we achieved that. I see very big things in the future of this quintet, keep your eyes peeled as Mountain Mover is set for big things in 2019!
1. So I would like for everyone to get to know you guys.Where are you from? When did you form?
We are a five piece from Malmö in southern Sweden. We started writing music together sporadically throughout 2017 and released our first single in march 2018.
The current members are:
Oscar – Vocals
Simon – Guitar
Linus – Guitar
Jeff – Bass
John – Drums
2. As we approach the new year, what are some short term and long term goals for Mountain Mover?
Our current short term plan is just to release new music. We’ve been keeping quiet for a while now but we’ve been all but inactive behind the scenes, we are currently writing our debut EP that is set to release during spring next year and then head out and start playing international shows.
Oscar: Long term goals for me personally is just to tour as much as we can, my biggest goal location wise is to play in Japan. But my biggest goal over all is honestly just to play shows where people are there to see us and that they care about music. I mean, of course it would be sick to play to massive crowds, but I’d rather play to 10-30 people that are there to see us and care about what we’ve created rather than playing to 3000 people that couldn’t care less about us.
John: My personal long term goal is to get us out on the road for as many shows that we can play! Hopefully it’ll be in my dream location, London. It seems like the place to be. Imagine a crowded venue with people that love what we do. That wouldn’t be the worst thing to experience in the near future!
3. What bands/musicians inspire you? What bands would you want to tour with in the future?
Oscar: I love such a wide spectrum of music, honestly. There’s always the all-time favourites that inspire me, like some of my favourite bands and artist are Deftones, Counterparts, Underoath, Balance & Composure, Death Cab For Cutie, Casey, Silent Planet, Crooks, My Chemical Romance and so many more, so those are the ones I usually go to for inspiration. But lately I’ve actually been jamming a lot of K-Pop like Blackpink and BTS. Billie Eilish is also huge for me right now.
And as for bands I want to tour with, there’s plenty of friends that I would absolutely love to tour with. Our Swedish friends in Noija are absolutely a big one, we’ve already played a few shows with them and they’re all old friends of ours so we get along great, a couple of other friends bands I’d love to tour with are Parting Gift, Galleries and Acres. As for bigger bands, I would absolutely love to tour with Underoath, Silent Planet, Counterparts and Casey.
John: Mountain Mover is definitely the infant of ambience, atmosphere and emotions channeled through the elements of hardcore music. I would say that Mountain Mover is heavily inspired by bands such as PVRIS, Casey, Counterparts and Silent Planet! Two bands that I would love to share a stage with are Silent Planet and Casey.
4. So this interview came to life via Garrett Russell on Twitter. You came in contact with him in London at the Silent Planet show and he even shared your music on Twitter. It must feel pretty nice to have the front-man of the band you traveled 1,200km to see post your music. You must be big fans of Silent Planet?
Oscar: Oh, absolutely, I know that at least me and John are huge Silent Planet fans. Garrett is one of the kindest people I’ve ever crossed paths with and I honestly said more as a joke that he should check out my band since he always tells other people to check out his band, so it was a nice surprise when I got the notification that he had actually tweeted about us. I think that Silent Planet is the most important band we have right now because they bring up things that most bands do not, especially not in the well-versed, planned and precise way that they do. I can only hope that everybody in the scene will one day understand how important they are.
John: I’m not gonna lie. When Oscar told me that Garrett reacted the way he did to our music, I couldn’t believe what I heard! I mean often times you’re full of self-doubt and when someone you really look up to tweet this for everyone to see, it can really make you re-think your doubts. I gotta say that I was so darn proud of the songs we’ve been creating.
5. What is your favorite City and venue to play in?
Oscar: We’ve actually only played three shows at this point, but the show we had the best crowd response at was at a festival called Summer Fest in Södertälje, which is part of Stockholm, so I would be inclined to say Spinnrocken in Södertälje, but I’m looking forward to that opinion changing as we go on to play international shows.
6. Was coming up with your band name a difficult process? What other names were you considering?
Oscar: The name Mountain Mover is a name that I’ve had in my head for about three years before it even became something substantial. We were toying with some other names during the initial start up process with this line up, but Mountain Mover always felt the best for us.
7. How important do you think social media is for bands in this day and age?
Oscar: Unfortunately, it’s basically the alpha and omega of being in a band in this day and age, social media is so so damaging to our generation, it’s honestly the most toxic thing a person can have, but none of us can stay away from it. All you do is compare your whole life to someones highlight reel and for all you know, that could be completely fake. I know bands that intentionally post certain type of content to make them self appear more famous than they really are, and in the end, you’re not only deceiving your fans, you’re also fooling yourself. I know I kind of sidetracked with this one, but it’s something I feel very strongly about.
John: I personally think that social media plays a huge part in whether you succeed or not. It’s such a huge benefit to be able to reach out to people around the world. The whole situation with Garrett wouldn’t have been possible without social media. Namely, it’s super beneficial and important in the music industry today. It probably will stay that way for the rest of our existence.
8. What kind of message do you wish to spread through your music?
Oscar: I don’t know about message, but I just want to give the people that stumble onto our music something to relate to and make them feel less alone. I want to make people feel like their mistakes are not them.
John: Mountain Mover is something I cherish. I do not take this band or anyone involved for granted. We look after each other and if someone is going through a rough time we’re there for one another. It may sound generic, but to me, that’s what Mountain Mover is all about. We encounter the hardships and challenges but still, in some mysterious way, we’ll get through it. You’re not alone in this. There’s always someone or something that can make life worth living. Dissipate is a perfect example of us trying to help our audience see their silver lining.
9. What gear are you currently using for shows?
Oscar: It’s funny because I can answer this question for pretty much all of our members except John, I’m a guitarist and a total gear nerd at heart, this whole vocalist thing is a new venture for me.
Simon plays only fender guitars at the moment, his main guitar is a Fender 72 Tele Thinline, going into an Orange Rockerverb 100 mkIII, into the Orange Jim Root signature cab.
He runs all his pedals in front of the amp. Polytune, Digitech Whammy, Ibanez TS9, Boss NS-2, Boss DD-7, EHX Cathedral are the pedals he uses.
Linus main guitar is a Chapman ML-1 Lefty, going into a Laney Ironheart 15 Studio, into a Harley Benton 2×12 cab with V30s in it. His pedalboard is quite similar to Simon’s with the exception of running his modulation pedals in the loop. Digitech Whammy DT, Boss TU-3, Ibanez TS9, Boss NS-2 in front, in the loop is a EHX Cathedral and a cheap Behringer delay, both going through an MXR loop box to get rid of some tap-dancing.
Jeff’s main bass is a Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar bass, that goes through a tuner then into a Sansamp Bass Driver, the programmable one. That then goes into an Orange Bass Terror 500 and that goes into a Harley benton 4×10 cab.
John: I’m playing a 4 piece SJC kit made entirely out of cherry and agathis (12×8 High Tom, 14×12 Low Tom, 20×18 Bass Drum). I’ve only changed out the snare which is a 14×6,5 “Mapex Black Panther Sledgehammer” made out of hammered brass.
Since I play a lot of jazz, funk and hardcore music I need cymbals that can bring a wide spectrum of different sounds that I found attractive in all of these genres. That’s why my go to on cymbals have always been Zildjian and Meinl. They give me the desired sound for different occasions. This is my setup for Mountain Mover at the moment:
– 13 1/4” Zildjian K Custom Hybrid Hi Hats
– 16” Zildjian A Custom Crash
– 19” Zildjian K Custom Hybrid Crash
– 21” Zildjian A Custom Sweet Ride
– 17” Zildjian K Custom Hybrid China
And for hardware I use DW 9000 pedals and Mapex cymbal stands.
It’s not a Vinnie Colaiuta setup but I’m more of a “learn to play on fewer things” kind of person.
10. Can we expect new music from Mountain Mover soon?
Absolutely, we’re writing music as we speak. We couldn’t be more excited to show the world what we’ve been working on since the release of Dissipate.
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