Photo credit: Paris Brosnan
LA-based duo Motel 7 arrives with their latest single “Things I Hate,” an introspective dive into the LA nightlife scene. “We’re writing about being dragged into another night surrounded by ‘people and places and things that I hate,’” the band expresses. Distorted and crunched up guitar tones merge with dynamic synth pads and textures as Motel 7 combines the elements of rock and hip-hop cadences to their overall resonance. The self-awareness theme associated with “Things I Hate” triggers anxiety and that feeling of wanting nothing more than to just be at home wishing you never went out in the first place.
Last month’s single “Messing With Fire” highlighted the theme of battling your emotions in a vulnerable state. Airy vocals dance on top of a driving 808 that compliments an array of distorted drums and electric guitar. With a chameleonic approach to alt-pop, the duo’s recent effort is fueled by summer-soaked arrangements, lo-fi alternative beats, and vibrant textures. Accompanied by a Paris Brosnan directed music video, the clip takes listeners on a delirious journey back to the past with 90s style visuals. As we adhere to the band’s lyric “Why are you messing with fire / Trying to get higher,” we recognize both the truths and falsehoods of our own identity.
Tell us about the story of your act
Motel 7 was always a creative outlet for us. We’d kind of just hang out at home and make beats, and then do our best to sing on it. Little did we know, it would actually make it on the internet. For the longest time we just kept the music for ourselves, it was just a fun thing we would do together as our main focus at the time was our own artist projects. At one moment, we were like you know what.. Let’s put this music online and see what happens. We made two songs one night and uploaded them to soundcloud under the name “Motel 7”. Originally we were joking saying our name should be “Motel 6”. But we then decided to change the number so it would be somewhat different from the actual “Motel 6” haha.
What is the message behind your art?
We want everything in Motel 7 to feel natural, we want it to feel real – a combination of authenticity to who we are as people and what we are inspired by creatively and emotionally. It’s our creative outlet.
What are some sources of inspiration for your lyrics and storytelling?
Life. Everything we write about is generally about a true moment that we have experienced ourselves, a moment that can be either happy or sad. Whatever it is, we will make a story out of it. Aside from life, we draw inspiration from artists and bands we listen to on a daily basis. We are always listening and discovering new music, and everyday we learn something new from it.
Who is an artist that you look up to more than others today?
It’s definitely a tie between John Mayer and Coldplay. In our opinion they have made such a substantial footprint in music, and have broken boundaries in terms of creativity and play a big part in how music is made and sounds today.
All time favorite record?
Love Yourself by Justin Bieber
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about
We had the demo written and then one day we got in the studio with our talented friend Luke Swirsky, and started to bring the song to life. The concept of the entire song was written about those moments when you’d go out with your friends, and maybe get too drunk or make poor decisions that you instantly regret after doing them. I’m sure many people have experienced situations just like that. We felt like the story was relatable. Especially in cities like Los Angeles, where we live currently. Nightlife is definitely a big thing, and we see situations like this happening almost every weekend.
You seem to be fusing several musical genres. What inspires your sound?
We listen to everything and anything. Anywhere from Rap to Country. Music is music. There is always something you can get inspired from in terms of listening to music, no matter the genre or style. We both come from musical backgrounds, and can play different instruments and both have different approaches to songwriting and production, so when that meshes together it sort of contrasts each other and creates a unique product.
What excites you the most about what you do?
Everyday we get to wake up, make music, and work towards creating something we love more than anything else in the world. I think that is probably the most exciting feeling we could ever ask for.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
We’d love to be touring the world, playing shows for crowds that can sing every word of every song without any hesitation, all by heart.
How do you take care of your aesthetics?
We definitely know what we like and what we don’t like in terms of writing and producing the music. But that also changes for us almost every day. We are always growing and learning, we are always getting inspired by something new and that definitely reflects in our music as we grow. We are still discovering our true sound and if there are any flaws in our music or lyrics, we embrace it. No one is perfect. I think there’s a beauty in that mindset.
What was the most daunting moment in your career so far?
Back in 2018 we put out our very first song on Soundcloud. It’s currently no longer up there, but we remember how nerve wracking it was to release music and also to be singing on this music as we have only just started to sing at that time. We were definitely a bit nervous and anxious to have people hear it, but we certainly don’t regret it. Without that leap of faith, we wouldn’t be here today as a band.
What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Don’t give up.
Where do you think the next game changer will be in the music industry and entertainment scene?
It would be amazing to see songwriters, producers, and engineers be credited more in music. To have their own designated pages on Spotify and Apple Music, etc. A lot of the time big songs come out, and people only know the artist releasing it but not the people who helped write, record, and produce the record. It takes a village sometimes to write some of the greatest music, and every person involved is such a key contribution to the final product.
