Interview #8: Moon Motel *LOCAL ARTIST SPRINGBREAK SHOWCASE*
I met Jay, the leader of the strung-together group of ridiculously talented artists that is Moon Motel, about a year ago when we were both in serious need of some inspiration and just some simple company.
Of course, we decided to go see the latest Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom, and we've been friends ever since!
Jay and I sat down in a Starbucks in Howell, right across the street from the dingy building that dawns the official name "The Moon Motel," in danger of being permanently condemned by a single-room fire that evacuated the premises earlier this March.
Luckily, no one was hurt and only a few rooms were effected by the fire, but the thought of the ever-present fixation on Route 9 being torn down, was something we couldn't see happen before we had a closer look.
(Jay will be MM)
B: Name the people you have been playing with and how it got to be what it is today
MM: Moon Motel started probably a decade ago, maybe even longer, according to their sign, they opened in the 50's **laughs but I started Moon Motel after High school when I was playing around on an acoustic guitar, writing my own songs. I love the name, it was a metaphor, but the actual Moon Motel is also very important to me.
It's been everything from playing solo with an acoustic guitar, to having 20 people in the band, and I never know what it's gonna be on any given show.
The standards in the band are definitely Javier Rebollar, (his girlfriend) Nicole Fischer, we're joined by Al Letizia , from the Seabirds, Chloe Demos, and Andy Demos.
It's ever-expanding and ever-shrinking depending on the day
B: What was your most recent show?
MM: I played at Revolutionary Lounge on Friday with Frank Lombardi...We've been playing a lot at The Berkeley Hotel in Asbury. More frequently, we're playing in someone's living room, which is how we like it.
***~*~ requested shout out to Frank Lombardi ~*~***
B: What are your hopes for this project?
MM: Well we just released our album, and I think the next thing we're going to get into is a film. I'm always ready to work on new things and collaborate with new people.
B: Tell me more!
MM: Well it started with Brian Cutts from Reaction 1 Media approaching me at our Record Release show and asking me if I'd be interested in writing a screen play for him. I was excited to start the next project and a lot of people have already expressed interest in doing it, and I just feel so fortunate to have such talented and generous friends. I never have to pay to have someone help me out with a project. People are usually very willing to do it just for the love of the art, which is really incredible.
The film is going to be a love story, just real people being real, but not documentary style.
B: Do you have a comment on the local scene around here?
MM: I think that there's a very supportive vibe around here and that's hard to come by. Musicians are usually playing for other musicians and that puts on a lot of pressure, but people take the time to appreciate their friends' work.
Some people say that the scene here is declining, for whatever reason, maybe it's the decline in places to play but I think it's just the natural ebb and flow of things and that we shouldn't see the scene as declining just because the venues are declining. It's a community of people not a community of places.
Now that Spring is coming around, I hope that we do more shows out on the beach or out in the woods, or MAYBE even in the condemned Moon Motel............. ;)
B: How did you record?
MM: Living room floor, Javier's house.
Javier actually had a really good quote that he might not even remember saying, but he told me: "you should record in the environment you write in," and since I can't record in the shower **laughs, the living room floor is the closest I can get.
B: What was your very first instrument?
MM: Some of my earliest memories are of this little Fischer Price record player. I don't remember what records I had but I remember having it on the floor and marching around it.
I was always trying to persuade my parents to let me play drums but they had a million excuses why I shouldn't play drums so they gave me a clarinet, instead. That was my introduction to hating music, because with the clarinet they tried to teach all the technical stuff but I hated all of that.
I finally found a guitar and realized that making music for me is about the writing, it's not about the language of music but it's about the exploration and tools of expression.
B: Is there a specific message in your music or is it purely expression?
MM: The last album was primarily based on heartache and the experiences that inspired me.
I like to find ways to get poetry out there, and music is the perfect medium because I'm not a speaker. I admire slam poetry and spoken word poetry but I could never manage to read like that, and I've been writing poetry for years, so my music is just my way of conveying poetry.
B: How did you assemble a core group of people to play on the album
MM: we didn't ! people came together, I dont like to over think it. If I build it up in my head too much I will always feel unsatisfied with how the recording came out.
When you get to do things on your own you get to take your time and make it how ever you want.
It didn't take very long, we wrote it and recorded it immediately, all the songs that we've had, we didn't really record all of them because the songs on the album were all relevant and fresh.
B: Do you plan out your sets?
MM: NEVER, we always choose them on the spot based on how we are feeling. Sometimes, we won't be emotionally identifying with a certain song on the night of a show, so we just don't play it. That's what's great about playing most of our stuff impromptu, we really get into and feel out a song. It usually takes me about 4 minutes to get into a song that might be 3 minutes long. Live, we like to just let it flow and see where the melody takes us.
THE END
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If you're interested in getting your hands on the album, it's as easy as asking for it!
This visionary group of artists have made physical copies of their album available FOR FREE!!!! No digital downloads available at this time, but a simple Facebook message is enough to get the ball rolling on getting your hands on this piece of Motel Gold.