What happens when seven musicians are getting bored during the ongoing pandemic?
I had the opportunity to talk to Chris Laney about the project At the Movies and how it all started. They are all musicians in different bands and are used to being out on tour during parts of the year, so when the covid pandemic hit Sweden they all of a sudden had to stay home.
It started with something that was completely boring, turning it into something that was fun and gave back a bit of the so called “adrenalin spark” to them. A friendly chat session online started this project as meeting up was impossible due to covid-19 restrictions. They talked about boredom and how they missed being out and play.
One night the idea came to Chris. He was watching a movie,got inspired by the music and felt that this could be something fun to do.
All said and done, he sent a demo to Allan Sörenssen who plays drums and then get the other people on board for the project. And what a line up is has become!
Björn Strid – Vocals
Linnea Vikström – Vocals
Chris Laney – Guitar
Allan Sörenssen – Drums
Pontus Egberg – Bass
Morten Sandager – Keyboard
Pontus Norgren – Guitar
Every Thursday they had a skype-meeting where they decided which song to do this week. The week after the initial skype meeting the video released and afterwards they repeated the cycle in order to decide which song they should go for next week. At the Movies focussed on the movie (cinematic) music from the 80’s and the 90’s and it is a perfect walk down memory lane !
The result was 26 songs during 26 weeks. At the beginning it wasn’t their intention to get the music accompanied by video’s. Initially it would have been just the music with the picture from At the Movies but people started to like the project and wanted video’s. It ended up with that all seven musicians making a video in their own homes, and ultimately put together by Chris.
For the people involved At the Movies has been their way of dealing with the pandemic. I wonder if At the Movies will do any kind of touring when the world finally opens up again.
Chris:“No ,it will not be a tour. It would be an impossible thing to organise as we all are members in different band constellations. We have said that it can be a possibility to do some festival gigs giving the right circumstances. It would be At the Movies featuring guest artists.”
“The dream would be to be closing act on Wacken Open Air and get the audience sing-a-long in Neverending Story. For us it has been a project of happiness and that is what we hope the audience feels whilst listening to our versions of the songs. It is a great positive force to sing-a-long together!”
“Nothing is decided regarding performing at festivals, and if the circumstances are right we will definitely say yes! It would be incredibly hard to get all 7 of us at the same festivals at the same time, so therefore the concept “At the Movies with guest artists” is something that could work.”
After a nice an friendly talk with a great guy I end my talk. “Chris, I truly hope we can sing-a-long at festivals in the near future and feel the good vibes that these movies and music has given to a lot of people!!”
Yours truly,
Stina
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