Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – In February of this year, Hotel Fiction released the deluxe version of their 2024 album “Staring at the Sun.” To celebrate the release, they’ve embarked on a short Pacific and Mountain states tour, opening for Canadian band The Strumbellas. The tour included a stop at the Regent Theater for the Atlanta-based, Athens-founded band.
The core members of the band are Jade Long (vocals, keys) and Jessica Thompson (vocals, guitar). They started off their set with the rousing “Still Frozen.” They then turned down the volume with “Sunrise.” When they got to “Athens GA” the crowd was sold (especially the children in the crowd) and the song was met with loud cheers.
For “Ghost of Me” the band mentioned that they heard that the Regent Theater was haunted. One might think they were just making that up as an introduction to the yearning song, but research indicates that digital creator Ansley Layne does believe that this venue, opened in 1914, is indeed haunted. How′re your parents, how’s the dog. Do they notice that I’m gone.
To close out the set, the band went into fun instrumental music battles for their new song “Time Machine.” As the clock was running out on their set, they concluded with the fast talking song “Why Do Good Things Have to End.” The pair, Long and Thompson, did a four hands on the keyboard to start it off. The song sped along in a fun way to beat the clock with the final word of the song being a quick finger-snapped “end.”
Prior to their tour, the band was kind enough to do a Q&A with US Rocker Music:
US Rocker: The deluxe version of your 2024 album Staring at the Sun was just released at the end of February. What inspired you to release a deluxe version? You’ve added four new songs to the new release. Is there a story behind one of the new songs you’d be willing to share? Or perhaps what makes one a favorite?
Hotel Fiction: Making the Staring at the Sun Deluxe version was our way to put a bow on this group of songs and this time in our lives. There are always a couple of songs from every album writing season that don’t make it onto the original album, so it was really nice to give those songs the attention that we felt they deserved.
One of our favorites on the Deluxe record is our song “Emmaline,” which is dedicated to anybody going through a hard time and wondering if things will be alright again. Jade started this song for one of our friends in college and it was a really beautiful experience to pick it back up, rework it and add new life to it on the album. That friend who was going through it is now so much happier, so we’ve dedicated it to new friends who are having a harder time now, and it still feels just as true.
US Rocker: Your music flows so wonderfully. What generally takes the band longer to finish: the lyrics or the music to a song?
Hotel Fiction: This is a tough question! It’s just so song dependent. We certainly take our time with both. Typically we’re revising lyrics up until the last moment of the recording process, but when we’re writing the music we’re constantly spending time testing different progressions, timings, lengths, arrangements, etc. The music tends to evolve more in the recording process compared to the lyrics, which can sometimes retain most of their original qualities as we refine the rest.
US Rocker: What’s a dream venue/festival you’d love to play at and what about it intrigues you?
Hotel Fiction: We’ve had a long-term obsession with Bonnaroo, so that festival is pretty high on our list. The whole band went to Bonnaroo three years ago and had a pretty unforgettable time, which at one point involved all five of us sleeping in a tent and sharing one sleeping bag, one air mattress, and one pillow. We went back this year and experienced the famous Rainaroo and had an equally memorable time. One of our most magical experiences was watching Stevie Nicks perform at Bonnaroo, which just made us want to play it more too.
US Rocker: Is there something unique about the band that you’d like to share?
Hotel Fiction: We have telepathy. That’s our fun fact. While we were writing this on facetime with each other Jess wrote **redacted inappropriate joke** in the Google Doc and Jade simultaneously said **same joke** without reading her writing. So we figured it was fate and we had to include that in here now. We often show up somewhere matching in similar outfits without discussing it. Or say the same thing at the same time. What we’re trying to say is we’re on the same wavelength. Our telepathic powers only grow stronger with each passing day.
Setlist: Still Frozen, Sunrise, Athens GA, Ghost of Me, Margot, Counterfeit, Time Machine, Why Do Good Things Have to End.
