motel void

Thirty years ago, shoegaze band Stillmotion released several cassettes and a 7” marble vinyl, recorded with Kramer (Galaxie 500, Low) at Noise, New Jersey. They toured with Swell and His Name Is Alive, opened shows for Catherine Wheel, Majesty Crush, Medicine and others. Read more about their comeback.

MOTEL VOID: You’re based in “a small town surrounded by cornfields outside Rochester, NY.” How would you describe the current music scene in this area?

AARON (STILLMOTION): I’m from and still live in Rochester, NY, which is about 35 minutes from where Greg and Guy grew up (Pumpkin Hook / Farmington) and where Stillmotion was formed. It’s a mid-sized city and has always had a strong and relatively vibrant music scene, especially for its size. Rochester also has two music schools (Eastman and Hochstein) and at times, these programs tie into the “alternative” music scene here.

MOTEL VOID: This spring you’re releasing your 1992-1995 compilation. I’m surprised how fresh those tracks sound, I wouldn’t know they are that old! To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with your work until now, could you tell us a bit more about your ‘comeback’? How come that you decided to release this compilation?

GP (STILLMOTION): This retrospective happened because of diehard fans who go way back to the early 90’s. In particular Jon Hills (One Mile North) was paramount in the process. I think we got inspired by this. The music is somewhat timeless and still “fresh” and that’s something I’m proud of about Stillmotion. It just made sense to get back to that creative place, because it’s rare to find that chemistry. A few months ago Aaron unearthed some ancient cassette tapes containing Stillmotion music sketches during band practice. We went through and picked out some stuff that we liked and developed these into completed songs. Now we’re utilizing the advanced modern recording technology to record. Hopefully we’ll produce another album and release it.

AARON (STILLMOTION): Thanks for your interest and we are happy you like the music! Yeah at that time (92′) we each listened to various genres and tried to incorporate those elements- be it African, Greek, Native American, reggae, metal, shoegaze, hip-Hop, “world” etc… into what we did. Greg had an amazing, dark guitar sound, and a singing voice and songs that both Guy and I loved. We practiced tirelessly in Guy‘s parent’s basement (his father was also a musician and former drummer) and came up with what we thought was as “original” a sound as possible- I called it “heavy mellow” but this often hampered the attention we got as most folks at that time in the “alternative” music world, at least in the US, were more interested in the next Nirvana / grunge sound (which we also liked). We didn’t decide to release this stuff- the great folks at Mutual Skies approached us and although we were never happy with some of those recordings (we often didn’t have the right gear/ budget/ time) we felt that many of them were still well recorded and that this was a great opportunity for folks who had never heard of us to finally hear these songs.

MOTEL VOID: Glad to hear that you are recording new material…

AARON (STILLMOTION): We are. We have about eleven songs in the works. I actually went back and listened through hours of old practices (recorded on our old trusty Sanyo boombox) and shared that “research” lol- with Guy and Greg. We found some gems that we either never played out live and or never recorded. We also have some of Greg‘s newer songs that fit within the spirit of Stillmotion. It’s been an interesting project to say the least, but I think fans of what we have done will be happy with what we are working on.

MOTEL VOID: What are your other plans for 2024? Do you have any live shows ahead?

AARON (STILLMOTION): At this point we’re focused on recording as Greg lives in Seattle and Guy and I are still in Western NY. We hope to play some shows to help promote the Vinyl release and who knows maybe more. This whole project has brought us back together and brought back many (often hilarious) fond memories of our time playing together.