Q&A: Reintroducing MOVIELAND

MusicQ&A

Jan 13

INTERVIEW

MUSIC HAS THE ABILITY TO CEMENT OUR MEMORIES—We may change and grow, but our favorite sounds stay right beside us and they remind us of who we once were. Vancouver-based shoegaze trio MOVIELAND’s album Then & Now is a symbol of this relationship that we establish with artists we love because for the first time, the 90s band’s introspective and uniquely creative tracks are available to fans digitally.

MOVIELAND is singer, guitarist, and songwriter Alan D. Boyd, drummer Justin Leigh, and bassist John Ounpuu. Founded in 1991, the band earned a dedicated fanbase in the early ‘90s, but they faced the struggle of sharing their sound beyond Vancouver.

“We were lucky touring bands would pop up from Seattle and go, ‘Yeah, we’ll just go play Vancouver.’ Then they’d go back to their American tour. But to get your music out to the rest of the world from Vancouver was really difficult,” Boyd shared with me over a call in December. “We’d have people come visit from Toronto to check out the bands on the scene. They might say, ‘Well, one band could maybe do it. Maybe we’ll put one band on a label.’”

30 years later, the band is back with their album Then & Now in collaboration with 604 Records. Founded by Jonathan Simkin and Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, 604 Records has only been around since 2001, but has earned its reputation as an essential leader in Vancouver’s music culture, representing Canadian icons like Marianas Trench and Carly Rae Jepsen. The label’s latest project is called 604 Decades, a labor of love that aims to revitalize the musical history of Vancouver by facilitating the re-release of music rooted in the city.

On the project, Boyd described, “Jonathan doing 604 Decades is partly about his ability now to say, ‘I had all these great acts. I couldn’t do what I wanted for them. Now I can get them out and I can get people listening.’”

The project starts with MOVIELAND. Released on December 13, 2024, their album Then & Now reintroduces their ‘90s shoegaze sound. Crisp drums drive “Build Me A Dream” while “San Francisco” presents an effortless guitar solo. The entire album is confident, showcasing a band that created music solely for their love of music. It’s all the tracks that fans previously only held in cassette form.

Although MOVIELAND may not have taken off as the band would have hoped, their period of time together was an essential one for Boyd. “It informed a sort of musical journey,” he said of his life-long bond with music. “I ended up going to the UK because that’s where the sounds I wanted to be part of were.”

Read our full conversation with Boyd below.

LUNA: 604 Decades is Jonathan Simkin’s initiative of reviving the overlooked musical history of Vancouver. It’s starting with MOVIELAND. What were initial conversations about this like?

BOYD: MOVIELAND started in Vancouver in the ‘90s and it was a really interesting time for music. Seattle was taking off and the music coming out was kind of changing the musical landscape. There was also great music coming out of the UK and those bands used to come through Vancouver. We’d see My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, all that kind of Brit pop that’s now called shoegaze. That whole scene mixed with Seattle had a really interesting effect on Vancouver, and our band had a bit of interest.

Jonathan Simkin was starting to dive into being a music lawyer at that time. He had worked, I think, in criminal and immigration law before, but he wanted to do music. It didn’t work out. I moved to London. The other guys started another band. Then I got a phone call, maybe just before [the pandemic] from Simkin, saying, “Look, man, I’ve got this great label now. It’s called 604 Records. It’s out of Vancouver. It’s with Chad from Nickelback. I want to look at putting out some of these old Vancouver bands, the ones that didn’t quite make it. The first one I want to be MOVIELAND because I think you guys really could have been something, but the chance just wasn’t there.”

So we started talking. I started digging to see what I still had. A lot of stuff was just on cassette. But then visiting my parents’ house, I found the old 8-tracks and the original recordings on DAT and reel-to-reel tapes. We got those digitized. Over a few years, we started putting this project together. 604 Records came up with this new imprint called 604 Decades. On December 13, 2024, the album came out—the first record after 30 years. It’s exciting to be launching this and to do it with Jonathan, who has always been a great supporter.

LUNA: Looking back at the tracks, I imagine your relationship to some of them changes. Are there any that have stood out to you now in this new context of 604 Decades?

BOYD: It seems like all the time in the world when you’re in your 20s. Looking back, it was such a quick blip. Now that I’m older, that seems very compacted. It was an intense time emotionally. You’re young and you’re going through a lot, like relationships. It was really fun and very intense. So revisiting the songs is like revisiting that portion of my life—the relationships that were going on, the people we were hanging out with.

It’s [interesting to think about] what we [were able to do] with limited equipment and limited money at that time. Now, you have so much access to equipment and everything. Back then, some of the recordings were live. Some were done in multitracks. I feel really proud of them. I think they sound really good and stand up to the test of time. Of course, we’ve got them mastered so they sound good for modern streaming services. They still feel pretty fresh.

LUNA: And you’re not just revisiting the music, you’re also revisiting the visuals. What has that been like? How involved has the band been in creating the visuals and do you feel differently about the band’s style all these years later?

BOYD: It was very fun because our friend Bill Mullan, who did a lot of the video work, used to make video tapes that he’d play in the background for us while we were playing. They’re all on VHS tape. So when we had the chance to do this again, I found stacks of old posters, photographs, and Super 16 film that we had shot. We digitized all this and put it together. I called Bill and asked if he’d make the music videos for “I Relate” and “(A Sort of) Icarus,” which he did.

A lot of that same imagery is there again. It’s amazing to look at oneself 30 years and 30 pounds later (laughs). It’s a different person, but it’s the same person. The other day as I was walking around Vancouver, I was trying to visit some of the places we had filmed. There’s this old gentlemen’s club, The Penthouse on Seymour, which we filmed in front of. It’s exactly the same. I took a picture of myself in front of it again, 30 years later. Where I was staying with friends in East Vancouver was near some of the industrial lands that we’d done some filming around too. It was really interesting to see how the city has both changed and stayed the same. Where we used to rehearse on Seymour, that’s gone and now there’s a building of apartments. It’s fun to delve into that past and think about who one was then.

LUNA: I was checking out the visuals. Under the “(A Sort Of) Icarus” video, there’s a comment where someone says, “This song is exceptional. I have the cassette from the ‘90’s but it doesn’t sound as good as this anymore. Still gives me goosebumps 30+ years later!”

BOYD: It’s fantastic. Over the years, I had emails. I’ll get somebody writing to say, “Do you have these old tracks? Can I get them again? Are they available digitally?” And I said, “Well, I don’t have them yet. I haven’t sorted that out.” So this project has been that opportunity, to get the message to some of these people. I still have some of the emails to let them know it’s out, and they’re excited.

Some people may have had one tape or two tapes, but not necessarily all three that we put out. If you were indie, you didn’t have cash. You made cassettes because vinyl was on the out. CDs were really expensive to make at that time and you had to press 1000. Making cassettes was a really great way to get your music out. I’m quite surprised that people got in touch over the years. Some people would say, “My cassette actually broke. I don’t know what to do about it. My boyfriend loved your band. Where can we get it again?” It’s exciting to have the opportunity to have it out there digitally so people can listen.

LUNA: It’s a great tool, music, for people to trace the things they once loved and go back to those memories. It’s like smells. You smell something and it’s related to a certain period of your life. Music is the same way. This project is such an amazing opportunity to reconnect with those people, and for them to reconnect to their memories. It’s very human, this 604 Decades project.

BOYD: It is. Other cities across Canada—I lived in Edmonton and spent a small amount of time in Montreal in the ‘80s—their local college [radio] stations are these amazing places [for connection]. Especially at that time, you felt very isolated. There wasn’t the sense of being able to get and access everything from all over the world. Vancouver was a fun city. There was a lot of cool stuff, but it still felt like it was the edge of the world.

I think a lot of young people in the world now have this ability to take in a lot of different stuff. But our world was very small. We could only get limited amounts of stuff. It’s great to be able to now channel [our music] into [this new] world. We might be discovered by somebody who’s 18 years old. They might find it through some streaming service, and go, “Wow, I really like this.” And we can be part of that journey as much as part of the [journeys of the] people that had our cassette tapes in the past.

LUNA: Music and music journalism has changed so much over the past while. Writing for Luna, it’s my favorite thing to just put my headphones on and discover new music in my room. You create these moments for yourself. Vancouver is still a city in which it feels difficult to find your community. This work that I do, it’s amazing that I’m meeting all these people from my desk.

BOYD: That’s a great thing. In Vancouver, let’s say you want to find your tribe. It might be quite hard because they’re not necessarily hitting the same bars or restaurants. They’re not necessarily hanging out in the same area of town. On [my recent] trip, we were staying in East Hastings but I wanted to go across to West 4th to Zulu Records and just pop in to say “hi.” But that’s a bit of a journey, you know. I’m going to have to go a long way. We never go to that part of town anymore, which is where we used to live. But what the digital age has brought us is you can find your tribe online. You might be hanging out with somebody who’s from Malaysia, then hanging out with somebody who’s from Australia, Argentina, or Mexico. All of these people have a connection. They’re into something similar. I think that’s pretty cool.

LUNA: I wanted to ask you about London. You’ve been working and playing in London for a while now. The decision back in 1994—why did you make the decision to go specifically to London and what has kept you there?

BOYD: Well, two things. One, I think if you wanted to go somewhere where there was more happening, you were either looking at going to the States or to the UK, at least in the “English world,” you know. I think the music was very Anglo-centric at that time. All the big music came from the United States or the United Kingdom. Canada [was] giving it the best of what Canada had, and those people often joined the American scene.

I also had a British passport [because of] my family. I thought, “Well, that’s where I’ll go. I’ll go to London.” I had been before. Some of my biggest influences were British bands, especially The Beatles. I love The Clash. It always seemed an exciting place for me. I just thought, “Well, that’s where I have to be.”

I didn’t see things happening in Vancouver at that time. We tried. We kept trying to do gigs. There weren’t many people coming out. We had somebody come to look at us from Toronto, but they decided to go with somebody else instead. The avenues were all quite closed, and I just thought, “I may as well go try it over there for a while. I can live there. I can get a job there.”

I left heading off on tour with a band called SNFU which was a punk-rock band from Edmonton. They were opening up for Bad Religion and Green Day, who had just put out Dookie. So we went on this amazing tour and I met all these incredible people. I stayed in London. At the end, I got a job with a company that did the shirts for Bad Religion, and it kind of went from there.

I’ve had my ups and downs, but what kept me in London was that I could do music and I could work in TV and film—those were the things I was interested in. Eventually, I had a family. It was my home. So that’s 30 years in a city that has changed immensely in that time. I’m still enjoying it, but it’s very different. But I’m also older and there’s a new generation of people coming up, doing their thing, making things happen. So it has been fun, but it is also fun to come back and explore what’s going on in Canada.

LUNA: You’re also working on some film projects. Out of all that you’re working on right now, what are you most excited about?

BOYD: This year, [I would say] my first film that I finished. It’s a feature documentary film about a session musician named Mo Foster. I got to show it at its premiere in London at the Doc’n Roll Film Festival. The film grew out of a project I’ve been working on for years called One More Time. It’s about the London session musicians. These are the people who played with David Bowie, Led Zeppelin.

Just before Christmas, I was out filming a concert for a man named Neil Innes. He was in a band called the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He also was a member of the Monty Python team, then had his own career in the UK with television shows and music. I think most people in the US and Canada know him as being a member of the Rutles, which was like a Beatles spoof thing that was done by Lorne Michaels on Saturday Night Live. He died a few years ago and they put on a concert. I think we might be trying to make a film out of that concert which also includes biographical material from his life.

I’m also working on a film about a man named Bill Fay. He’s so cool. He had this record called Time of the Last Persecution that came out in the ‘70s. It was immediately deleted by the record company and fell into obscurity for many years, then sort of rediscovered by artists like Jeff Tweedy and Nick Cave. He must be in his mid to late ‘80s and he has done a few interviews with me. Him and David Tibet from Current 93 are making a record in January. I’m working on a film about him.

LUNA: Tracing a lot of musical history.

BOYD: Absolutely. I shared a little clip when one of the guys in One More Time passed away. The family wrote to me and said they’d never heard that story. So it’s an honor to meet, interview, and get these stories. Mo Foster used to say it’s like a library burns down when somebody dies. You lose all this information. We might know a little bit of the story. You might be able to document who played with who and did what, but some of those little details in the background, which are the magic of the time and the period, those are the things that you’re really after. I’m very fortunate to have hours of that stuff from meeting so many people.

LUNA: People say to separate the person from their artistry, but I find it so enriching to look at them holistically.

BOYD: Absolutely. Especially when you’re a musician or a painter or a sculptor or a playwright or a dancer—when you’re an artist, that is who you are. Compartmentalizing and removing that can be quite difficult to do. I think that’s the challenge of being an artist. Trying to set yourself into these societal norms. You know, gotta be at home by seven for dinner with the family. Well, that doesn’t always work when you’re on tour for six months of a year. Or paying the bills. I can’t make any money this month. What am I going to do? Oh, now I’ve just got a record deal and I’ve made a lot of money. I’m going on holiday … or am I? The artist’s life is very fascinating.

LUNA: You’ve worked with a lot of great artists, including The Vaccines. They’re going on tour with this band THUS LOVE who I’ve been loving. Who are some artists that you’re listening to? Who is catching your attention?

BOYD: I listen to the radio a lot. Being in the UK, I listen to BBC Radio 6. On the weekends, they don’t really have playlists, so you get all the different presenters just playing amazing selections of music. They’ll play something from 1950 and then they’ll play something from last week. There’s also a band from Berlin that I discovered recently called Shy Bits. I really like them. They feel like a bit of a throwback but they also feel like now. They’re a three piece. I’ve also got a friend, Mary Timony, who is in a band called Helium. She put out a record called Untame the Tiger. It’s really good. She interestingly made the Rolling Stone hottest guitar players list. She’s such an amazing musician.

I’ve just been fascinated with The Beatles again. I’ve gone back to those sorts of things. And talking with my [18-year-old] son, he brings things to me. Being a musician, you’re often listening to what you’re working on, like The Vaccines. I’ve also been listening to a lot of SAULT. I bought many of their records. There’s a cool record shop I go to in London called Dash The Henge. Like all great record shops, they curate and they tell you, “Check this out.” There’s so much out there.