Hotels
I like hotels. Even if it's a crappy hotel, I feel special sleeping in a hotel bed. Even though I find it yucky when I think of how many people who have slept (and...yeah) there before. I don't like hostels. I stayed in a hostel in Singapore some years ago. There were bunk beds and the guy who slept in the bottom one was smoking all the time and watching the TV he had bought. I guess he was living there for a while. Maybe he thought of me as an intruder. I dont like hostels. I like hotels.

I like Hotels. I like their synths. I like the instrumental and playful sounds. You guys who are acquainted with the Swedish band Bob Hund can think of Bob Hund without the crazy singing. And bit more tamed. To all the rest, think of good music and you will get a pretty good idea. Now read this interview with Blake. And get the songs. // Dandy

Hotels - Atlantic
Hotels - Cinemascope

If you guys would run a hotel, where would it be located? And why? What would it be called?
An excellent question, to be sure. It is in fact in our future plans to build our own underwater Hotel, "The Maudlin". It will be encased in a very large glass dome, and have the biggest casino in the world. We wrote a song about it called "The Maudlin".

Who do what in the band?
Blake plays bass, Rich 1 plays guitar, Rich 2 plays synths, Max plays drums. And we all contribute to the synth blood bath.

You are situated in both New York and Seattle, right? How does that work? Webcam rehearsals?
It's a bit of a tricky situation, and it's still being ironed out. Between the four of us, we live in three different states separated by a lot of land. But Max and I fly into NY as much as we can to play shows and record. These days, we usually practice one to two times every three months, usually for just a few hours before a show. The last time we played, we learned a new song three hours before the show. It's a bit crazy, but we know the songs and each other well enough to make it work somehow.

In the meantime, I'm writing music for our next album(s) in Seattle, and forming a west coast version to play new music I've written out here. It's not a new band, it's not a different band, it's not the same band with the members replaced. It's a different take on the same idea; what Hotels would be (and is) if it were based out here. At the end of this year, we hope to have two different parts to the same album completed, a side of east and west music respectively. I believe we'll all be situated in the same place again at the same time in the future. But being truly bi- coastal is the goal. Extensive travel is part of our image, you know.

There is a surf feeling to some of your songs, where does it come from? Do you surf?
I don't think any of us surf, although I won't deny the influence. I think it comes from not giving the same focus to vocals that a lot of other pop music does. Some people (musicians and listeners both) need to have vocals over every part of a song, but to me, some of the most catchy, memorable, poppy music ever written (surf music) never had any vocals at all. Even my dad knows the Ventures. It's more interesting for me to have a strong melody and a well crafted song, than one buried under vocals. You can attach your own meaning and emotions to a good melody instead of being told how to feel. Besides, we love the sound of reverb on a guitar, or anything for that matter.

The album "Thank You For Choosing... " Did you release it yourself? How is the Pralaya label connected?
Initially we released it ourselves. In the interim, Rich 1 and his bandmate from another band (Friendly Bears) Matt Filler started up Pralaya as a means to put out their record. In a short time, Pralaya has morphed into something else, namely an experimental pop label with a roster of a handful of bands with close relations, although different aesthetics, but similar enough in our feelings that "pop" is not a dirty word; at its core it simply means catchy, well written, melody driven music, in all its forms. We even have our own in- house producer, Justin Colletti, an enigmatic figure who gesticulates a lot.

If you could choose, what band would you join on their world tour and open for? Why?
That's a tough one. There's a few dead/ and or broken up people out there that it just wouldn't quite work for. Right now, maybe DEVO. We are already competing with them in our own minds in terms of synth mastery. I think we have them beat on sheer number (at one point we had 6 synths on stage at the same time, all used in one song) and depth, but no one will ever be as tight a synth bass player as Jerry Casale. The whole band is still sharp as a metronome and they're probably in their fifties now, right? Other than them, maybe Yellow Magic Orchestra or Prince in their respective heydays. YMO has a literal arsenal of synths and electronics when they play. They have a person whose sole job is to switch synth patches on a huge upright board. And Prince, what can you really say about Prince that hasn't been said already? That guy's a genius.