motel void

MOTEL VOID: Could you introduce your project in a few sentences? I haven’t found much information about you on the internet to be honest…

HISTORIC BUILDINGS: Yes! We are sort of brand new. We formed in the Spring of 2023 and wrote and recorded a 3-song EP in the Summer/Fall called Kicker. We decided to put it out into the world before playing out live. We’re a three piece from Chicago (or sort of Durham, NC). I (Robert) sing and play guitar, Dan plays bass/keys/guitar and sings a little, and Mike plays drums.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released your debut single/EP ‘Kicker’. Is ‘Historic Buildings’ your first music project?

HISTORIC BUILDINGS: It’s not our first music project. Dan and I have been playing music together for years in Chicago. We were in a band called Bound Stems that put out a few records and toured quite a bit. Mike played in a bunch of Chicago bands over the last ten years or so. Mike’s also a recording engineer and used to manage IV Lab Recording Studio in Chicago. So all of us have been doing this for a while.

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

HISTORIC BUILDINGS: The songs all begin as quiet acoustic songs. Then me and Mike got into the practice space to start the process of making them a little bigger, louder, and playing around with the arrangements. Dan primarily lives in Durham, NC now but is back in Chicago often. When he’s in town we write and he fills in some of the holes and essentially adds most of the hooky instrumental stuff. The bass line and doubled guitar line in Quiet Mary, for instance, was all him. We’ve been working together for years and he has a knack for making my rather simple songs sound a little more interesting.

MOTEL VOID: Your biggest inspirations right now?

HISTORIC BUILDINGS: I really like the last Truth Club album (Running From the Chase). We don’t really sound anything like it but both me and Dan are really into it. We love old Modest Mouse records, Built to Spill, and Dismemberment Plan. The Truth Club record sounds like a lot of the late 90s stuff that I love. We also really like the stuff that MJ Lenderman is putting out.

MOTEL VOID: Your plans for 2024?

HISTORIC BUILDINGS: To start playing out live. Because one of us is in North Carolina, it requires some more careful planning. We’re also going back into the studio in March and June to make an album.