Lithium Magazine

By Elena Maystruk
Photos by Vanessa Markov

http://hotelroyalmusic.com/

Hotel Royal members Chris Hepburn, Kaylan Szuch, Andy Hepburn, and Johnny Gregson are used to packed houses, and the turnout on Saturday night at the Horseshoe Tavern was no exception. Sharing the stage with four other bands, Chris (vocals/guitar), Kaylan (keyboard/percussion), and Johnny (bass/vocals) sat down to chat before closing the show with their new single “Love Junkie”.

Elena: It’s good to meet you guys. What has your experience in Toronto been like so far? Are you enjoying it?

Chris: Nice to meet you too!  I love Toronto! I think we need to play more in Toronto. It’s a great city, good music; hope to experience more of it for sure.

Elena: Have you been received well?

Chris: Yeah! When we play here, I find people are more open than in the suburbs or wherever. We’ve been received very well, it’s going great out here in the city, I like it.

Kaylan: This is my first time actually playing a show in Toronto and I’m totally excited! I’m not from the big city. Plus Zeppelin played here!

Elena: Really?

Kaylan: Yeah, so we’ll be on the same stage as Jimmy Page! I just have to remember that when I’m playing.

Elena: I know you guys just released “Love Junkie”. What was that creative process like?

Chris: “Love Junkie”, well funny enough…at first it was more of a joke, just a riff I thought was cool. I didn’t have any music around it. Then the actual song was co-written with Jesse Smith, he used to be in a band called Cauterize. It was the first song to be co-written and it just kind of came together.

Elena: Do you guys plan to release another album?

Chris: Oh yeah, definitely! Tons more albums! We just made “Love Junkie” as kind of a teaser to get people excited for the upcoming releases. We’re going to release another song soon and kind of keep the ball rolling.

Elena: Can’t wait! Speaking of music and performing, I read a review once about Hotel Royal playing for a room of only ten people and yet the reviewer said you gave it your all! I think that’s pretty admirable.

Chris: I think that just comes from the love of playing music regardless. I mean I have just as much fun dancing and singing to myself with a radio as I do playing in front of thousands of people. It’s nice to have a lot of people at a show but if there are not, the people who are there deserve a good show too.

Elena: Your website says you play music for all ages, does that mean you try to leave certain things out of your lyrics?

Chris: Well I don’t censor myself personally. (laughs)

Johnny: None of our songs have cursing or anything like that really, but if there is, it’s ad libbed. (laughs)

Chris: Yeah there’s no cursing for the sake of shock or anything. I think it’s “all ages” because everyone can kind of get up and dance. Like a lot of bands these days have a lot of anger I think, and are angst-ridden you know. I think it’s just that anyone can really appreciate a good groove. But no, we’re a rock ‘n’ roll band and I don’t think it should be censored.

Elena: For sure. Would you guys like to say anything else?

Johnny: Hotelroyalmusic.com! Get your free music. And we’re putting out a video for “Love Junkie”.

Chris: Well, now that we’ve got “Love Junkie” out the ball is just going to keep rolling and rolling. Well keep putting out music!

Kaylan: I hope we kill the show tonight!