As you can probably guess by its title, Motionless in White‘s new album, Scoring the End of the World, deals with a lot of contemporary themes. But the record takes a quick detour into the ’80s with the song “Werewolf.”
In the song, frontman Chris “Motionless” Cerulli makes a references to the 1984 Rockwell hit “Somebody’s Watching Me,” singing along to its immediately recognizable chorus, which featured vocals from Michael Jackson. Overall, though, “Werewolf” was mainly inspired by the King of Pop’s classic single “Thriller.”
“We felt like we wanted to have our iconic song, our theatrical moment,” Cerulli says of his band’s approach to “Werewolf.” “We’ve never fully embraced it at that level before.”
He adds, “Whether people love it our hate it, we love it because we made that venture into that world.”
Along with the retro influence of MJ and Rockwell, Cerulli wanted “Werewolf” to still feel modern, which Motionless brought in thanks to some inspiration from Muse.
“It felt so cool to explore that side of stuff for us and have it go so well that everybody’s favorite song in the band is ‘Werewolf,'” Cerulli says.
Of course, part of what made “Thriller” so iconic was its legendary video, and Cerulli hopes that “Werewolf” will get a fitting visual, as well.
“I feel like it needs a video that’s, like, a modern-day ‘Thriller,'” Cerulli says. “Something that feels fun, spooky, feels like Motionless, but has a little bit of a serious thing on the side.”
Scoring the End of the World is out now. It also includes the single “Masterpiece.”
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