Greta Salpeter wants to take the angst out of popular music. This prompts the question, what will people listen to now? Her answer: Gold Motel.
Salpeter, singer and keyboardist for the indie pop/rock band The Hush Sound and daughter of an AU grad, is ready to take the world of music by storm with her new project, Gold Motel.
The group is comprised of members from bands based in the Chicago area, in what Salpeter called in an interview with The Eagle “our own little super group.” Dan Duszynski, a member of This Is Me Smiling, joins Salpeter to play guitar and sing harmonies on both the Gold Motel EP and full-length album. Also from TIMS are bassist Matt Minx — otherwise known as “Minxy” — and drummer Adam Kaltenhauser. The second guitarist, Eric Hehr, was once a part of the Yearbooks.
“All these bands to me kind of represented what was happening in the Chicago music scene that I really liked,” Salpeter said. “We’ve been lucky enough to kind of take the flavor from each of the bands.”
After coming together to make one band, Gold Motel have created a sound resembling tunes of the ‘60s.
One single off of their self-titled EP, “Perfect in My Mind,” embraces the inexplicable happiness occasionally found in life, and Salpeter’s unique voice is showcased in the best possible way. There’s a certain quality to Gold Motel that is very unlike any of her work with The Hush Sound. Gold Motel are funkier and bolder in their choice to be different from anything on the radio right now.
The oldies vibe continues with “Make Me Stay,” which brings in more male backup vocals and giving more balance to the track. “The Cruel One” begins by focusing on Salpeter’s vocal ability and skills as a pianist, which are later accompanied by deliciously simple harmonies and backup instrumentation. All these sounds come together louder and stronger than ever by the end. “Who Will I Be Tonight?” slows down the EP, sounding like Regina Spektor at times, but the song doesn’t stand out as anything particularly special. The final song on the EP, “Don’t Send the Searchlights,” returns to the prior upbeat tone and leaves the listener with a proper goodbye, as Salpeter sings “Goodbye, goodnight.”
The untamed nature of music left untouched by a record label hangs all over the self-titled EP, but it’s hard to imagine what it would sound like if Gold Motel were signed to a major label. The music — while relatively catchy — does not seem to be vying for the listeners undivided attention, rather it is a proud expression. Perhaps after years of struggling for The Hush Sound to gain more mainstream attention, Gold Motel are Salpeter’s rebellion after years of restraint.
“I think a lot of the music that’s been written in the last few years is kind of melodramatic and angsty,” Salpeter said. “You know, a lot of the really popular music out there, to me, doesn’t have a lot of color or originality. I feel like we’re doing something that’s really fresh and hopeful and energetic, and we just love what we’re doing. It’s just so alive and so real. And I don’t get that from a ton of mainstream music that’s out there today.”
But things are different the second time around. The Hush Sound’s success was “a happy accident,” Salpeter said.
“Four of us just got together and wrote a record and had an e-mail in our account that said ‘Hi, it’s Pete Wentz. Would you like to be signed to my record label?’” she said. “It happened very quickly and kind of unintentionally.”
Now Salpeter is taking more control and doing things her way in the hopes of achieving the same success she and her bandmates were able to with The Hush Sound
“I feel like I have more vision, and I’m playing with friends who I really admire musically,” Salpeter said. “It’s fun, it’s exciting — I like the idea of building something. That was one of the most exciting things about The Hush Sound ... building something from scratch and turning it into a really big project, and I’m hoping I can do that again.”
With a successful EP and an album due out the first week in June, four nights opening for Butch Walker’s sold-out residence in Chicago, a string of headlining shows and more opening tour spots in the works, it’s hard to imagine The Hush Sound ever coming back together. Salpeter said she isn’t even sure if it will happen.
“Literally, I don’t have an answer,” she said. “We’re planning to play maybe a few college shows next year, maybe do a few Midwest dates, but ... everyone is working towards their individual goals. But the door isn’t shut; it just really is an indefinite hiatus.”
Although one great band may be potentially finished — or preferably on indefinite leave — out of it has come Gold Motel, as well as the projects other members of The Hush Sound have in the works. Bands come and go, but as long as Salpeter is making music, fans will listen.
“It’s exciting,” she said. “It’s challenging and kind of scary in a really, really positive way.”
You can reach this staff writer at mhollander@theeagleonline.com.
