Motel Motel Interview

One of Brooklyn’s up and coming bands, Motel Motel, have a busy schedule ahead of them. They will be at Southpaw this weekend (February 13) as part of BAM’s Sound Like Brooklyn and are sure to put on an excellent show if they play like they have at other recent shows (Sound Fix, Market Hotel). They are scheduled to play three shows in Austin during SXSW in March and three shows in England as part of the End of the Road Festival in England in September. Of course there is plenty of time between March and September so expect them to be playing lots of shows, especially in NYC.

They tore it up at CMJ last fall and have been making waves ever since. I was immediately captivated by their sound when I listened to songs off of their debut album New Denver. They are definitely one of the best up and coming bands in New York today, with a unique sound and thought provoking lyrics, and I recently got the chance to ask guitarist Mickey Theis a few questions:

BigAppleMusicScene: I am mildly obsessed with your song “Coffee.” Can you tell me a little bit about your inspiration for that song?

Motel Motel: Well, as I remember it, Eric, Timo, and I wrote that song together. The details of how it all came about are a little fuzzy for some reason…though not for those reasons that the song might suggest (i.e. coke, booze, etc). But the title is appropriate. None of us were really zonked on drugs or sloshed on wine when we wrote it, but Eric and I were most definitely guzzling gallons of coffee. I just remember the writing/recording of that song being an almost telepathic kind of thing. It was as if we all knew how we wanted it to go and so we just did it. The song came out. You know you’re involved with a special group of people when that kind of thing can happen.

BAMS: A lot of your songs have to do with New York. Did you guys grow up here? How does being from/living in New York affect your music?

Motel Motel: I’ve always been interested in the relationship between geography and music… I grew up listening to a lot of jazz, bebop in particular…So when I heard “52nd Street Theme” I heard New York. (Just as I heard the West Coast when I listened to Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan play “All the Things You Are.”) In terms of pop music at that same time, I could tell the difference between East and West Coast rap, I could hear “the Seattle” in grunge…Nowadays, you listen to music and it’s the same: you hear Bushwick in M.I.A. and New Orleans in Lil Wayne. I think it’s the same with our music: you hear a little bit of New York, but since were really from all over the place you hear something other than that in a way. I grew up in Colorado, Eric in Upstate NY, ”other” Erik in Vermont, Jeremy in Virginia, Timo in Hawaii… We’re really from all over the place. I think it’s reflected in our music. When I listen to our music, I usually think more about the spaces between places. I think about the open road. Kind of like listening to ”Jack Straw” a bunch of times in a row.

BAMS:  How did you come up with your band name?

Motel Motel: A friend of mine was working as a night janitor at a hotel in Denver awhile back. The hotel had some really fancy name. He was ranting one night and got on the subject of his hotel… The name irritated him and he wished they could just strip it down, make it simpler–a little less pretentious. “Why not just Hotel Hotel?” he says. He told me that since I was obviously moving to New York to try and become famous (haha) that if I should ever start a band I’d have to name it “Hotel Hotel.” But there was already an English band called that. So we had to go with “Motel Motel.” I think it fits us better anyways. We don’t just give you HBO. And our pool ain’t that clean.

BAMS:  You’re playing next weekend at Southpaw as part of BAM’s “Sounds Like Brooklyn” festival. Do you consider your sound to “sound like Brooklyn”?

Motel Motel: Hmmm… I think I’m gonna stick with the whole “we sound like the open road” thing. Which is ridiculous, of course, but probably close to what I really feel about our music. I mean, there are some bands that you listen to and you just know they’re from a place. It might be true for us. But maybe there are just a lot of roads in Brooklyn. And there are a lot of roads in Lincoln, Nebraska, too.

BAMS: Have you guys played at SXSW before or will this be your first time? Are you nervous, excited? What other bands are you excited to see?

Motel Motel: We’ve never played SXSW before and we’re definitely excited to play it. We just submitted on Sonicbids and…well, the rest is history. I’m psyched to see Akron/Family and to see all the Rebel Group bands. But I haven’t taken a close enough look at the list. To tell you the God’s-honest-truth, I was mostly planning on hanging out with my mom while I’m down there…maybe taking my cousins out to “Schliterbahn” in New Braunfels.

BAMS: What do you see in the future for Motel Motel?

Motel Motel: Well, if 2012 is not too devastating…and more on the “transformation” side of possibilities than on the ”apocalypse” side, I see a very bright future for each of us. I see a lot of transformation and growth. We’re hopefully traveling to England in September, which will be our first trip outside the U.S., which will be incredible if it works out. I just hope to be touring a lot. That’s how you really grow and learn as a band and as an individual. All I want to do is travel around and meet people…What does Martin Buber say? “All living is meeting?” I’d like to live by that idea.

Images and MP3: Courtesy of the band and Adam Ritchie