Lead guitarist and vocalist, Jimmy, chats about the bands latest release 'Left on Deming'
Please introduce yourself.
My name is Jimmy Drenovsky, and I am the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the Midwest-based band Motel Breakfast. We've been together as a band for almost 4 years, and we released our self-titled debut album this past February. We released a follow-up EP, "Left on Deming" 7 months later in October of this year.
Tell us a little bit about your new album or single?
"Left on Deming" is a collection of songs that we had sitting around after the release of our album, some that were intentionally left off of the album and some that were written shortly after the album sessions. The 6 songs on the EP all felt strong and exciting on their own, and so we decided to track them live while in lockdown over the summer and release them one-at-a-time during the Fall of 2020.
What inspired the album or single?
The pandemic was probably the biggest inspiration for "Left on Deming". We couldn't play shows for people anymore, so we decided to work quickly and lockdown in the studio together to take advantage of the time spent at home.
Can you sum up the album in a few words?
"Left on Deming" is an EP comprised of four songs about ex-lovers, one song about a mom, and one song about falling asleep drunk.
What record changed your life and why?
"A Flourish and a Spoil" by The Districts. It's an album that I fell in love with as I began college, a sonically engaging musical listen with lyrics that felt vital and necessary to me.
Do you have a favourite music video filmed by your band or another artist?
My favorite Motel Breakfast music video is probably "Yelling at the Moon". It's simple and effective, featuring just a single shot of beautiful dancing, choreographed and performed by Julia Schoendorf. For others, I recently saw a music video released by Kevin Morby for his new song "Don't Underestimate Midwest American Sun" that absolutely floored me. A video that is just perfectly shot and performed.
What would we find you doing when you're not making music?
Reading, cooking, or having drinks with friends. Prior to the pandemic, you'd find me at venues seeing new shows every few days too, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to do that for quite some time.
Do you get nervous performing live, if so how do you deal with that?
Strangely enough I have never found myself nervous performing for people on stage. It's a comfortable place for me. I know what I'm doing up there, and I am confident performing for people.
How did you form the band?
Mick and I started playing together as a two-piece in 2014 when we were both finishing high school. Over the next couple years we added Jesse and Conor to the group, and in the back half of 2017 we named ourselves "Motel Breakfast". We recorded the first few songs we'd written for a debut EP that came out in December of 2017, and then spent the next couple years setting up shows as much as we could across the Midwest. Drue played with us for a few shows on bass in 2018 before he officially joined the band in the summer of that year, rounding out our 5 members
How do you write? - Do you have a key songwriter, or do you all work together?
All 5 members of the band write songs, so there is no one way in which we create music. But most songs follow a path, starting with the primary writer(s) presenting a learnable skeleton of the song. Then the rest of the band workshops ideas as we refine our parts and give the song a full band arrangement. The final effort comes when we take that song into the studio and we finalize the composition that feels right for the song
What inspires you?
We're inspired by loads of things, there's no one in particular to point to. We love music, and we love making music with each other
What is next?
Who can really say. We are waiting patiently for the day live music can return and we can take the stage to play all the music we released this year for people.
Please tell us any social media links we can share
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MotelBreakfast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motelbreakfast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/motelbreakfast