Chris Motionless Explains The Story Behind New Single "Playing God"

The new Motionless In White single "Playing God" drops tomorrow morning, Wednesday, May 6th, at 10am EDT, and ahead of its release, frontman Chris Motionless (nee Cerulli) has some thoughts.

On his socials, Motionless posted the following message regarding the new song:

"'Playing God' is not about any one specific theme of social media infuriation, but a vast amount of themes under the wider umbrella of intentionally toxic and embarrassing behavior exhibited by the bottom-feeding rats of the internet, scavenging for any morsel of attention that helps them cope with the fact that thteir existence is a miserable wasteland of desperation and self-inflicted loneliness.

The song is about people who treat bands, artists, entertainers, etc... as though they are property to impose their all-knowing godly rule upon. How to look, how to sound, how to speak, all while knowing that there is no right answer to these points, because the 'right answer' doesn't generate engagement. Only negative speculation and hateful opinions create a space where all like-minded rats, thirsting for their big hit tweet, can thrive. No expense is spared in pursuit of their big moment of fleeting praise.

It's about people who presume to know the granular details of our lives, our character, our choices, and our business, constructing their own false narrative with absolutely no regard or acknowledgement for how vastly uneducated they are on every one of those topics. People's parasocial disease and sense of entitlement have enabled them to feel worthy of every detail they desire, and they cannot stand what the don't know, so the agonizing default is to point the finger to the worst possible scenario instead of giving any benefit of the doubt or trying to educate themselves. But hey, truth doesn't matter, clicks do, and a win's a win, right?

It's about fans that claim they despise an artist but invest an absurd amount of time and make it their entire personality to obsessively talk about that artist, because the only thing they hate more, is not receiving the praise and attention for their opinion. It's not enough for them to simply not engage, they've made it their purpose to spend hours of their lives typing out the same NPC-grade comments to attract other NPC's to pat each other on the back and bolster their social self-worth. It's not just that they hate that person, it's that they also hate themselves for being so painfully uninteresting that it requires using someone else's name and accomplishments to create a false illusion of importance and clout. Endless variants of the same recycled opinion, tweaked slightly until one hits with a few hundred likes and queue the 'omg a hit tweet, I tottalllllyyy wasn't expecting that!'

Social media has incentivized the populace to rage bait, farm, lie, and share their meaningless hot takes to stimulate their digital economy, and I understand that, but it doesn't make it any less disheartening to witness hoe many people choose to participate in it. Everything I wrote above is just a small fraction of a much bigger picture, but no one wants to read beyond a page, so that's all I got for now. Don't get it twisted, I agree that everyone is, in fact, entitled to their opinion, but this song is focused on the very distinct line between an opinion and a bunch of hollow, self-indulgent words with absolutely no real conviction, meant only to create engagement and stire the pot. I don't want everything to be sunshine and rainbows and love, I just want people to shut the fuck up and focus on shit that would bring actual fulfillment to their lives.

In responding to another tweet where a fan dedicated the song to toxic wrestling fans, Motionless seemed to take a shot at those criticizing WWE Women's Champion Rhea Ripley, who has been open about her struggles with an eating disorder. Recent changes in her physique were a talking point going into her recent title match with Jade Cargill at WrestleMania, which had Spiritbox's "Hurt You" as the theme for the highlight hype package.

It's also worth noting that Motionless In White perform Ripley's entrance theme "Demon In Your Dreams," which the band played live at WrestleMania XL in 2024. There's years of history between Ripley and Motionless, so that aspect of this song is going to be that much more personal.

"Playing God" will have an as-yet-unnamed feature and drops tomorrow at 10am EDT.