Hotel Mira has seen a lot of phases. Since 2010, the band from Vancouver has kept a strong catalogue of their core elements; energetic, bright, catchy, and heartfelt. The band now takes on a quintessential rock band feel, the driving elements of post-punk with a fluidity of surf-rock. Lyrically, the tropes blend, from metaphor-heavy verses through to blunt, truthful choruses, saturated with the personal experience of breakups, mental health, and a party you can’t seem to leave. As lead singer Charlie Kerr calls it, “‘The Cure’ for Zoomers.”
Last year, the band released “Pity Party,” and then a follow-up EP, titled “After Party.” Kerr details a creative process that brings the depths of writing to a connected concert.
Hotel Mira’s tour starts at ‘The Horn’ in St. Albans, England on January 28. Get tickets here!
★ INTERVIEW ★
CRAVE: You have a new album and a new EP out and I’m curious. Why did you drop the EP after the album? Why did you feel you had more to say?
CHARLIE: We finished the album and there were a couple songs left over from that session. We were just sort of encouraged to lay them down. We wanted to tie the whole marketing of it to the previous record. Just sort of more of the same because it does, at the end of the day, feel like it belongs together thematically.
I came up with the phrase ‘pity party’ for the record because it almost felt like finally identifying what the genre of music we make is. The idea that like the party is poppy melodies and instrumentals and the aesthetic and then the pity is the lyrics and the subject matter which can get pretty dark and complicated. It was almost a way to describe the sound of the album. A lot of the album is about excess and partying and what it feels like to understand how many messed up things are going on in the world and then also try to carve out as normal a life as you’re given.
CRAVE: I’m wondering if you can give me a couple of songs that were more challenging than others either to put together, either musically or to write lyrically. I would love to hear about some challenges that you faced when creating this work.
CHARLIE: In the writing, turning ‘Regarding Valentine’s Day’ into a full band song was a real challenge. You know, there’s an argument that took six years to really figure out. I started playing it on Instagram Live about six years ago and showed it to the band. We sort of tried to come up with different versions, but could never really crack it until recently. So that was really cool, because I think there’s a lot to be proud of now with that song.
I remember the closing track of the Pity Party album ‘There Goes The Neighborhood’ was kind of difficult to write because it was so personal. I remember the opening track, ‘America’s Favorite Pastime’ presented a challenge in terms of how much it just felt like it was a song that felt so huge and needed so much attitude. Writing from those perspectives was just something that was a real challenge.
What else was hard? ‘Made For This,’ which is this big rock song. I remember early drafts of it, all the lyrics I was writing for it felt so wrong. They just didn’t feel like, kind of cool enough to sort of to go along with the aesthetic of what the instrumental was.
CRAVE: What’s ‘Made For This’ about?
CHARLIE: A breakup,but sort of in the most, understanding way possible. You know, just the idea that there are no villains and you can kind of blame whatever you want, and people can hurt each other and what have you. But it’s sort of a better use of our time to just sort of say, that didn’t work and it wasn’t supposed to.
My favorite line in that song is ‘And all we are is kids/ just kids with too much heart/ It’s just what it looks like. Just the idea of like, yeah, two sensitive people got together and it didn’t work out. The song sort of foreshadows the breakup. Because the chorus is.
I remember when you told me/ Honey, please be patient/ I’m not made for this.
CRAVE: The lyrics from the verses and choruses sort of contrast, dramatic in the verses, and honest in the middle.
CHARLIE: I like to do that whenever I can. I like to say something really blunt next to something really poetic, sad next to something funny. It’s a really cool way to keep people listening intently.
CRAVE: What are your favorite songs to perform live? Which ones are you like ‘I can’t wait for this one to come up in the set list?’
CHARLIE: ‘Jungle’ always feels amazing. I just think it’s like the best pop song I’ve written. It’s like such a good way to get people introduced to the band and what we do. It’s like this mission statement of almost what you’re gonna get from listening to the band. Recently ‘Cowboy’ has been super fun. The fans really took to that song so quickly. You know, we’ve only been playing it for probably 20 or 30 shows or whatever and people already know all the lyrics.
But my favorite song to perform is one called ‘Speaking off the Record.’ It’s just become a sing along every night. It’s a ballad that I really didn’t think people were going to connect to and it’s been such a beautiful surprise that it became one of our biggest songs. It’s a very personal
song to me about some things that happened in my life. I thought what I experienced was really unique and turns out it was universal.
CRAVE: Is it like a good feeling or a bad feeling to you when you feel like you’ve gone through something really niche and then it turns out many people have experienced it?
CHARLIE: I don’t get too much pleasure from being unique. I always felt incredibly alien. Like I always wanted to be more part of the human condition. Everything that made me feel further from it and isolated kind of bummed me out. And I think that there’s something to be said like, maybe the only antidote to suffering is shared suffering.
CRAVE: Was this a kind of deviation for you guys creatively? Did you go in a different direction than you feel like you normally do? How are people receiving it compared to maybe some other stuff that you’ve done?
CHARLIE: I think ‘Pity Party’ and ‘After Party,’ were just trying to be the rock band we possibly could. We just wanted to do a really, really good rock record the way that only we could. It’s like the live show now feels the way I’ve always wanted it to because it just doesn’t feel like there’s any dead air or filler because we’re picking the best songs from three different records.
CRAVE: Say someone’s never heard of your band before. What are some worlds that you would use or some way you would describe the music you make now? What would your hook be?
CHARLIE: One time I said it was like ‘The Killers’ if Brandon Flowers had BPD. It’s music for both your manic and depressive episodes. My brother the other day called us ‘The Cure’ for Zoomers.
Keep Up with Hotel Mira:
Facebook / X / Instagram / Website / YouTube
