Motel Pools
Motel Pools’ Chiara Angelicola; photographed by Ally Legato.
You might already know Chiara Angelicola from her work in Bird Call, who lately has been making music under the moniker Motel Pools devoted to making spaced out pop sounds to fill the suburban skies. With the release of her Vol. II & Vol. I EPs, Chiara presents a premiere listen to “Suburbia from the forthcoming Motel Pools release, along with the wasteland wandering & wading wonder, “Waste Away”. Angelicola pens testaments to the hearts that are “so young & so free” in a combination of lamentations along with a particularly delectable style of fashionable destitution.
“Suburbia” paints the track-home rows of pre-fab house boxes, and the trappings of city planning where identical neighboring neighborhoods are separated by strip malls and inundated by teeth grinding boredom. Motel Pools start the song with distorted howling riffs that teeter-totter back & forth with with a cacophony of feedback that finds a growling rhythm progression made up of gnashing teeth, stylish looks, and manufactured disaffection. Motel Pools portrays the worlds of rampant complacency, drug store pharma-party runoff, the bored & ignored & vengeful housewives, beer bellied husbands doing work in the yard, Tupperware party hangovers, keys in the fishbowl follies, latch-keys kept like collars on their progeny and more are conjured together in Chiara’s horror rock opera. The mundane world of nine to five automatons is depicted like something out of The Burbs, where Motel Pools sharpen the lens at what weirdness exists beneath the perfect AstroTurf lawns & other sorts so perverse proclivities shared between members of the local neighborhood watch team.
Chiara draws the curtains on the Motel Pools self-described horror picture show of sound that begins something of a midnight matinee for jaded ex-lovers & cretins of the industry. Every time Angelicola repeats the refrain of, “what is the big idea, you get no second chances, there is no unicorn”, the very illusion of intimacy & attraction dissolves like tear drops pour profusely into the concrete motel room patio. The lonely feeling of watching trashy late night HBO, PPV, Showtime & coin-op mechanical massage beds are exhibited like ill-fraught break-up scenario recalled like the feeling of having a blow out or sordid relationship fall-out at Disneyland, whilst in-line for Splash Mountain. Fantastical visions of a doomed bond continuing onward are painted like mythological beasts that exist only in fairy tale fables, or in the fantastical-fabrics of religious liturgy, tractates & verses. “Waste Away” is the romantic meltdown for the post-apocalypse where former heartbreak scenarios are played on a continuous loop. We recently had a chance to catch up with Chiara to discuss everything Motel Pools & more:
Describe what making your Vol. II EP was like for you, and the discoveries you made along the way.
As a whole, I think Motel Pools has been a project of great discovery for me both personally and as an artist. The process of writing rock music has been more energetic, cathartic, and liberating than any of my work in Bird Call. The latter seems to require a bit more of a meticulous heady process in production. Where as, Motel Pools has really demanded more of my impulses, gritty emotions, and risk-taking. Volume II was more of a dilated emotional process because of the personal things I was going through at the time…a big break-up and my dog getting sick and old. I also put myself in the bull ring and decided to produce this all on my own. I very immediately had to put all my fears of failure to bed. Overall, I’ve learned that I’m more capable than I tend to think I am, both as an artist and as a woman.
How has your previous projects and works from Bird Call impacted the aesthetic of Motel Pools from your perspective?
It’s interesting to think about the similarities between the two. I definitively see the same level of vulnerability in both projects through the lyrics and performance. Both carry a big weight of emotions, grit, and confrontation. They seem to just be disguised in different cloaks of sound and visuals. One, inspired more by my surrounding in NY at the time, and the other a reflection of my life in California. When I first premiered Motel Pools live at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn last year, my friends showed up not knowing what to expect. After the show, my buddy told me how unexpected the sound was yet he totally understood where it was coming from and that it was still me up there performing. It’s liberating to be able to tell the same stories and feel the same things in different projects but use different mediums, materials, and influences for each thing. It’s gotta be that sense of self that shines through any work one does…otherwise it’s no longer human.
Motel Pools’ Chiara Angelicola; photographed by Ally Legato.
Top three things you are really into right now in terms of media, art, visual, audio etc.
I’ve been thinking a lot about social media and how it impacts modern art creation and discovery. I’m discerning between long-lasting and impulse art and I am discovering that impulse art in media (Snapchat, periscope, things we obsess over for brief periods of time) are actually really important because they keep us moving forward, learning, and building greater meaning. These things we impulsively attach ourselves to are just mirrors of our current needs in modern pop culture, and I think we can learn from that.
As far as music, I’ve been gravitating towards classic rock on my playlists these days. I think that’s because it’s so dead that I want some of it’s ethos back. I want to exist in a time where the 110 bpm is no longer ubiquitous. The Day of the Dead tribute record has been on repeat as well. I think that’s a great example of how to take the strengths of the past but recreate a story that is relevant now.
Also, I finally finished “House of Cards”. Riveting. I can’t quite figure out why I still want Underwood to win.
Next moves for Motel Pools?
MP is on tour in the summer, followed by some new Bird Call production in the winter.
It would be cool to hear how suburban feelings & reflections inspired the track “Suburbia”.
I was born and raised in Marin County, the epitome of white suburbia. There was so much that I took in subconsciously while growing up..so much stigma and fear. It’s obviously such a psych trip being back in these parts. It’s a stunning place geographically, and I am grateful to call Northern California home now. Yet, I can’t help but poke at those stereotypes that I still see played out. I oddly have a weird obsession with the suburb car and mall culture. Sam Mendes could articulate this strange attraction more eloquently than me. I always find art-making more interesting when there’s a palpable dissonance or dichotomy of ease yet unsettling discomfort. These sorts of themes have always inspired my work.
