Saint Motel

Hailing from California, indie outfit Saint Motel specializes in art-pop that blends visual flair with infectious hooks, complementing their live performances and most tracks with distinctive videos they produce themselves. Following a deal with Parlophone, the group scored a charting success via the 2014 single “My Type,” which resonated across the U.K. and portions of Europe. Their 2016 release Saintmotelevision supplied a virtual-reality video for each song, establishing it as the first VR album in existence. They next issued the EPs Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 before merging them, along with four new tracks, into the 2021 album Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The Saint Motel Studios era began in 2023 with “Everyone’s a Guru Now,” yielding further singles such as “Fine Wine” and “Slowly Spilling Out” that year and “Stay Golden” in July 2024.

Pianist/vocalist A.J. Jackson and classically trained guitarist Aaron Sharp founded the band in 2007 after crossing paths as film students at Chapman University in Orange, California. They enlisted bassist Dak Lerdamornpong, then employed at a local sushi restaurant, and drummer Greg Erwin, a student at another nearby college, and together developed a polished, buoyant, retro sound steeped in Tropicalia that offset Jackson’s smooth, suave croon. Drawing on their film-school background, they crafted striking retro videos for each of the six songs on their 2009 debut EP ForPlay. The upbeat numbers celebrating romance and revelry connected with listeners, prompting ongoing road work that included theatrical spectacles such as “The Valentine’s Zombie Prom.” Their first full-length effort, Voyeur, arrived in 2012 and earned strong critical notice.

The Parlophone partnership in 2014 propelled the title track of the My Type EP onto Billboard’s alternative chart and onto song rankings in several Western European territories. Saintmotelevision, their second LP, appeared in fall 2016 and was led by “Move,” whose 360-degree virtual-reality video previewed the project’s immersive approach; by mid-2017 every remaining track had received the same treatment. Their third album, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, emerged incrementally through EPs, starting with Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Pt. 1 in 2019 and Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Pt. 2 in September 2020 before the two were combined in 2021. Framing the next chapter as an homage to classic Hollywood studio operations, the band released “Everyone’s a Guru Now” in 2023, followed later that year by “Fine Wine” and “Slowly Spilling Out,” then “Stay Golden” in July 2024.