MOVMENT Irish darkwave/post-punk duo Movment, aka Kevin Kelly and Martin Kelly, is a rare beast, concerned more with art and invention than fame and fortune. Their music is both cerebral and abrasive, but everything they do is fuelled by a contrasting faith in humanity, albeit coupled with an awareness of the challenges ahead.As the duo's offical bio states:“They mean what they say.” Can you tell me a bit about where you were born and grew up? Martin Kelly: We are from Mullingar, a town in the middle of Ireland, 50 miles east of Dublin. Being close to the city, we frequently go to gigs in Dublin. I started playing drums in my teens, and Kevin got a bass guitar. So, we formed a band in our garage with friends. We went through various line ups and recorded some demos. Kevin Kelly: Yeah, initially we played some covers, but from the beginning we were writing our own songs, with a 4-track tape recorder. We recorded some demos in the early days but, with members leaving, I moved to playing guitar, and Martin started singing. We are both big music fans and listen to lots of bands across multiple genres. What sort of music were you being exposed to at the time? KK: In our teens we were exposed to all sorts. Myself, I started with Madness, Simple Minds, but then I heard Joy Division, and that was a big influence. I bought Still on vinyl, and the first track,“Exercise One,” was amazing. From there I listened to lots of post punk and indie, and some metal and electronic bands: The Pixies, At The Drive-In, Sonic Youth, and lots more. MK: We both listen to similar music, and I was listening to a lot of metal with friends, and especially early Iron Maiden. Our music tastes have converged in recent years, but we still have our own unique taste. I am a big fan of Nine Inch Nails and New Model Army. How did you first get into playing? MK: I got a drum kit in my teens and played with some bands, until Kevin got a bass. We started a band but eventually I took over as singer and Kevin on guitar.We were always fans of music but the bands that influenced us always made us feel we could write music ourselves. KK: And we were very much into DIY - our own label, our own recordings.Fugazi would be a big influence too.Our attitude was, and still is, write and record your own music, and release it ourselves, on CD, cassette, vinyl, and now digitally. When did you make the decision to release music professionally? KK: We had recorded some demos, before we recorded our first real album, Disturbed, as Raw Novembre. It was a punk album and got a relatively good response. We were full DIY then, releasing it on our own label and connecting with fanzines and fans in the UK,throughout Europe and in the USA. MK: Yeah, we did some gigs in the UK, the USA, and Europe. We released two more albums as Raw Novembre, before eventually starting the Movment projects, as a means to release songs written and recorded by the two of us. KK: We never considered it a professional move.We just knew this was something we wanted to do – record and release music ourselves. Writing songs and making them available was our main goal. It was never a career decision. We were artists first and foremost. We were focused on writing songs and making them available to anyone that wanted to hear them. You obviously care about the state of the world, politically and socially–how does this impact on your music? KK: Yes, we put our ideas in our songs but are not preaching to anyone. We trust everyone to make their own minds up. It used to be easy to do this by reading other people’s opinions and checking out their ideas but now everything is so loaded and biased one way or the other, it is hard to know who to believe or what is influencing their words. I still believe there are honest www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 20 -
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