Leo Tolstoy once said, "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." For Seth Mosley and the other members of Me in Motion, the wisdom behind these words—a call to individuals to examine their own lives and the difference they can make with them—is worth sharing with their generation.
"I want to inspire people to realize that there is something to be done here and now," says Mosley, the band's frontman and founder. "I want to encourage people to be movers and shakers for Christ."
The story of Me in Motion embodies the kind of action they encourage others to take. After high school, Columbus, Ohio native Mosley began working as a producer in a recording studio. While his experience as a producer would certainly help him later in his career, he realized before long that his personal calling included a much more active lifestyle. "Somewhere along the line I realized that I didn't like just sitting in one place all the time," he says. So he decided to start a rock ‘n' roll band.
And in less than two years, Mosley solidified Me in Motion's lineup to include Tim Wilson on bass and Brian Dexter on drums, played 140 shows in 2007 alone, and landed a record deal with Word Records. How's that for taking action?
While Mosley is the band's principal songwriter and de facto ringleader, Wilson and Dexter are quick to acknowledge the artistic freedom he gives them. "That's what's been so cool. I've been in situations in bands where someone wants to be in control of every minute detail," says Wilson, praising Mosley's openness to collaboration. Mosley attributes the great amount of trust he feels for Wilson and Dexter to the fact that he was able to hand pick them from the musicians he worked with in his previous job as a producer. "It didn't take any time at all for things to click with us," says Dexter. This chemistry, their collective musicianship, and their unity of purpose all combine to make Me in Motion a uniquely inspiring musical entity.
And what makes them particularly inspiring is their ability to frame their message in a relevant musical context of straightforward, Brit-influenced rock ‘n' roll. The band derives their musical inspiration from the likes of Oasis, Jet, Weezer, and—of course—the Beatles. "I've always been drawn to bands that write and play for the song as opposed to just emphasizing technical musicianship," says Wilson of Me in Motion's musical philosophy. Mosley is quick to add that the priority for the band is getting their message across through the music and that their particular brand of raw, no-frills rock enables them to do so. "Any part that would take away from the lyric or vocal—we don't do it. We try to keep the instruments out of the way of the message," he says.
Such a commitment to purpose and defined musical ideology cause Me in Motion to stand out among the overcrowded ranks of rock bands today. Few acts give any thought to why they play the particular style of music they have chosen beyond, "We just really like it." And the introspection that makes Me in Motion a worthwhile band is the very quality they hope to inspire in their audience. "We want to encourage people to do meaningful things with their lives—to be in motion instead of stagnant," says Wilson. And Me in Motion are doing that by starting with themselves.
