When singer/keyboardist Jade Long and singer/guitarist Jessica Thompson met at the University of Georgia and started writing songs together in 2018, they were well aware of the rich history of alternative rock in Athens, including legendary bands like R.E.M., the B-52’s, and Pylon. And when they go on the road, whether headlining or opening for acts like Beach Fossils or Adam Melchor, Hotel Fiction know that their hometown’s reputation travels with them. “It’s cool that when we are on tour people already know Athens and that there is such a distinct history,” Long and Thompson told SPIN via email, adding a shout out to R.E.M.’s founding drummer. “We actually filmed our latest music video for our song “Margot” at Bill Berry’s house.”
Long and Thompson started to work out their sound as a duo, ranging from folky acoustic songs to synth-heavy uptempo rockers. The very first song Hotel Fiction released, 2019’s piano-driven “Astronaut Kids,” became their calling card, eventually racking up over two million streams. That early success emboldened Hotel Fiction to self-release two full-length albums and one EP, uploading their music directly to streaming services and online retailers via TuneCore. “We feel so fortunate to maintain ownership of our masters and earn all of our streaming royalties, releasing music independently,” they say. “If we have an issue, someone on the TuneCore team is always there to help us figure it out.”
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By the time Hotel Fiction recorded their second album Staring at the Sun, they’d expanded to a five-piece band with guitarist and synth player Aaron Daugherty, bassist Aidan Hill, and drummer Gideon Johnston. One standout track, “Hollywood,” satirizes the naïve attitude that many people have about finding success in show business through networking ( “I know a guy who’s gonna make us big”), but Hotel Fiction has taken a more realistic attitude towards building a fanbase organically, one fan at a time.
This is Hotel Fiction, the TuneCore Accelerator/SPIN Artist of the Month:
You both share songwriting credit throughout Staring at The Sun. Do you demo songs or write lyrics together, or do you individually bring songs into the band?
Writing every song is different! Sometimes we bring a more finished song to the other person, sometimes we start them from scratch together. Sometimes we write music first and lyrics second, or vice versa! For this album, once we had general structures and lyrics, we brought the songs either to the studio or to the band to practice and work out parts together. So far we’ve always worked on the songs in some way together before bringing them to the band or studio, we really value each others’ creative input and value our connection to each other with the music.
Were there any particular influences or ambitions in terms of your sound on this album that are distinct from the first album, Soft Focus?
With Soft Focus, it was our first time recording music. So much of that album was us creating our sound for the first time, which was really fun and exciting. With this latest record, we really knew what we were doing. That with a mix of never having performed these songs live, we had the ability to experiment more with the direction of the songs. We were inspired by artists like Wolf Alice, LCD Soundsystem, The 1975, and The Strokes to name a few.
Photo Courtesy of Hotel Fiction
How did you expand from a duo to a five-piece band, was it hard to find the right people to complete the lineup?
We initially started out as a duo with rotating players, depending on who was available to play with us. As we continued growing, we met people who were invested in the music with us, who wanted to be at every show and who felt like family. Gideon, Aaron, and Aidan all bring incredible musical influences to the band and are also just great people to be around. After playing with us for such a long time, they have become a very important part of the project and band, and we couldn’t do what we do without them.
Tommy Trautwein has produced most of your records, including the new album. Has he had a hand in crafting what Hotel Fiction sound like, or is he more capturing what the band already sounded like on stage?
He helps a lot with both crafting our sound and also capturing our live sound. We both work very closely with him on every detail of our music. We love how were allowed to hyperfocus on every aspect of our songs whether its synth sounds, guitar tones, our getting the perfect vocal comp. Tommy puts as much heart into our songs as we do while still keeping it true to our vision, and we are very grateful for him.
Are there any songs on the new album that have become early favorites, whether within the band or with audiences, since you’ve begun to perform this material?
Some of the band favorites to play live are “Staring at the Sun,” “Margot,” “Ghost of Me,” “Girl in My Head,” and “Still Frozen.” Some audience favorites have been “Why Do Good Things Have To End,” “Ghost of Me,” and “Still Frozen.” Each of the songs have a special place in our heart though, and we’re always surprised at which ones end up being people’s favorites!
Do you look at streaming data and see things like you have a lot of listeners in Chicago and New York and connect that to touring and show turnout in those cities?
We definitely see a lot of people come to our shows who tell us they found us on Spotify. Bigger cities like Chicago, we definitely see it more, and have a lot more fans there for that reason.
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