Philadelphia’s Black Horse Motel crafts its genre fluid city folk sound by taking traditional folk instrumentation and lyrics, blending them with Americana roots, rock, blues, and country influences and tying it all together with rich vocal harmonies. The resulting sound is infectiously foot-stomping, heart-breaking, familiar and new.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Black Horse Motel about their latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Be sure to check out our previous Black Horse Motel feature; find it here.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Black Horse Motel is based in Philadelphia, PA. We all live in and around the city. Thanks to a thoughtful and creative suggestion from a fan, we have come to describe our music in terms of who we are as members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community and the music genres that influence us. Black Horse Motel creates a genre-fluid city folk sound by blending folk instrumentation and lyrics with Americana roots, rock, blues, and country influences and tying it all together with rich vocal harmonies.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
The band has evolved significantly over the years with various members. The current line-up of Galen playing guitar and dobro, Desiree on Cello, Megan on Drums, and Ryann on violin, with everyone singing, has held strong for five years. We keep going because the creative process allows us to manage the more difficult times of daily life. On stage we can connect with the crowd to share that creative process and sense of joy. Sharing in the enjoyment of music and sense of community, that’s the motivation.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
The release of “And Then You Were Gone,” reflects on a year of significant change in the personal lives of the band members. The cover of the 2018 EP is a symbolic representation to honor that fact. If you sit the 2017 and 2018 EP’s side by side, we intentionally created a stark contrast from dark to light. The blank wall and the paint-splattered instruments show that, yes, you can come out on the other side with a clean slate and you can choose to allow those past experiences to colorfully enhance your character.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Over-saturated is definitely the word for it. In a time of so many contradictions and the fact that social media will both isolate and connect, the challenge is how to strengthen the positive connections? We do not have a perfect answer for that question. It’s trial and error. Honestly, without the technology to search and find music initiatives that we can submit our work to for review or consideration and recognition, we would have never won multiple awards in 2017. It was humbling and motivating. We’re grateful that Philadelphia’s Councilman At-Large David Oh, the Chairman of City Council’s Committee on Global Opportunities and Creative/Innovative Economy created the PHL Live Music Initiative, we submitted our work and were awarded best folk/Americana band in Philly. We were also awarded EP of the year for Parable and best folk song “Where the Money Comes From” through 93.7 FM WSTW, Hometown Hero’s Award.
What was the last song you listened to?
Ryann – Made In Heights, “Skylark Interbang?!”
Desiree – “We Bought A Zoo” – Jonsi
Megan – “Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World” – U2
Galen – Christmas is Here – Bad Lip Reading
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
It depends on the environment- in the car for a short ride and it has a CD player, then CD’s, 4-6 hours in a car or longer, definitely MP3’s to keep us continuously awake, and Vinyl if it’s time for a laid-back hipster house party.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Ryann – Spotify for finding new music. The 30-second ads are tolerable and I have found a ton of inspiring artists to follow.
Galen – Google Play Music. I’m a subscriber and I like that it gives me ad free youtube as well. I hate it for podcasts though. I wonder if access to everything reduces my interest in really listening to anything, though. Back when I was a kid I could only afford a CD every couple of weeks or so, so they got listened to pretty hard.
Desiree – Spotify if I’m at work, Youtube if I’m at home, and CD’s if I’m in the car (which I am a LOT). I gather a lot of CD’s because I work for the Philadelphia Folksong Society and I get to listen to a lot of really great up and coming artists.
Megan – Apple Music. I’m an Apple device user, my entire music library is in iTunes, so it was easy to slip into paid streaming. I also feel strongly about paying for music, so even though I’m paying less for more, Apple Music assuages my creative guilt just enough. I certainly use Bandcamp and Spotify for indie music as well.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
- Website: http://blackhorsemotel.net/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackHorseMotelmusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackHorseMotel
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/blackhorsemotel
- YouTube: http://youtube.com/blackhorsemotel
