Today we bring Hotel Mira to BuzzMusic. A Canadian band with an intricate and refined sound that is undeniably powerful and vivid. Hotel Mira began in the mind of Charlie Kerr, who has worked with Grammy-award winning producer, Eric Ratz, to create a sharp visual expression, embedded into the band’s debut LP "Perfectionism". Hotel Mira has already seen success with their past work, notably their single, "Southern Comforting," which has already seen almost 3 million streams on Spotify. Being on the rotation list of many radio stations, as well as surpassing many milestones, Hotel Mira is off to a monumental start with their music.
Hotel Mira is the kind of band that creates songs that leave a long-lasting impression due to their collective skills and abilities. Their creative style is undoubtedly vibrant and charged with a booming rock n' roll energy, which is united with Alternative/Indie tastes. The product of "Perfectionism"? Close to perfection itself. We can thoroughly explain why below, but take our word for it — Hotel Mira's album 'Perfectionism' brings attributes that will change the way you crave music.
Hotel Mira's LP begins with its first track, "Perfectionism". The song sets the mood for the entire album, showing cool and spirited elements strung together with rock n' roll energy. It's undeniable that the band adds serious flair and style to "Perfectionism". The lead vocalist’s range, complemented by the striking production results in a rambunctious song, to say the least. "This Could Be It For Me" takes the album more deeply into that swift and electric execution. The production of this track is incredibly noteworthy because it helps present the lively atmosphere that Hotel Mira consistently expresses in their sound. A lively environment is the primary trait of the band, in conjunction with vivid rejuvenation and energy. This is apparent throughout their album, and it's absolutely invigorating as it instills a variety of emotions within the listener. "Jungle" has that similar vitality, but expressed through a combination of melodies. Contrastingly, "Arcade Heart" focuses on a varied experience for listeners. This song offers a softer and mellower flow of verses. "Arcade Heart" is a song with lyrical significance. Again, Hotel Mira presents an emotional collection of sounds and rhythm that encourages introspection.
Our favorite production of the album comes in the fifth track, titled "Better On Your Own". We love the posturing behind this particular song because there are so many different expressions packed into one listening experience. "Better On Your Own" was the track that made us completely fall in love with Hotel Mira (not that we weren't in love before, but you know, some songs make you fall harder). The band's spirit is strong with this track. "Better On Your Own" shows us Hotel Mira constructs their storyline. How? They curate a story that can be so greatly exploited by the production in the best way possible. We do routinely see this within the band's releases, but "Better On Your Own" showcases it much more openly.
"Speaking Off The Record" is the half-way point into "Perfectionism", which opens itself up with a calmer and laidback tempo, giving listeners that fresh breath of serenity. Listeners need to take time to really listen to the lyrical content of this track and let it soak in slowly. Then listen to the track again and actively deconstruct the meanings because Hotel Mira offers a message embedded within "Speaking Off The Record". It can definitely be easy to get distracted by some of their more comical notes present in the track, but once the listener sees past these and attempts to understand the song in a deeper way, they will be pleased with the outcome.
"The Eyes On You" features more of a subtle pop style, with some heavy elements stemming from the Alternative/Indie music scene. This track houses more of a bubbly ambiance, bringing more of a vivacious tune. When you look further into the meaning of this track, you can see that Hotel Mira instills a sense of heartbreak within "The Eyes On You", which offers an intriguing juxtaposition between lyrical content and overall production. "...The world is cruel, put your heart away, leave it somewhere safe" is one lyric out of many throughout this track that many of us have felt personally while enduring personal tragedy. Hotel Mira doesn't let listeners dwell too much on this heartbreak though, as they introduce us to a similar version of heartbreak in "Son In Law", but with a varying narrative. "Son In Law" left us with an array of sensations." He thinks a genius, someone brings this king his crown, or a tranquilizer needle, strong enough to knock him out. Don't wake him up 'til we find love". The song brings about a frantic and chaotic story that we can't help but listen to over and over again. Whether it's the heavy-hitting chorus or the more intimate moments we receive at some pivotal parts throughout the track, we feel absolutely overwhelmed by their performance in "Son In Law".
We're brought back down to normality with "Ladies And Gentleman", where there is more of a collective effect with the chosen ad-libs. At specific parts in some songs, listeners feel warmth and calmness. "Ladies And Gentleman" give listeners this, and that's all we're going to say about that track before you listen to it for yourself.
This fuzzy feeling slowly dissipates once we arrive at "A Song For Daisy". Instead of a warm feeling, we get a compelling and alluring emotional journey with Hotel Mira. We feel incredibly connected with the band in this song, possibly because they offer that leeway for listeners to reflect and take a moment to reminisce on their own life. "A Song For Daisy" takes us through the confusions that come along with love (which is truly an infinite list). Nevertheless, the storyline here is thorough and follows a contemplative journey with Hotel Mira that makes us feel connected to them in a way that no other track on the album does. This song reminds us of what it is like to feel humility. The slower rhythm and softer instrumental execution aids in presenting a surplus of emotions always present in love stories.
The final and 11th track of the album is, "You Know Best". Hotel Mira brings back that fast-paced groove that is so innate to their overall sound. Hotel Mira never holds back on delivering an engaging and stimulating storyline! "You Know Best" follows a more complicated narrative, where listeners need to read between the lines in order to comprehend the deeper meaning behind this track. Listeners get multiple different themes within the music, some more playful than others, but each always connecting information integral to understanding life and the complications that arise from relationships.
"Perfectionism" is an extremely well-constructed album. It introduces unambiguous emotional content into any listener. If you are looking to take away something of value and substance, Hotel Mira is where it will be found.
Listen to "Perfectionism" here.
Hotel Mira! We're very excited to talk with you about your recent LP debut, "Perfectionism". The album holds so many different meanings, stories, and sounds. Listening to it start to finish, we understand Hotel Mira in an entirely different way. How was the band originally intending to be understood through the release of "Perfectionism"?
It’s funny that you use the word “Understood” ‘cause that is a really loaded word for me. Historically, I have tried desperately to be understood through my music with varying results. But yeah, I think this project turned into a pretty cohesive, albeit eclectic album. With recurring themes and ideas, but I also don’t think we can really take that much credit for that. It all kind of fell into place. I had been writing songs for what would be our “full-length album” for a couple of years and probably wrote about forty songs that I was happy with. Then unexpectedly while writing those songs, I fell in love and I started writing a lot about that and the extreme changes and lessons it was teaching me about myself and humanity as a whole, in real-time. It’s hard to explain but I felt entirely creatively invincible when I was in that relationship, I think because I felt like no matter what I wrote or did I was loved, understood and accepted by somebody. At least one person would have my back so I was able to write things I never thought I would be able to sing publicly like “speaking off the record”. With the safety net of someone who loved me it felt easier than ever to take artistic leaps of faith in that regard. So, feeling confident, we booked studio time with Eric Ratz but four months before we were supposed to go in the studio my loving relationship ended and I started writing a lot about that. And those songs had an urgency about them so they, although written at the eleventh hour, made it onto the record. And I re-wrote some of the love songs so they reflected the loss too. So it kind of has a very bittersweet feel to it. It has elation, cynicism, despair, contentment, gratitude. It’s a super mixed bag. And musically the band and Eric and I had a bunch of conversations in regards to what we wanted to do to give each song it’s identity and mood and feels. But often we steered towards wanting to make things musically beautiful and catchy to off-set the heavy subject matter. The album is designed so if you printed out the lyrics and read them you would see the intensity and the pain but when accompanied by the music you feel joy and maybe even hope. And because I am the luckiest dude ever, my fellow musicians in Hotel Mira are brilliant and generous and humble and we all just tried our best to do what was best for each song, while giving ourselves permission to get freaky or indulgent once in a while, as a treat.
It's hard for us to pick one specific track to delve deeper into regarding its intended meaning. We'll let you do the hard part, and ask what track off of this album was a personal favorite from the band? More specifically, can you explain the take-away message from this track and the kind of connection you were attempting to build between artist and listener?
I think “This Could Be It For Me” has become a personal favorite. It’s a really dark song lyrically but a very light song musically and I love that juxtaposition. I think the message of this song that I was trying to convey is at any given time someone could be in a complete crisis and not even want to live anymore so we should walk through the world with more compassion? Or at least an awareness of how grim things might be underneath the surface of someone saying they’re “fine.” Like maybe it sounds cheesy but we’re in this together.
"Perfectionism" was filled with a buzzing energy that never disappeared as we ventured through the 11-track album. There were some tracks though that have a softer buzz to them, notably "A Song For Daisy". Can you walk us through the vision instilled within the band for this track, and why the production was created to flow more softly than your other tracks from this album?
It was an acoustic, sweet song that I wrote for a girlfriend and initially was recorded as a voice note on my phone and sent to her. It was written about a night where she met some of my friends for the first time. Now, privately, I was REALLY into her but we had said things like “we don’t know where this is going” and avoided labels, etc. I was playing it very cool despite how excited I was. However, I had been telling my friends all about her for a long time so when they met up with us that night they all drunkenly sold me out immediately and it was really embarrassing and understandably freaked her out. So it’s a quaint song. And it comes from a pretty pure place. And during pre-production, we tried to do it as a big rock song and it didn’t really work. And we tried to do it as a full-blown acoustic, one-take song and it didn’t really work either. I, Mike and Cole listen to a lot of Phoebe Bridgers and our kind of tried to emulate how she might approach the song and that’s honestly how we got it sounding the way it did. Also, I have to tip my hat to Eric for some terrific ideas production-wise as well. And I also think that it serves as a pretty nice break from all the noise on an 11-song record that feels otherwise pretty relentless.
We truly appreciate the time, Hotel Mira! Do you feel that there are more creative juices flowing in order to continue creating new music in the near future, or does the band plan on taking time to tour "Perfectionism"?
Yeah, I am already writing more songs for the band. I wrote a quick ten songs right after we stopped recording in a manic burst of creativity, I don’t know if they will see the light of day and yeah, I have a bit of an idea of what we might do next but honestly, I am just very excited to perform the songs for our fans new and old.
What can we expect to see next from Hotel Mira?
Some videos, some shows (some in places we have never yet been to!) and just continuing to try to build on what we do. It’s a grind but I think we love it enough to stick it out.