From revelrous rock & roll to moody vintage enigmas, alt-rock band Selve is taking you for the ride of your life into their neo-noir fantasy with their double EP 'The Neon Parable Of The Pink Hotel'.
Selve's sophomore release is the outcome of the band's ten-day artist residency at Coolangatta's iconic Pink Hotel during lockdown in 2020, which inspired a smorgasbord of hefty rock numbers and smouldering lamplit piano croons recorded at the band's intimate home studio.Of the decision to release a double EP, Selve's charismatic lead singer, Jabirr Jabirr man, Loki Liddle says: "The two parts are contrasting but equally essential in telling 'The Neon Parable Of The Pink Hotel', saluting the musical eras and classic films that inspired us, and the fictional characters we brought to life during our residency.
"Delivering the revelrous fire of rock & roll, mixed with a little bit of chaos, 'Part One' makes transparent nods to our influences at the time.
"From the psychedelic Dick Dale surf-rock opener, 'Silver Surfer', to the outlandish Elvis vibes of 'The Pink Hotel', it's drive-in movie fun from start to finish.
"Softer, moodier and more mysterious, 'Part Two' slams the brakes on, letting the piano and lyrics lead you into the classic detective films we devoured, with many of the narratives lifted directly from the 1970s neo-noir film 'Chinatown'."
Here, Loki shares five whacky things that occurred during their 14-day residency at The Pink Hotel.
Took over an entire hotel for 14 days to write our album
The plan was that we would take over the artist suite of The Pink Hotel, moving all our studio gear in for 14 days to write and demo material.This still happened, but in the end because of COVID-19 in 2020, we ended up having the entire hotel to ourselves for 14 days. Which, considering the apocalyptic thread that weaves through the two EPs, was pretty wacky.
Was visited by Hunter S. Thompson's ghost (possibly)
After roughly ten days of being alone in the hotel, we got pretty used to our isolation and musical deep dive.So it was pretty wacky when one night we looked out of our room down the hall and noticed that a light was on in one of the other rooms, which hadn't been there before. It freaked us out considering we'd been writing about the place being haunted.
It took us an hour to work up the courage to investigate the mysterious room. We were certain we were in danger, or at the mercy of some B-grade horror film.
When we finally looked in through the window all that was there was an empty room with a lamp on and a painting of Hunter S. Thompson and Benecio Del Toro on the wall.
Turned The Pink Hotel into an undead circus
For our 'The Pink Hotel' music video, we took over the place and invited all of our friends to come dressed as an 'undead' rock icon.The whole idea of 'The Pink Hotel' is a kind of satire of rock idolatry aimed at revealing the depravity of what is celebrated, so the video was a wild blur of hedonism that played into the 'once you check in you can never leave' idea.
It kicked off with a murder and ended with an interstellar Elvis gyrating on the table of the last supper. It was truly a wild time, but ridiculously fun. I felt at that moment that we had done justice to the time we had spent there.
Survived on pizza and burgers for two-weeks straight
As part of our Regional Arts Development Fund grant, we actually had a per diem budget for the two weeks.So we were able to live on a diet of Eddie's Grub House burgers and pizza for the duration of the stay, which was an absolute treat.
Make some 'Pink Hotel' inception with our single launch show
When we had finally launched 'The Pink Hotel' single, we got to do a show in Eddie's Grub House, which is underneath The Pink Hotel. So performing 'The Pink Hotel' songs at The Pink Hotel was a surreal, awesome experience.Selve play the inaugural SPRINGTME free music festival (Gold Coast), which runs 2-4 September
