motel void

MOTEL VOID: You’re from Leicester, UK. How would you describe the current music scene there?

Harper: Hard to say. We consider our sound to be more US-leaning. The bedroom scene feels quite global and not really tied to one area. In terms of UK artists, we really do love: far caspian, sunnbrella. Devil town tapes have a great roster too. So many cool UK and US bands on there.

MOTEL VOID: Could you recommend us your favourite local artists and venues?

Harper: In the East Midlands where we’re from, there is a city called Nottingham, which has an amazing venue called ‘rescue rooms’. We’ve been to so many gigs there over the years. Earlier this year we saw Alex G there, which was divine.

MOTEL VOID: I really loved your 2022 single ‘Headlock’ which was a part of this year’s EP Spider. How were you satisfied with the reception of the record?

Harper: We were so moved by all the love ‘headlock’ received. It was the first time we’d really felt confident about our ability to write a song. That’s why we added things like the rapping section and more aggressive/bouncy drums. Before this point, I think we went into songs to tone them down rather than stick to our gut.

Also working with Bennett Littlejohn and Edsel Holden on headlock (and the rest of the EP) was crazy for us as we’d always looked up to them in the music world. We don’t think headlock would have been half as good without them.

MOTEL VOID: Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process of the album?

Harper: We write and record everything at home. Originally we had an outline for the EP that got scrapped as we were releasing singles. What that ended up meaning was that we were writing the EP as we were releasing it. Definitely stressful and wouldn’t do it that way again. We’re still so proud of how it ended up though. It covered such a large spectrum of emotions for us. It might not have been that way if we’d have written it all at once, like we’d first planned.

MOTEL VOID: What kind of DAW do you use?

Harper: Logic Pro. Been using it for years and I find all DAWs are pretty great. Just which ever one you get used to I suppose. One great thing about Logic for us is that they have a great loops library. All the new songs we’re recording seem to have Apple Loops somewhere in them.

MOTEL VOID: What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Harper: We’re currently working on our first album. it’s taken us a while to have the confidence and self-belief to be able to do a project like this. we also wanted to wait until we had something important to say. we got married earlier this year and this really put into perspective how far we’ve come together. the album feels like a celebration of all the things we’ve done so far. It goes without saying but we are incredibly excited to start sharing this new era with people.