I recently spoke with the majority of up and coming Chicago band, August Hotel, about their beginnings, influences, new music, and future plans. Besides bonding over our common love of Catfish and the Bottlemen, and how technology (*cough cough* Skype) sucks sometimes, we focused on the release of their latest single “12AM.” With this release, and subsequent international press, they’ve made it clear that they are here to not only stay, but to win.

August Hotel is made up of Cale Singleton (Bass/Vocals), Ryan Lammers (Guitar/vocals), Dean Sinclair (Drums),Craig Schwartz Jr (Keyboard/Vocals), and Joe Padilla (Vocals). The five piece, indie synth-pop band all went to high school together, save for one. Each member of the band has his own unique taste in music ranging from Country, to Classic Rock, to Metal, to Indie/Alt. The name stems from two random words picked out of The Great Gatsby, written by Minnesota’s own F.Scott Fitzgerald.

Despite the praise August Hotel has received for previous releases, “12AM” has definitely raised the bar, bringing them to a whole other professional level. Guitarist Ryan Lammers began writing the song late one night, and set it aside after showing it to Dean and being told it needed some work. Lammers picked it back up when asked to do a soundtrack for a friend’s mini-series,  and made it a real August Hotel song with the help of the rest of the band after the first version from the mini-series.

“We changed the song a lot, but I think really for the better. It made that song what I wanted it to be all along. [. . .] As far as inspiration goes, I think I was really just drawing on my own experiences of staying up too late…so…um, I guess the message is ‘ get more sleep’. *laughs* Or not, because I also wrote most of it at one in the morning!”

A bit of a drastic change in sound from their first single on Spotify, “What About Now”, The band went into “12AM” wanting to use more electronic elements. The song builds into a crash that seamlessly blends the alternative rock of yesterday, with modern-day electronic influences such as The 1975, Two Door Cinema Club, LANY, and St. Lucia.

August Hotel’s first headlining show a few months ago in Evanston, IL showed them great support, and has given them the itch to book more concerts for October. The guys plan on releasing the next single sometime in late fall 2016, and finishing the EP shortly after to hopefully release it sometime in January of 2017. In the meantime, you can listen to “12AM” on Spotify, Soundcloud, and follow the band on Facebook or Twitter!