Movements

Presented by VeryShow Productions (2-008286/3-008497). From Black Flag to Beach Boys, the Californie du Sud has a rich musical history, and Movements is one of the last heirs. Since her training in 2015, the band▁composé composed of the singer Patrick Miranda, the guitarist / bassist Austin Cressey, the guitarist Ira George and the drummer Spencer York has gone from a raw and combative post-hardcore project to a real headliner, accumulating more than 775 million listens and taking some of his greatest inspirations on the road, like Tigers Jaw and Citizen, in the first part. For their fourth album by Fearless Records, “Happier Now”, the group has found the producer rewarded at the Grammy Awards Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight, Circa Survive) to create an ambitious and emotional record, which pushes the characteristic sound of Movements to new heights and further affirms the group as a reference of the scene. While the band had previously had to design their albums within tight deadlines between tours, “Happier Now” was written and recorded over three separate one-month sessions spread over the past year, with the producer named to the Grammy Awards Will Yip at the 4 Studio in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. This is the longest period the band has ever spent in the studio. “I think at first we weren’t really sure what the album was going to be,” admits Patrick Miranda. “We all had a general idea.: we wanted to integrate the first elements of our sound and mix them with more recent things, as “RUCKUS!” [2023], to make these two universes coexist.” Two of the pieces from this first session, the immediately catchy hymn “Dissolve Me” and the darker meditation “Back In My Ways”, have collectively served as sound polar stars to guide the group through the recording process... with, Of course, Additional help from Will Yip. “We’ve always said that Will is like the fifth member of this band, and he’s always really helped us tie our sound together,” says Patrick Miranda about the producer who worked on almost all of Movements’s recorded discography. “He has a very strong vision of our sound, which allows him to propose ideas that we appreciate enormously.” From the syncopated beauty of the opening track “Pulse” to the grandiose and unexpected end of the closing track “Seperate”, “Happier Now” takes the listener on a musical journey that gains in nuances with each new listen. This is especially true for the eponymous title, abounding in unexpected rhythmic signatures and sound textures that unfold gradually, while the track fuses elements of pop and post-hardcore in a way that would be as powerful in an overheated cellar as in a full amphitheatre. Yet when Patrick Miranda asks, “Are you happier now with your happier sounds?”, an ocean of subtext lurks behind this seemingly innocent phrase. “The title of the album is a bit ironic, because if you really read the lyrics, it’s a pretty dark record, and I think that’s what a lot of people expect from Movements,” says Patrick Miranda. If fans have been able to follow the inspiring evolution of his mental health journey over the past three albums of the band, this does not mean that these difficulties are behind him. “Happier Nowis an extremely personal record, and when I started writing the lyrics to these songs, I realized I might not be doing as well as I thought.” “I’m objectively in a better situation than before, but when you struggle with depression, it never completely disappears.” This feeling is expressed with great accuracy in Ill At Ease, a song that recalls the beginnings of Jimmy Eat World in its most melodic moments. In many ways, “Happier Now” marks a return to the roots for Movements, which are performing again at Warped Tour this summer and gradually becoming veterans of the community that inspired them as they grew up. Patrick Miranda also attributes the band’s success to the bond they forged after spending more than a decade together in the studio and on the road. “We’re at a point where it’s less like being in a group together than a family,” says Patrick Miranda. “It’s like being married to three other people, so we had to really work on those relationships but I think we’re at a point today where we feel more connected than ever.” That sense of connection is palpable in every note of “Happier Now,” an album that represents the most accomplished version of the sound of Movements and that ultimately escapes any categorization. The fight has never sounded so sweet. Movements will be in concert in Paris on 23 February 2027 at the Trabendo to present “Happier Now”, with Gouge Away and Shoreline in the first parts!