INTERVIEW: Hotel Burgundy
New Orleans based indie rock band, Hotel Burgundy released their second full length album, AMOR, in January of this year and have only continued to develop their artistry since. The band made up of five former college friends has spent the past few months performing songs from the latest album to their fans across Louisiana and even working on new music that they hope to release later this year. Noisescape Magazine was lucky enough to get to sit down with lead singer and guitarist, Josh Rovira and guitarist, Evan Hendry who spoke about songwriting, AMOR and their plans for the near future.
Where did the name Hotel Burgundy come from? How did you come up with it and what does it mean?
EVAN: It’s not a really awesome, intricate story for where the band name came from. The friendship came first and then the band came second. The place where we hung out and started jamming in had a red drum kit. So we had “burgundy” and we just needed a cool prefix that wasn’t “the” because I feel like every band is “the something.” We just decided “hotel” was appropriate and that was the story. We actually had a notes app of like six band name ideas and I remember going through each of them and deciding on the one we hated the least. Funny enough, now there is a road in New Orleans called Burgundy and me and Josh are about to move into a house on Burgundy street. So there will be a Hotel Burgundy on Burgundy street coming up.
How do you feel about your latest album, AMOR now that it’s been out for a few months and you’ve had some time to really sit with it?
JOSH: I can say, at least speaking lyrically, it’s a relief to look back on it and recognize it as a different phase of life. Right after the release, you’re still so attached to it that it’s hard to make a good judgement on what it means to you at the moment. You’re still in a place where you’re trying to make it sound good or trying to market it or whatever, so you kind of forget why you wrote the songs or why you thought they were worth putting on the record in the first place. Having a few months to sit with it gave me the perspective to look back and concentrate on why we wrote each song and what our state of mind was back then. Now it’s kind of like a journal entry. The songs are like snapshots into our lives and it’s just nice to be able to go back into that world now because we’re in a different world.
AMOR is an album with a unique direction full of different, sometimes contrasting sounds. What was the creative process like?
EVAN: I will say, when we were writing the album, it was intentionally non-cohesive. We decided that we wanted it to be super dynamic with a ton of different genres because in our band, all five of us have heavy input into the creative process. Being able to go down certain routes creatively on a straight path can be difficult because there’s so much going on and instead of trying to steer that ship and force it, we were like let’s let our creative differences shine on this album.
We also wanted to have something for the live show to be able to put a physical element into our music. Instead of just having it be one theme from start to finish, we made the album feel like a journey. So in my eyes, the album really does flow from a chill vibe to a more intense vibe to more of a classical vibe. That was something we really focused on when we were writing because we wanted to make sure we hit all those points.
JOSH: This was not a concept album. It feels weird saying that because we have the title Amor and it’s just one word, so you think it might be. I think that does have its place in a lot of the songs, but I think it’s more so that we were in a really transitional period of our lives while writing it. All of us were getting out into the world for the first time after being in university. I think, as a band, we’ve always had this weird deadline hanging over us in our university days, so I think us transitioning to something more permanent was leading us through that. That was probably the main concept in the songwriting process; just us getting comfortable with doing things really slowly and then all at once. I think that dynamic is captured in the music a little bit, where things just kind of fall into place on the recording side and the writing side, but also for us as people.
How did working on AMOR compare to working on your first album, Embrace the Space?
EVAN: This one was definitely a large step up as far as artistic language with each other and in yourself and how to get the thoughts that are inside of you into words. I’m still learning a ton and people don’t really tell you how to do these things and it can be difficult at times. We definitely struggled to do it on our first album and our ep and our singles, but for this one, I felt like I had a more mature approach as far as communicating with my band mates and with myself. A good example is when someone will bring up a guitar part that doesn’t fit and you you tell them that it doesn’t fit or it could work if you try this pedal on this or add a few notes and then them being receptive of that feedback instead of just being like “well, I need my guitar part in here.” Because that’s another thing with our band is that we do have a lot of moving parts with three guitars, two vocals, bass, keys, drums, and then all the layering that goes on top of that. Being really deliberate with creating parts that make sense instead of just everybody talking at once, because it really is a conversation between the band members, is where we were at with this album.
What was it like coming up in a city as musical as New Orleans and how did that help you develop as artists?
EVAN: I’m in love with New Orleans and the music scene here. It’s something that just inspires me every single day. I literally told somebody today that every single person here is an artist and a musician. There’s a joke that goes around that’s like, the same ten dollars that you spend to go to one show is the same that the artist will use to go to your show. It’s actually a very inclusive and supportive community that’s constantly doing great things. Just being a part of that and watching your friends crush these shows and crush their songwriting and just doing interesting stuff. The accessibility of it and the sheer magnitude of it seeps into me every single day as a writer, which is really inspiring. I have so much respect for the musicians here.
JOSH: It's so interesting because it has its own music scene built into the city, but it’s not our scene. Everyone goes to New Orleans for jazz and it’s everywhere, but it also kind of hybrids into all these other different genres. It’s so cool whenever you’re seeing a punk band with saxophones and trumpets and trombones and maybe entire brass sections. I think it makes the music scene that doesn’t really fall into that New Orleans scene band together really closely. I feel like there are a lot of familiar faces at every show. We’re going to metal shows, we’re going to punk shows, we’re going to jazz shows, we’re going everywhere and it’s just full of people who love music. I think that’s what’s really really special about this place.
So far, you guys have played the new album for fans across Louisiana and one show in NYC. Are there any plans to bring the show across the US?
EVAN: Yes, we do. We’re hopping on a tour in August. Since AMOR released, it was a low Louisiana run with some festival dates and New Orleans. The one in New York was awesome. Sold out, fun show at nightclub 101; that venue rocks. We’re doing a Texas weekender. It'll be a sixteen or seventeen day tour. We’re going to be doing Texas, Atlanta, Tennessee, and then coming back home to New Orleans to tie it all up. I love the shows in Texas and we haven’t been to Atlanta or Tennessee in a couple years, so it’ll be fun to go back over there.
In fact, as of conducting this interview, you just finished two nearly back-to-back performances and have one later in May. What does it mean to you to get to perform your music live?
JOSH: Live performance is so temperamental. On one hand, you’re excited because it’s music that you wrote and no one gets to do it how you do it; it’s your expression. Even if someone was doing the same song as you, just the way that you’re doing it makes it your own, so it’s very personal. Sometimes, it’s hard to tap into those emotions, especially whenever you’re doing one show after another. We were fortunate that this last run had new venues and new schedules. We played at a festival that was something none of us had ever seen before, so it was really cool to be part of that. Last night ended up being just such an incredible vibe. We had people just walking up on stage with us. There was a guy with a saxophone that just walked in and started jamming with us. A friend of ours in the crowd took my guitar and started playing it. We essentially had this fake ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ in this venue while we were playing this music just because there was a lot of trust in each other. There’s days where it’s hard, but there’s also days where it’s unexpectedly beautiful. I think we’re in that unexpectedly beautiful phase right now.
Aside from your appearances at local festivals, you also had your own festival last year in anticipation of the release of AMOR called ‘Amor fest.’ How did that come about and what was the experience like?
EVAN: I put that one together. That was my brainchild a couple months ago. We were getting ready for the album, which we had been writing since probably a year ago or maybe a little over a year just working on ideas.
JOSH: In total, from first demos to production, it was about two years.
EVAN: That’s right because I remember working on some ideas for it in January after the release of our EP in 2023. So I remember wanting to do a big show for the release of Amor and we’d already done two single release shows just playing the singles at venues and I felt like we would have worn our fanbase out if we did another album release show because there’s nothing really different about it. I had the idea to do a local festival. Honestly, it was more of a national festival because it was more than just local artists. I invited some of our good friends from past tours and had some help from a local promoter to help curate a really good vibe. We had an outdoor and indoor stage at a venue that we really love and we ran music from like four P.M. to four A.M. It was just so fun; it was just a full day of music. I think it was one of my favorite days.
JOSH: This record was a big turning point for us in a lot of ways, so for us to put on a festival and for it to go so well, I think that was a good omen. It was beautiful.
I heard through the grapevine that you guys have some exciting upcoming plans, music wise. Can you tell me a little more about that?
JOSH: We have a couple more songs that we’ve been playing around with. I think we’re going through a big transition as a band together in the way that we’re writing. We’re doing a lot more and I think we’re just trusting ourselves a lot more. We’re taking our time and just figuring out sounds that work well together and treating these songs like the record is a meal and the songs are ingredients. It’s like a tasting menu. We’re recording and it’s probably the most D.I.Y we’ve ever done where it’s literally recorded in my bedroom and we’re doing it entirely in house to have full creative influence. I’m super hyped about it.
EVAN: We’re taking a really new approach for this. Me specifically, I’m trying to make my guitar not sound like a guitar and I know Josh is trying a lot of minimalistic vocals. The jams have been really exciting and it’s been amongst the most proud pieces of work I’ve done.
JOSH: It’s the first time that we’re actually playing with tones where we actually have time to do musical effects. We’ve always been so pressed for time and this is the first instance where we’re going to be able to decide what things sound like and make them sound right together.
Finally, if you had to play one song to convince someone to check out your music, what would it be?
JOSH: Oh my goodness. I’m probably the worst person to ask just because I’m so forward thinking that the demos that we’ve been working on are so fresh and so new to me that it’s what I want to show everyone else.
EVAN: Can I give two? Our best song, my favorite one and the one I think is the strongest we’ve written, is “Mother’s Song.” I’m specifically proud of that one because it’s in an interesting format. It touches everything that I want to touch as a writer, from a chill, dramatic start to a big, in your face end while still holding emotional weight. The second is “We’re From New York.” For that one, we were still super into punk music and that song is our take on a punk song. Josh came up with that riff and it just felt really fresh. I would be proud to show people that song too.
JOSH: I’m with you on “Mother’s Song.” That song was just like a breath of fresh air for us. We spent maybe eight months trying to write this other song that just wasn’t working and when we were trying to figure out an idea for the chorus, that’s when the main intro to “Mother’s Song” came to be. We were jamming for months and months and it was during that time that we decided to call the album ‘Amor.’ At the time, I was in a very lonely place and there was the big transition going on for all of us, so it became a love song to fear. That was the only thing that was comforting me at the time, knowing that even when you had nothing else, you still had something you could be scared of. It kind of all tied together and became an anchor for us when writing the rest of the songs. Emotionally, I don’t know if we conveyed that in the song. I don’t know if it’s something that’s relatable, but I’m not sure if being relatable is what’s important to me right now.
EVAN: I agree with Josh saying it’s an anchor. There’s another theme within Amor that was just about trying to do our friendship justice. The bond that we have is what propels us and that song specifically highlights that bond and turns it into a really unique song that I’m proud of, that we’re all proud of. I remember there was this crazy, once in a decade show storm in New Orleans. There was like ten inches of snow and we all just decided that we were going to hole up together and within the first hour of being there, we came up with that riff and that song and it happened in just a couple hours. I remember that being a big point of camaraderie. It was fun writing with your friends on a cold day. It felt like we were kids again because it was like we have nothing else to do, let’s just go hang out and write a song.
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