In February 2007 Stefan and David talked to the Placebo fanlub Bionic about the idea behind Hotel Persona, their influences and their upcoming release, their plans for the future and how Hotel Persona and Placebo can coexist. Enjoy reading!
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| Stefan Olsdal and David Amen. Photo credit unknown |
Stefan and David Amen have had a few weeks of complete dedication to Hotel Persona while being in Madrid at the beginning of the year: writing new songs, getting ready their debut album and some dj-sets in the busy Madrid 's night and in other Spanish cities. Writing and acting inside a big eclecticism, Hotel Persona is a project done to join the anonymity and the madness found in a Hotel with the identity concept inside each person.
Bionic-club have had the chance to talk to the boys from this particular Hotel and pass them the questions from their fans: beginnings, influences, future plans and many other curiosities which are here answered:
𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠 𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗟 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔? 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗠𝗘𝗘𝗧?
📢 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏: “We met in London a long time ago in a Club in Brixton, but Hotel Persona didn't come up till a long time after that; David began to write songs which I set to music; I can't say that we ‘decided' to form Hotel Persona in an specific moment but that it was rised bit a bit.“
𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡, 𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦 𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗟 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔 𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗜𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗪𝗔𝗬?
📢 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏: “No, Hotel Persona is something I do when I have a break of Placebo, I write different kind of music and not all this music have place in Placebo, that's what I find interesting in this side project, that I can develop other aspects and kinds of music that would be lost in other way.“
𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗟𝗨𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗠𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗟𝗬?
📢 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅: “The bands which have interested me in different moments have been: Pegamoides. Golpes Bajos, Cure, Smiths, Prince, Pet Shop Boys, Suede, Blur, Bjork, Fangoria, Blondie…… and many others; lately bands like Royksopp, The Knife, Jay-Jay Johanson.“
📹 𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀 – 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓
https://bit.ly/3jxdIdH
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| Hotel Persona at Razzmatazz, Barcelona, 2006. Photo credit unknown |
📢 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅: “At the beginning we wanted to be Material, but it happens that there is an American band with that name already, so we had to think of something different and honestly it took us time till we found Hotel Persona. Stefan had a DVD movie by Ingmar Bergman called Persona (it's a very strange film from his beginnings) and we thought this name was perfect, but we found out that there were 2 or 3 bands already with that name, so we added Hotel that is the opposite to Persona in some way. You can be anonymous in a hotel, it's a temporary residence, you can pretend to be whoever you like, and Persona is something you can't escape from, the person you are goes with you since you are born till the end. We thought it was interesting to mix these two concepts.“
𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗔𝗦 𝗔 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗟 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔?
📢 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏: At the moment to release the album that we have ready, going on writing and developing this project.“
𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗡 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗫𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦?
📢 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏: “Hotel Persona have different sideS... As you probably know we have done a couple of remixes for Placebo, She Wants Revenge and United. Of course we'll go on doing it whenever it comes up something we find sufficiently interesting; we love making remixes, you come across a song already done which you are going to change in something different, you show a different view of that song, it's like a game and it's very immediate.“
𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗗𝗝 𝗦𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦, 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦?
📢 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏: “As Djs we have been touring around a lot of places and we like it, we play the music we'd like to dance when we go out and it seems people have a good time. We don't restrict to just one kind of music, we play all kinds from songs which are more than 20 years old till new ones, from Nine Inch Nails to Madonna.“
𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗨𝗦 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠. 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗜𝗧 𝗕𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘𝗗? 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗛 𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬? 𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗛 𝗢𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗛? 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢𝗦?
📢 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏: “There are many things still in the air, at the moment we are deciding which company we can firm with. Our purpose, in case everything goes all right, is to release it this year, at the end of summer or something like that, but there is nothing sure yet. Most of the songs are written in Spanish (David writes the lyrics) so it will be released firstly here and then we'll see.“
𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗔𝗦 𝗔 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗? 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗢 𝗔 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚?
📢 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏: “Although it's very soon yet... I think we'll do something when I finish Placebo's tour. But we'll keep telling you as we are having more information.“
(Bionic, February 2007)
📹 𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀 – 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐎 𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑
https://bit.ly/2VahqRe
Post by Silke
