In a world where doom-scrolling is the new normal and we need escapism more than ever, LA’s newest duo MOVIESTARZ are offering a glitter-drenched exit sign. Made up of longtime collaborators Tyler Nichols and Alex Pombar, MOVIESTARZ isn’t just a band, it’s a multimedia moodboard of hyperpop, club-kid chaos, punk energy, and cheeky LA fashion that refuses to colour inside the genre lines. Their debut single “CLUB PUNK” takes no prisoners with its infectious club-ready sound with a wink at mall-punk nostalgia. We caught up with the duo just before they dropped the video for “CLUB PUNK” to talk about their DIY ethos, musical inspirations, and what the whole MOVIESTARZ experience is all about.
JG: Let’s start with your new single “CLUB PUNK.” It’s such a bold introduction to your sound. What inspired this fusion of punk energy with electronic and dance elements?
Tyler Nichols: I forget what song we were vibing to before we made that demo. I think maybe something from Simple Creatures, that side project of Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 and Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low. They had that buzzy guitar kind of vibe. We were messing around with effects and pedals. Then that riff just came from there, and I jumped on the drum machine and put that boom on it. We also really mess with electronic and house dance tracks. It was always our goal to find a great way to blend that all together. Honestly, the music came together so fast. It was probably done in twenty minutes. From the minute we did that song, it encapsulated everything we feel like this project is.
JG: Are there any particular punk groups or electronic acts that you’re influenced by?
Tyler Nichols: Blink-182 is our all-time favourite band. I know everyone our age who’s in a band most likely says that. A lot of the other things we’re inspired by, we always say ‘90s alternative. When I say that, I think of Republica or early Gorillaz. And we’re also listening to a lot of The 1975, like some of their weirder stuff. Songs like “I Think There’s Something You Should Know.” We’d listen to that and think, what are they capturing here, and how can we build on things like this and this sonic space? But then, also merge the best of both worlds.
JG: Your creative vision extends beyond music into visuals, fashion, and artwork. How do all of those elements come together to shape the MOVIESTARZ experience?
Tyler: Me and Alex have been doing music since we were teenagers. We both had a huge love for fashion and art. We loved a lot of the same streetwear brands and stuff from back in 2008 and 2009. Rogue Status, Supreme, before it was considered Hypebeast stuff. We just kinda liked it and would always bond over buying a fresh shirt. We love graphics and things in that world that were saying something funny or stupid, not just wearing a shirt that you would get at Tilly’s back in the day.
That led into us always wanting to do a proper fashion thing of our own. We’ve been doing this brand called Newport Bleach since COVID. It wasn’t started intentionally because of COVID, but we started it basically right around there and just love making quality merch. We’re both so specific on the blanks that we like and the fashion side of it, looking at the high-end brands, like Saint Laurent and thinking about how we can bring a version of that to the world. We’ve been doing that for a few years and working with other artists. When we were talking about doing music again, it was always the goal to put it all together. We have love for so many things, and it’s kinda like how do we make all that into something cohesive? We already have the first MOVIESTARZ shirt on our brand’s website.
Alex Pombar: I have a close friend of mine who thought that MOVIESTARZ was just a clothing brand. He liked the shirt and the graphic and thought it was cool. I think the art around the music is just as important as making the music itself. It captures who we are and our vibe and our style. For future listeners, maybe they’ll like what we have going on aesthetically and then check out the music from there.
Tyler Nichols: We’d always talk about iconic band imagery, like the Misfits skull, the Rolling Stones tongue, the Blink-182 smiley, etc. I feel like now people just wear them just because they think it’s a dope shirt, and they know it meant something back in the day. We’re just as cognizant of being okay if people just rock our stuff because they like our graphics, too. Like, if they just think our art is cool and don’t even mess with the music, I still think that’s a win.
JG: You mentioned the Misfits, the Stones, and Blink having strong visual identities. It really is true that iconography is just as important as the music itself when it comes to cultivating a loyal audience.
Tyler Nichols: My least favourite cliche ever is don’t judge a book by its cover. Because I always think, if the book is that good, they should have cared about what the fuck it was gonna look like on the outside. You gotta make me wanna pick that thing up too. If you’re gonna write down 200 pages of words and you want me to read all that, you gotta make the front cover look cool. Like, no, bitch. Absolutely. I’m judging a book by its cover. The cover better be dope. Everyone has watched a movie because they saw the movie poster and thought it looked sick. Or you click something on Netflix because the graphic looks cool. Let me see what it is and at least watch a preview. Or if the graphic on it sucks, you probably just scroll past it every time.
JG: You’ve been collaborating since 2006. How has your musical dynamic evolved over the years?
Alex Pombar: I think out of the years that we’ve been doing music together, whether it’s this or bands that we were in before, it’s changed a lot just because we’re a lot older now and we are a lot more self-aware of what’s out and what’s trending. But at the same time, we’ve still been able to keep the core of what we’ve always been into, like, of course, Blink-182, EDM, and hip-hop.
We’ve evolved as songwriters and musicians. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being in those bands, playing those shows and doing all that stuff has taught us a lot that we’ve brought into this new project. The do’s and don’ts, and the mistakes we made, and now just putting it into this new project.
JG: You’ve talked about how strong the visual identity is with what you guys are doing. Have you put any thought into what the live MOVIESTARZ experience would be like for fans?
Tyler Nichols: When me and Alex would get together and work on all the music and demos of what’s become the album, my whole thing was like, I’m sorry but I’m going to be very annoying. I see this whole thing in such a certain way in my head, and I know what I want it to be. I know I’m going to be just as annoying about what the live show is because I want us to have pro-level stuff from the jump. I want people to come to the first MOVIESTARZ show and for it to feel like you’re at our thousandth show.
Alex Pombar: I feel like we’ve experienced enough. We’ve seen a lot of shows, and I think we can see what the standard is. You know? If you go to a Charli XCX show or something, you know what you’re gonna walk yourself into. If you go to a 1975 show, you kinda know what to expect. There’s gonna be all these lights, all this crazy production. We’re going to try to encapsulate that in our live set.
Tyler Nichols: I’d want it to be like you’re walking into an environment. Like if you want to Brat tour or if you went to Eras, not that we’re we’re gonna play fucking stadiums right away but hopefull one day, but we’re thinking big. The sky’s the limit. We would ideally play a 500-cap club show for our debut show, that would be my goal. We would absolutely have on-stage visuals, and for there to be purpose in everything that’s on stage.
JG: What can we expect from the upcoming album?
Tyler Nichols: I think it’s amazing. I literally just posted on Instagram about how good the album is. Straight out, I just put on my story that the album is sick. I love it. We put basically two and a half years into this.
This album feels the most like exactly what I want to put out. I love listening to it myself. Every time I put it on, I’m like, this is fucking tight. I’m very proud of it. I think it’s cool. I think it’s fun. I think there’s something for everybody, no matter if you like pop-punk, if you like dancey electronic weird shit, if you like straight-up pop, and there’s a heavy moment in one of the songs where it feels like it could be like A Day To Remember for a hot second. The song is called “Listening.” The inspiration was actually a Fall of Troy song.
But anyway, I’m very proud of it. I’m very stoked for people to hear the whole thing and I think it listens well. Even the track list, I took a ton of time to shuffle it around and hear it a bunch of different ways. I’m proud of how it starts and how it ends. It tells a story in a way that makes sense. So yes, I’m very stoked, and I hope a lot of people tune in because we put a lot of work into it.
JG: That definitely comes across. It sounds like you’ve been pretty meticulous about everything.
Tyler Nichols: Like I said, I was very annoying, but I hope for a good reason.
JG: Lastly, what’s next for MOVIESTARZ? More singles, music videos, live shows?
Tyler Nichols: We have the music video for “CLUB PUNK.” I got the first version of it. And because I’m annoying, I’m probably gonna edit it a little bit and make it exactly what I want it to be, but it’s at like 96% right now. And we’re going to put that out hopefully in the next week or two. Then we’re just going to slowly roll out the record and have that be out by the end of the year. We’re going to drop more videos, and I hope we’ll have our first show or two along the way in 2025. That would be my goal for sure, and just get this into as many ears as possible.