Chris Cerulli has made a lot of MOTIONLESS IN WHITE records and never once been satisfied with all of one. "Decades", released July 17 through Roadrunner Records, finally broke that streak.
Speaking to the JJO Discover New Music Podcast, the frontman described a process that ran two and a half to three years and refused to end until he stopped hearing problems. "I'm sure a lot of bands go through the rollercoaster of you love this song and then time goes by and you're, like, 'Ah, I don't know if I love this song,' and then you wanna revise it and you're just constantly searching for this thing that feels complete," he said.
"I wasn't willing to accept anything that wasn't, like, 'This has to be 100% what the vision is, and I'm gonna chase it until... It doesn't matter if it takes five years. I'm going for it.' And it took two and a half to three years, and here we are. And I think that it's because we spent that time on it that I look at it and I love it more than the other records. And it's not just 'cause it's new. It's 'cause there's nothing I would go back and change for the first time ever, and that's a pretty cool way to feel afterwards."
What made that possible, he argued, is the thing nobody puts in the rock-star cliché. "A lot of people think, 'Oh, rock band, rock stars, fame, money,' whatever, and that's still kind of the trope that follows around this style of music. But I don't think people realize that the most valuable asset that you can retain is time." He traced the lesson back to the pandemic, when the band had time whether they wanted it or not.
Working again with producer Drew Fulk mattered for a reason beyond craft. "When you're working with people that are your best friends, that's always gonna be a little bit more rewarding," Cerulli said. On a record built around the band's own history, the long-term collaborators in the room were the point: "It's this group of people that I've been working with for so long, that have helped shape the sound of the band. So it felt like this really cool, triumphant — dare I say — endgame. All the characters are in that one last battle."
The title is doing the same work. "We're on tour right now, and every single night the only big speech that I do from stage is I kind of take each city down memory lane: 'Oh, remember when we played at this venue for 500 people?' And you're seeing a lot of those fans at these shows, front row."
"Decades" features guests including Skylar Grey, SLIPKNOT's Corey Taylor and DARK DIVINE's Anthony Martinez. The band recently wrapped The Sweat And Blood Tour, their first American headline run in nearly three years, which included their first time headlining Red Rocks.