Five Star Motel performing at Shipbuilders' Square Friday, Aug. 22 at 5 p.m.
Ryan Matches would say that the key to his band, Five Star Motel's longevity is their friendship.
"It's a friends-first scenario," says Matches.
The band, performing at North Shore Green Markets, Shipbuilders' Square, Aug. 22 at 5 p.m., was formed by childhood friends, Matches, Mike Norris and Ian Powell, and later joined by Paul Reichelt and Craig Wilson.
Matches, Norris and Powell grew up together in Deep Cove, playing soccer, attending the same elementary school and eventually graduating high school together in 1984. Matches says he met Reichelt in 1996 at a mutual friend's house party.
"I noticed him sitting in the corner playing his guitar and he played a few of his originals," says Matches. "When I heard them I thought 'Oh there's something magical here, these are really good originals, really catchy and melodic.' So I basically asked him if he wanted to join my little sort of gathering of high school friends in one of my buddy's basements and he obliged and he came down."
From then on it remained a little four-piece, says Matches, as they got together every week and worked on original music. The band even recorded the songs "Point of View" and "Chasing the Sun," that Matches heard Reichelt play at the party.
"Paul has turned into a fabulous friend outside of music as well," says Matches.
"And Craig, our newest member who joined us about three-four months ago, was a friend of mine from another cover band that we played in called Truck."
Truck disbanded, Matches says, and Motel thought that if they added a fifth member, it would increase their dynamic.
The band's name, says Matches, was "blatantly ripped off" from Andy Stochansky, a singersongwriter from Ontario. "I wish it was a more glamorous story," he laughs. "One of his albums he called Five Star Motel and we just thought that was kind of fitting to the content of the songs that we had written."
With multiple songs under their belts, the band has come up with their own unique writing process.
"Paul typically brings in a nugget whether it's a lyric, a passage of words, several lines of lyrics or a guitar riff," says Matches. "Usually it starts off with something that turns into the chorus of the song and then we kind of write it outwards from the centre and add verses, add bridges, add beginnings and ends and that sort of thing."
Every song is very much written by committee, he says.
"We all have sort of musical points of view and we all throw our input into it and we won't keep a song if one of us doesn't like it," says Matches. "We all have to really get excited about the song in order for it to last."
Their music has evolved over the years as the band has become better players, says Matches, and learned to listen to each other.
"I guess the songs have become a little more structured, a little more melodic," he says. "A lot of our music is harmonydriven, melody-driven, catchy choruses, sort of toe tapping-sing along, it's very accessible music."
The band has also discovered that their music is accessible across generations. At a recent concert at Shipbuilders' Square in North Vancouver, one of the audience members, a woman Matches would describe as in her 70s or 80s, was "grinning ear to ear the whole time."
"She actually made a point of coming up and shaking our hands and saying 'Oh my goodness you guys, that was the best music I've heard in a long time,'" he says.
Matches says its nice to know their music is accessible from children dancing in front of the stage at last year's Shipbuilders' Square event, to their most recent, newly-acquired fan.
"Its kind of interesting how its evolved and that people of all walks of life seem to gravitate to it, they really enjoy it," he says.
The band describes their music as "trailer park rock," or even southern rock, that often references bluecollar living. Their musical inspirations are the bands they grew up with, what Matches calls "an interesting little dichotomy."
"Paul, the lead singerguitar player, is more of a Stevie Ray Vaughan, southern rock kind of an influenced guy," says Matches. "And the rest of us are sort of children of the '80s and we grew up with U2 and REM and Echo and the Bunnymen and these sort of obscure new wave type bands that have their own evolution."
It's an amalgamation of everyone's influences, he says, that gives Motel their sound.
Motel's members each hold a day job; Matches as a surveyor, Norris as a wood worker, Powell as a schoolteacher, Reichelt as a house painter and Wilson as an electrician.
"Its sort of like the Sesame Street song 'These are the People in Your Neighbourhood,' because we're all sort of blue collar tradesmen," says Matches. "We all have these very blue collar jobs but we've all made time in our schedules to get together to rehearse at least once a week."
The band typically rehearses on Tuesdays at NAL Sound in North Vancouver.
"Sometimes if the spot doesn't have an opening we'll go to Craig's house and have an impromptu practice and work on our harmonies
and our vocals and that sort of thing," says Matches. "It's all rooted in friendship, we always have a really good time when we get together and I think that's why we've managed to last this long."
The band has been rehearsing at NAL since 1996, says Matches, and has seen hundreds of bands come and go.
"I think we're probably the mainstay, which for bands is interesting, its kind of like dog years and human years, its just bands don't usually seem to have a long life span unless of course they're the Rolling Stones or those types of exceptions," he says. "But as far as local bands, you don't see many names out there that were around when we started jamming at the studio, so we're kind of proud of our longevity."
The band has had numerous highlights in their already lengthy career, including in 2005 when they played the Roxy.
"They had booked us for a country showcase on the Sunday afternoon," says Matches. "I think unbeknownst to them it was the Grey Cup weekend in Vancouver."
Motel was just about to start their set as the final whistle blew and Granville Street was "flooded with drunken football revelers," says Matches.
"We played a set in front of a jam-packed Roxy, which, if anyone knows live music in Vancouver, the Roxy is one of the best stages and best sound systems to play," he says. "We just felt really fortunate that we were able to do that, first of all, but also really, really well received. People were high five-ing us after and saying 'encore, encore.'" It was a bit shocking, says Matches.
"It was also very life affirming for us that if we keep our nose to the grindstone we can produce some pretty good music and people would actually warm up to us."
The band also played their CD release party at the Avalon Pub in North Vancouver in 1999, as well as the Avalon's final night of business years later before it was torn down. They performed at a corporate event in the Richmond Olympic Oval before the Olympics.
"I don't think it was even open to the public at that point," says Matches. "I think we might have been one of the first bands to ever play in that building as people were skating around us, it was pretty interesting."
Matches says they have played in "all the other seedy bars around town," including the Piccadilly Pub, Marine Club and Media Club, to name a few, that have their own little highlights.
After honouring their next few commitments, the band plans to work on some original songs and try their hand at writing as a fivesome, says Matches, as they haven't had a chance since Wilson joined.
"Everyone has something swirling around in their head at any given moment," he says. "We basically sit in the room and play parts for each other... its basically like Tetris, you just sort of put the building blocks in place or the line of lyrics in place and see what it turns into."
Over the years the band has tried to incorporate a keyboard or Hammondstyle organ type of sound into their music.
"We've bought and sold a whole bunch of keyboards over the years, "says Matches. "I play keyboard a little bit and so does Mike, but when it comes to playing sort of a church organ sound, it's a very distinct technique and it's a bit difficult."
Recently though, Reichelt received a special pedal for his guitar, says Matches.
"It's a keyboard pedal, it's basically an effect that he can plug his guitar in and then play chords on his guitar and it sounds like a church organ," he says. "We're not sure where it's going to lead us to.
Now that we have Craig as another guitar player, Paul can sort of relax with his guitar parts and noodle around a bit and see if he can fuse a bit of this sort of church keyboard sound. So we're excited about that."
Matches says there have definitely been peaks and valleys, good times and bad, but the band is a support net for each other, "it's a real brotherhood."
"We sort of do it as much for ourselves as for everybody else too, so its great therapy just to put the guitar on at least once a week and get together in the same room and have a few beers with your friends," he says. "And the byproduct is decent music and a couple laughs and there's nothing better than that."
Five Star Motel's songs are free for download at fivestarmotel.ca.
