Sometimes it’s necessary to have a look back before moving forward. Case in point: Athens, Ga., indie-pop duo Hotel Fiction has just released an expanded version of its 2024 LP, Staring At The Sun (Astronaut Kids/Paid Vacation), with four previously unreleased tracks. The deluxe reissue puts a neat little ethereal bow on a seven-year span that saw Hotel Fiction’s 2019 single, “Astronaut Kids,” amass more than two million streams only months after Jade Ireland Long and Jess Thompson launched their creative partnership as students at the University of Georgia. That sudden success kept them on the road for the better part of four years supporting Beach Fossils, Flipturn and others.
Long and Thompson recently separated fact from fiction with MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland.
What was the motivation behind reissuing Staring At The Sun?
Long: Making the deluxe version was our way to tie up this group of songs and this time in our lives. There are always a couple of songs we’ve written that don’t make it onto the original album, so it was really nice to give them the attention we felt they deserved. We were also fortunate to have made this album and the visuals/videos with our friends here in Athens.
The album was first released only two years ago, but I’m guessing it feels longer for you. How has Hotel Fiction evolved since then?
Thompson: It feels like both a lifetime ago and yesterday. We feel like different people with an entirely changed outlook on life. But the personal meaning of the songs has evolved with us as we’ve grown and performed them. We brought Staring At The Sun on a national headline tour and felt so lucky to play for people across the country. Genre and interest wise, we’re really excited to dive into the next chapter of our band.
What was the recording process like for the original LP and the new tracks?
Long: We recorded the original album at our friend (We Bought A Zoo’s) Tommy Trauwein’s house. Since then, he’s moved, so we did the deluxe tracks at his new house. We loved exploring outside of our comfort zone with guitar tones, lyrics, instrumentation and synth sounds. At the time of writing and recording it, every song felt so different. But listening back, it’s cool to see that they all fit together so nicely both musically and emotionally. The album explores ideas of love and heartbreak, growth and death, anxiety and aimlessness.
What can you tell us about the four bonus tracks on the reissue?
Thompson: We played as many parts on acoustic guitars together as we could to give it a live, intimate feel, and we added some really cool components like bowed electric guitar, jaw harp and banjo. One of our favorite parts of recording these extra songs was having our friends Hey, Nothing over to sing on our acoustic version of “Still Frozen.” Hearing their beautiful voices on our song was surreal. For “Sunrise (Acoustic),” we actually recorded in our house with our bassist, Aidan (Hill), producing the song. We snuck into a church to get the piano sounds. Everything about the four extra tracks came naturally and organically.
Thanks to streaming services, building a fanbase can happen almost overnight. How has Hotel Fiction’s initial online success translated to what you’ve been witnessing on the road?
Long: On tour, it’s really exciting to walk into a full room of people eager to hear our music. It doesn’t happen every night, but when it does, there’s no feeling like it. Honestly, though, a lot of our audience has come from just touring consistently over the last five years. We play a show in a city, maybe someone comes to see it and likes it, and maybe the next time they bring a friend with them, and so on.
Although we’ve had a few exciting moments on social media, for the most part, the growth of our band has felt like a slow burn in a nice way. With every album and new project, it seems we pick up a new group of people who are connecting with the songs. For now, it’s felt proportional to the work we’ve put in, which has been grounding. No crazy leaps to stardom yet. But fingers crossed.
