The feminine-indie-pop band, Motel Raphael were named after the ultra-famous crack den which burned down a few years back. The band, composed of Maya Malkin, Emily Skahan and Clara Legault, couldn't be farther away in aethsetics than their namesake, which now lays crumbling and broken, nestled deep in the heart of Notre-Dame-de-Grace in Montreal, Quebec. In the 1950’s, the family hotel was transformed over time into one of the seediest hot spots in Montreal’s west end. In 2011 the hotel caught fire, causing a lot of debate about whether if it should demolished, and to this day it still stands, albeit condemned. The juxtaposition with this local icon of rubble and ruin with the band’s sparkling career creates a bittersweet taste on the tongues of Montrealers, or anyone who is familiar with the real life motel. Repping a name that almost seems more fitting for a punk band, it's safe to say that the name “Motel Raphael” has found a new home comfortably nestled within this trio of heavily talented femme fatales.These sweethearts embody what it means to be from Montreal, not only because they are a group of strong, idol-worthy women, but because they represent this city in such a distinct way. The way they layer their voices to make them more than just mere harmonies, but three distinct voices, says something about the uniqueness of this Montreal cultural hub, showcasing all the their differences while highlighting how well they all mesh together.As Motel Raphael enters into the male run music industry one song at a time, they have become more than a sappy girl band. Emily and Clara met Maya two and a half years ago in a grimy bar, and it was love at first sight. Since then, the band has been working on Cable T.V., their debut album, while playing shows for P.O.P Montreal, Canadian Music Week, and Fringe Fest, and even being represented nationally on the CBC: Searchlight competition last year.Motel Raphael started building the anticipation for this album with their Indiegogo campaign last year, awaiting a cathartic experience for fans everywhere when the album is released on June 10. As the release date encroaches, I got the chance to talk sit down with the ladies and shoot the shit about the two years it took to make and record Cable T.V. (available on June 10), how they acquired the sacred Motel Raphael sign from the ex-crack den in Montreal, and what it’s like to be women in the music industry.Noisey: Tell me more about your new album?
Emily Skahan: This is our first album, it’s been two years in the making… but it took about a year to record. It’s going to be accessible to Canada, which is really cool because we thought we would be sitting in our homes mailing off CD’s to people with thank you notes. Which is what I did when I released my solo album last year, I hand wrote notes to everybody because as a musician you’re so stoked that someone wants it, and they’re not your mom.
Maya Malkin: Yeah, a lot of stuff started happening in between, like we got managers and they wanted to be all official about it and they didn’t want us to just release it. They were talking iTunes, and we were like “BANDCAMP! WHO CARES!? We’ll release it super unofficially.” They wanted it to be legit so now our album will be in stores.How do you think you’ll evolve and grow from this album?
Skahan: I think that we’ve grown so much together in the past few years. It’s really cool to see the way we work off each other now, on stage and in our writing, I’m really excited to see where this goes, because we’re going to have new songs that people have never heard before because we are constantly writing, I have a notebook on me all the time, or I’m jotting stuff into my phone. There are so many new ideas that come, and we’re all at really big forks in our lives, and we’re at one BIG fork which is the Motel Raphael Fork, and we’ve all grown in our own independent things outside the band, so it’ll be cool to see how it all comes together, like when you hear “London” which is the oldest song in our set, back to back with something completely new that no one has ever heard before.
Malkin: We were talking about how we should release this album, and then a month later release a Motel Raphael Greatest Hits album, and it’s just the exact same album.That would be great. Is “Ghosts” going to be on this album?
Malkin: Yeah a brand new version of “Ghosts” will be on this album, and we just recorded two songs in French for Quebec Radio, so we did “Ghosts” and “Pretty Distractions” for Quebec audiences.
Leagault: The songs are so much more heart wrenching in French. I think that’s because it is the language of love. If we don’t make it big internationally, then rest assured we will be French Superstars.What were your influences for this album?
Legault: John Mayer, Ella Fitzgerald and P.J. Harvey. And we love Taylor Swift. We’re not even a little bit embarrassed and we definitely kept the Dixie Chicks in mind though when mixing our harmonies, not necessarily for style, but more for the ability to distinctly hear the three voices, but the main melody comes through anyways.
Skahan: The album is called Cable T.V. because two months after Maya joined the band we engaged in illegal activities by going and stealing the Motel Raphael sign form the actual motel, or it fell into our laps, we’re not really sure, it might have all just been a crazy dream we were all in. Who knows how it happened, but the sign says “Motel Raphael” and since Motel Raphael opened in the 1950’s cable t.v. was a really big deal, so it said “cable t.v.” on the sign so that’s where the name of the album came from. The album is 10 love songs and none of them talk about T.V. at all. I hope that’s not disappointing for our audiences.
Malkin: I think the album artwork will make up for that. We’re all in ridiculous nightgowns eating T.V. dinners as if we were watching a television. The album is more about the motel, and that’s where we draw a lot of our inspiration, like our band name, our album, and we also want to name our next album Motel Raphael is On Fire
Skahan: Which we came up with two years ago when it actually lit on fire. Every time the Motel gets any attention we get so much free press! So that will be the name for the second album, On Fire, because second albums are hard to write so if you encourage yourself it’ll make it a lot easier.You seem pretty confident about this second album!
Skahan: Second albums are a funny thing.
Malkin: It’s because you have so much time to write the first album, you can work really hard on every song and once they get success for that first album, then the pressure is on for the second album and everyone is expecting the songs to be as good as the last album. So that’s what we’ve been discussing, how are we going to handle this pressure and need to write a bunch more songs.
Skahan: But then again, we all have new things going on, like my boyfriend is moving across the country in four months. I don’t think I’ll be lacking any inspiration. There will be plenty of things to say. Less love songs and more travel songs and there’s nothing more inspiring than plane ride to Calgary.How do you feel about being women in the music industry?
Skahan: It’s a really weird place to hold. I don’t think we realized how much our interactions are based on gender until we put ourselves put ourselves in the position that is usually filled by the opposite sex. Often times at our sound checks will walk up to our drummer or bassist (We have 3 guys in our band) and ask them what the levels are and everything and Clara will step in and say “Eyes here buddy. We are in charge here. We run the show. It is obviously the three of us.” People just aren’t used to girls carrying amps and whatnot and they’re always offering to help you carry things, which sometimes is nice.. but man Clara can lift just as much as most dudes I know. She’s a very take charge type of woman.There’s a reason why the three of us have succeeded so far as a formula, because all three of us know when to take our place and when to tell guys that this is not a boys club, and that we belong here too. It’s important to have girls that other girls can look up to, because you can really do anything as woman and I don’t think people are saying that often enough. You can be whatever you want to be.
Malkin: It’s also empowering to be a female musician because to men who aren’t musicians they find it very intimidating. So it’s a nice balance of us being discriminated against but also intimidating the opposite sex.Do you have any touring plans?
Malkin: Yeah! We’re going across Canada in August! It’s really not planned yet, but it will be!
Skahan: We’re a little nervous just because we’ve never crossed the country before. I have never been west, Canada could be just blank from Ontario onwards and I wouldn’t know.It pretty much is, between Ontario to the Rockies it’s pretty.. blank.
Malkin: Great! I think we’re all nervous just about how we’re going to get there. We might get one gigantic van, but that might be a little nerve wracking to cross the country for a whole month all together, but if we have separate cars then maybe it will be less stressful. Who knows!
Legault: It all depends on what our set up will be but there’s something really special about a road trip where everyone is together in the same car.Gabe Gilker is a writer from Montreal. She's on Twitter.----DJ Vilify is the biggest name in Montreal's beat scene.We got animated with Le Trouble for their new music video.Getting wavy with the man who penned a book about the theremin.
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Emily Skahan: This is our first album, it’s been two years in the making… but it took about a year to record. It’s going to be accessible to Canada, which is really cool because we thought we would be sitting in our homes mailing off CD’s to people with thank you notes. Which is what I did when I released my solo album last year, I hand wrote notes to everybody because as a musician you’re so stoked that someone wants it, and they’re not your mom.
Maya Malkin: Yeah, a lot of stuff started happening in between, like we got managers and they wanted to be all official about it and they didn’t want us to just release it. They were talking iTunes, and we were like “BANDCAMP! WHO CARES!? We’ll release it super unofficially.” They wanted it to be legit so now our album will be in stores.How do you think you’ll evolve and grow from this album?
Skahan: I think that we’ve grown so much together in the past few years. It’s really cool to see the way we work off each other now, on stage and in our writing, I’m really excited to see where this goes, because we’re going to have new songs that people have never heard before because we are constantly writing, I have a notebook on me all the time, or I’m jotting stuff into my phone. There are so many new ideas that come, and we’re all at really big forks in our lives, and we’re at one BIG fork which is the Motel Raphael Fork, and we’ve all grown in our own independent things outside the band, so it’ll be cool to see how it all comes together, like when you hear “London” which is the oldest song in our set, back to back with something completely new that no one has ever heard before.
Malkin: We were talking about how we should release this album, and then a month later release a Motel Raphael Greatest Hits album, and it’s just the exact same album.
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Malkin: Yeah a brand new version of “Ghosts” will be on this album, and we just recorded two songs in French for Quebec Radio, so we did “Ghosts” and “Pretty Distractions” for Quebec audiences.
Leagault: The songs are so much more heart wrenching in French. I think that’s because it is the language of love. If we don’t make it big internationally, then rest assured we will be French Superstars.What were your influences for this album?
Legault: John Mayer, Ella Fitzgerald and P.J. Harvey. And we love Taylor Swift. We’re not even a little bit embarrassed and we definitely kept the Dixie Chicks in mind though when mixing our harmonies, not necessarily for style, but more for the ability to distinctly hear the three voices, but the main melody comes through anyways.
Skahan: The album is called Cable T.V. because two months after Maya joined the band we engaged in illegal activities by going and stealing the Motel Raphael sign form the actual motel, or it fell into our laps, we’re not really sure, it might have all just been a crazy dream we were all in. Who knows how it happened, but the sign says “Motel Raphael” and since Motel Raphael opened in the 1950’s cable t.v. was a really big deal, so it said “cable t.v.” on the sign so that’s where the name of the album came from. The album is 10 love songs and none of them talk about T.V. at all. I hope that’s not disappointing for our audiences.
Malkin: I think the album artwork will make up for that. We’re all in ridiculous nightgowns eating T.V. dinners as if we were watching a television. The album is more about the motel, and that’s where we draw a lot of our inspiration, like our band name, our album, and we also want to name our next album Motel Raphael is On Fire
Skahan: Which we came up with two years ago when it actually lit on fire. Every time the Motel gets any attention we get so much free press! So that will be the name for the second album, On Fire, because second albums are hard to write so if you encourage yourself it’ll make it a lot easier.
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Skahan: Second albums are a funny thing.
Malkin: It’s because you have so much time to write the first album, you can work really hard on every song and once they get success for that first album, then the pressure is on for the second album and everyone is expecting the songs to be as good as the last album. So that’s what we’ve been discussing, how are we going to handle this pressure and need to write a bunch more songs.
Skahan: But then again, we all have new things going on, like my boyfriend is moving across the country in four months. I don’t think I’ll be lacking any inspiration. There will be plenty of things to say. Less love songs and more travel songs and there’s nothing more inspiring than plane ride to Calgary.How do you feel about being women in the music industry?
Skahan: It’s a really weird place to hold. I don’t think we realized how much our interactions are based on gender until we put ourselves put ourselves in the position that is usually filled by the opposite sex. Often times at our sound checks will walk up to our drummer or bassist (We have 3 guys in our band) and ask them what the levels are and everything and Clara will step in and say “Eyes here buddy. We are in charge here. We run the show. It is obviously the three of us.” People just aren’t used to girls carrying amps and whatnot and they’re always offering to help you carry things, which sometimes is nice.. but man Clara can lift just as much as most dudes I know. She’s a very take charge type of woman.There’s a reason why the three of us have succeeded so far as a formula, because all three of us know when to take our place and when to tell guys that this is not a boys club, and that we belong here too. It’s important to have girls that other girls can look up to, because you can really do anything as woman and I don’t think people are saying that often enough. You can be whatever you want to be.
Malkin: It’s also empowering to be a female musician because to men who aren’t musicians they find it very intimidating. So it’s a nice balance of us being discriminated against but also intimidating the opposite sex.
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Malkin: Yeah! We’re going across Canada in August! It’s really not planned yet, but it will be!
Skahan: We’re a little nervous just because we’ve never crossed the country before. I have never been west, Canada could be just blank from Ontario onwards and I wouldn’t know.It pretty much is, between Ontario to the Rockies it’s pretty.. blank.
Malkin: Great! I think we’re all nervous just about how we’re going to get there. We might get one gigantic van, but that might be a little nerve wracking to cross the country for a whole month all together, but if we have separate cars then maybe it will be less stressful. Who knows!
Legault: It all depends on what our set up will be but there’s something really special about a road trip where everyone is together in the same car.Gabe Gilker is a writer from Montreal. She's on Twitter.----DJ Vilify is the biggest name in Montreal's beat scene.We got animated with Le Trouble for their new music video.Getting wavy with the man who penned a book about the theremin.