Motion Hotel to perform at Be Here Now

<p><strong>Motion Hotel Facebook, Photo Courtesy</strong></p>

Motion Hotel Facebook, Photo Courtesy

After releasing “Broken VCRs,” their latest EP album, indie folk band Motion Hotel will perform at 10 p.m. Thursday at Be Here Now as part of their national tour. 

The band began in Houston, Texas, almost a decade ago when Andrew Dethloff and Austin Clark, who both play guitar and sing for Motion Hotel, met while working on an acoustic side project. During this time, Dethloff and Clark began planning to start their own band.

Eventually, Motion Hotel was created. 

“We became really close, and we ended up moving in together,” Dethloff said. “Eventually we were an acoustic duo wanting to add more people to the sound. Then one thing led to another, and here we are.”

Motion Hotel began working to form their sound, but as time went on, its members' lives changed and some musicians decided to leave the band. The group stopped performing for over a year, but Dethloff and Clark remained connected.  

Eventually, however, Ryan Salge, the current bass player for Motion Hotel, said they were able to see the changes as a way of healing and come together to create a “really good family feel.”

When the band was able to find their voice and began performing again, several new members, including Salge, Hannah Muniz, a vocalist, and John Cruz, a percussionist, got involved. They also adapted their sound to create “an acoustic mix of indie folk and an amped up modern indie rock style,” to incorporate the background and style of the new members, Clark said. 

The band was once again shocked by an extreme change, however, when Hurricane Harvey hit their hometown. The group decided to come together and use their talents to help those who were impacted by the storm by holding a benefit concert. 

“We’re not exactly firefighters or boat mechanics … we couldn’t exactly do as much as somebody with a directly required skill set,” Dethloff said. “[Instead] we tried to pick up our skill set and use our craft to raise money and give back.

The hurricane not only impacted Houston, Texas, but also damaged their studio. Instead of letting it get in the way of practicing, however, the band decided to learn new skills to help speed the process up, like how to install drywall.

After the band completed work on their studio, they were able to return to work on their EP album, which features songs like “Friends with Friends,” “Broken VCRs,” “Dat Herding” and “Recognition.” 

With their EP album complete, the band started a funding campaign to help them go on a national tour and received 113 percent of the money they planned to raise. 

“We had a position where we had a hometown support,” Dethloff said. “They had our back and it showed in our fundraising campaign. [With the tour] we wanted to bring Houston to other people and show them what we were all about.” 

Several months into the group’s first tour as a band, they have enjoyed connecting with fans and seeing their support system stretch to fans further than their hometown.  

“We’re just trying to get our music out to as many people as possible. We’re not doing it for the money, we’re not doing it for any other reason,” Clark said. 


Contact Pauleina Brunnemer with comments at pdbrunnemer@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @pauleina15

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