Motel Thieves
Interview by Dom Waters
July 12th 2019

7 months as a band, 6000 hits on a debut single and a sold out show on Swansea Kingsway’s finest venue. This is Motel Thieves -one of the most exciting bands to emerge in the last year...

How was the show? How do you feel?

Matt: Fucking sick!

Cal: And we’ve already dropped the f bomb. It was crazy

Sam: It was next level. The amount of people that were at door at 7, we already had a massive queue.

I couldn’t believe how packed out it was!

Jake: We honestly weren’t expecting that at all and we appreciate it a lot.

Callum: Behind the scenes, we practice a lot. So It’s nice when it finally shows and you play such a nice gig to the people who really appreciate it. It’s a nice feeling!

What sets you aside from the other local bands? What’s your edge ?

Callum: We’re different, there’s no other band in Swansea like us. We just enjoy it so much, we try and make that come across to the crowd that we’re there purely to have fun. We always try and maximise the fun in a show.

Sam: And we want it. We really, really want it and I think that comes across. You see some bands look like they really can’t be bothered and there’s no effort there. But we try and show that effort at our shows. With us, it’s 100% all the time.

Well I remember you guys playing when you first started seven months ago and in that time your performance has come along massively. Did you ever sit down and discuss the performance side of it or did it come organically ?

Callum: We had a line up change which made a difference. Evan joined after our first gig and then things started to click musically. Just a practice or two after that, we wrote Stitches and it all came organically from there. It was that final click really. We’ve never looked back.

Sam: I feel like our newer shows over the last two months have had a lot more structure to them. It’s still loose and fun but there is that -

Evan: Dynamics and steps, interesting parts in the right places. it builds the show and leaves it all memorable. Especially how it’s started and ended.

I loved what you did with that acoustic track...

Callum: We sort of had to put it there as a little breather. It was going so fast we had to get people to relax a little bit.

Evan: That’s one thing right I felt it was really intimate.

So stitches how long has that been out now? 3 weeks?

All: 2 weeks

Wow, and it’s got how many hits? 6000!
That’s 3000 a week

Evan: 500 hits in America as well.

You’ve broken the continent already! It took the Beatles 3 years for that.

Sam: In the first week we had a thousand and then the second week it shot up.

Evan: In one night we had 1,200 and we called each other like ‘boys I swear it’s doubled’!
Then 2000, then 4000, and so on.

Jake: Every day since it’s been released, the first thing I’ve done every day and every morning is wake up and check it.

Callum: We’re so eager to know what people think about it. We put a lot of work into it and we wanted to make sure it’s the best first single for us.
We really wanted a summer tune and we wanted it to come out in the summer, the right time.

Matt: I feel like we’re a summer band no matter what the time of year!

Like fuck it shorts and sandals on in December

Evan: Exactly! We’re that guy!

We’d actually like to say thank you to our two listeners in Morocco. One in Taiwan. Singapore.

Callum: It’s crazy to think people all around the world can listen to our music.

So obviously this single will continue to grow you guys quite a bit. Do you have any plans for an EP release down the line?

Sam: I think at the moment we’re just going with the flow.

Jake: Likely there’ll be another single before we go with a full EP

Callum: The reaction to Stitches has just made us want it even more. We want to get back in the studio and do another track.

Well I was listening to the single and your set and I was thinking ‘Damn I could really listen to more of this’ . Like that acoustic track, is that a cover or an original if you don’t mind me asking?

Jake: That’s ours. ‘Future is now’ it’s called

Wow! Honestly I was listening to that and it sounded almost too good to be true it was incredible.

Callum: Thank you so much.

I’m really excited to see where you guys go next. Do you want to talk a bit about your next big headline show?

Sam: Let’s see. Hometown Shows Sin City 6th September.

What should we expect to see?

Evan: Indie Madness. Indie gigs are just fun there’s moshes but there are kind moshes

Callum: It’s a balance between you get people dancing but you get moshes too.
Red Stripe fuelled madness!

I can vouch for that. Right lads any final words/ plugs for the readers.

Sam: Stitches is out now on Apple Music, Spotify all major streaming platforms so go check it out!

Dom Waters

Read Dom's review of the gig here...