In just four studio albums and four EPs, Los Angeles’s Saint Motel has established itself as one of the leading forces in the contemporary indie rock scene. Though best known for their certified platinum single “My Type,” the band’s projects have a deep connection with cinema.
Thus, Saint Motel’s progression from retro-inspired alt-rock to their more recent cinematic, orchestral art-pop feels like a natural evolution. That sweeping, theatrical sound is on full display on their record, Saint Motel & the Symphony in the Sky, which was released earlier this year.
“When the [orchestral direction for Saint Motel’s music] started, I think it was kind of unintentional,” lead singer A.J. Jackson said. “I was just experimenting with sounds, and I think with ‘Fine Wine’ is where it really started. I wanted to make music with real strings ... It felt like where we were heading, this kind of more orchestral pop, 1960s Beach Boys kind of world.”
Just a few months after their February release — and three days before their visit to West Des Moines' Val Air Ballroom, Saint Motel has now released their fifth LP, Afterglow. This latest album is considered a companion album to Symphony in the Sky. It expands upon the themes explored in the earlier album and provides a finale to this chapter of Saint Motel’s discography.
“I am very excited for people to hear [Afterglow]. It picks up right where we left off with Symphony in the Sky,” Jackson said. “Symphony in the Sky deals with the impermanence of life and ‘mono no aware’ and the concept of everything's always changing, whereas Afterglow is maybe a more zoomed-out perspective on this kind of concept."
“Mono no aware” is a Japanese concept that literally translates to “the pathos of things,” or a wistful appreciation for ephemerality. As Jackson and his bandmates have navigated where they are in life, they've found beauty in the impermanence of existence, and that's the core of their songwriting and the sound of the music on these two albums.
"Where Symphony in the Sky picks up more whimsical and upbeat [and] ends more emotional, Afterglow brings it even further to a darker place, before it turns into this kind of uplifting spot that's gonna end this album journey and set us up for where we're going to be the next time," Jackson noted.
A recent sentimental moment for Jackson has been the birth of his first child, daughter Georgia. Symphony in the Sky includes an emotional song about Georgia called “Steady Hand,” and her own voice is featured on Afterglow.
“Fatherhood is probably the most intense thing I’ve ever experienced in my life, and it absolutely changes you,” Jackson said. “She joins me now while I’m making music. She’s only two, but she’ll dance — she likes to sing into the microphone ... It’s amazing. She’s definitely a motivation and a new subject for inspiration. A hell of an experience.”
Saint Motel’s larger-than-life music creates an electric concert atmosphere, which will fill the Val Air Ballroom on Monday, Oct. 13. If you're attending, be sure to stop by and say hi before the band takes the stage — you can find us at Work in Progress, the new bar underneath Val Air!
