Denver, CO — Worcester, Massachusetts born and raised The Hotelier came to Denver this week headlining this month’s installment of Red Bull Sound Select. They’re playing Friday afternoon at Riot Fest, which this year is only one weekend, in Chicago. In 2016 Boston Music Awards named them Punk/Hardcore artist of the year.
Are they punk/hardcore, are they ready for another year of Riot Fest and how was the trip to Denver? Christian Holden, the bassist and singer, has good things going on. He recently bought a house with friends, they’ve dubbed it “The Starship,” he plays music and he plays cards. All this while finding ways to support people and causes he’s deemed socially important. “In my life I’ve been playing music and playing poker. Mostly I’m thinking of ways I can materially support people who need it and are doing cool work. How to engage in activism and how to support it with the amount of time I have in my life.”
“There’s a lot of variation within emo,
I think we’re just a pop country band in disguise.”
The Hotelier are a lot of things musically. “Definitely not hardcore. We all grew up in Massachusetts and played in local bands, so we knew what hardcore was. We made this band it was like, we respect hardcore, everyone’s making hardcore music. What I was interested in was making this sort of poppy rock music, vaguely emo, there’s not a way that I describe it that’s any real definition or genre,” Christian’s response to being called a hardcore band from Massachusetts, “when we get defined as an emo band it’s mostly like all these bands that are in the same scene, play shows together, that all came up together — That’s all the vague ways to describe it.”
Nonethess, they take inspiration from the scene. “Last Lights was a band fronted by this guy Dominic Mallory who ended up dying, right after his set, the lyricism was what we all gravitated to — and was like this is great.”
“Last Lights was a hardcore band and even within hardcore there was ways in which they used pop structure that I thought was really cool.” Christian told the story of Dominic, his side projects like God and Country and the influence he left on him and his music. “When I was growing up in Massachusetts there was a bunch of bands such as Last Lights — probably the most influential band on us as a band.” It’s a heavy duty impression to leave.
The Hotelier’s have a sound that feels like Massachusetts country. The further you get from the coast, things tend to slow down compared to city. A ride down the Massachusetts turnpike can feel like states away from Boston even before the New York state line. Sprawling green horizon replaces a skyline of buildings. Pressure melts, pace is quieted and nature makes you introspective. Life has another rhythm. The closer you are to The Berkshires, the more mellow you become. The Hotelier sound like the transition of Interstate 90 riding West from Boston to Worcester and beyond. “We talk about suburban feel in a lot of our art. The town that I grew up in is a town that straddles suburban Worcester County, rural Western Massachusetts and the band does straddle those sounds from time to time,” Christian said. “I think when you talk to musicians or when you hear musicians work mostly you can attach it to where they’re from. In a lot of ways it’s just like growing up in the suburbs — a lot of the music, our music, sort of resembles a suburban feel.”
“It’s a cool life that I can just fly out,
play one show, go home.”
The Denver show was great. They played a set that included tunes from Home, Like Noplace Is There and Goodness. “We have made a set of a whole bunch of songs that we haven’t been playing — we put a bunch of those into the set. I’m excited to try out the song “Fear of Good,” we’ve been messing around with. It’s totally improve, we don’t really know what we’re doing with it yet. It’s a structural idea, kind of just jam during this part, we’ll play this part, and then we’ll jam again.”
In all they played “The Scope of All of This,” “Two Deliverances,” “Settle the Scar,” “Opening Mail for My Grandmother,” “In Framing,” “Among the Wildflowers,” “Soft Animal,” “You in This Light,” “Your Deep Rest,” “Fear of Good,” and “End of Reel.” It was a poetic blend of their latest and 2014 records.
It was a little adventure for the band making it to the Denver show from Boston. “We had a layover in Phili, the flight got delayed because of storms. Sam was like, “I’m really tired, I’ve got to go lay down.” Didn’t tell anyone he was going to lay down, so we all get on the plane. They board everyone, we’re on the plane, we’re like where’s Sam? I get off and start running around the terminal trying to find anyone who’s sleeping to see if it’s Sam. I was like, I can’t find him, so we just take off. We had to buy him another flight to get out here.” Christian added, “It was no big deal, funny story.”
He’s looking forward to the trip to Chicago, “When we played Riot Fest the first time I was like this is the most hospitable set up that we could have asked for. They’re really nice to artists there. The lineups are pretty cool — I’m excited.” They’ve got a mini tour coming out of Riot Fest weekend, you should check them out.
Leaving the Denver show the fans were excited to see them. Their music is moving and sensitive. Overheard in the parking lot “Christian is really an inspiration.” They’re a Massachusetts band who formed in Worcester, won awards in Boston, rocked Denver, look forward to Chicago. Surely Friday of Riot Fest will be a blast, on to the Wast Coast and finally the Midwest. Christian, Chris and Sam stay true to the simple beauty of their sound. Wherever they are on a map or the location their records are stocked at the record store, they make poppy, punk, sometimes emo, country — they make thoughtful music and they hope it always redefines and grows genres.
Actual_Analog 