It's been a year of firsts for LA indie rock, dream-pop outfit Saint Motel as they prepare to make their Australian live premiere, including a run of theatre shows as well as headlining Wanderer Festival 2025.
Saint Motel have spent 2025 expanding their touring presence through Canada, Mexico and beyond. Ahead of their first time down under, lead singer AJ Jackson is hoping to experience the best our unique culture has to offer."I was recently talking to an Australian friend who got the sausage in a square bread from Bunnings; he said that's something I got to try," AJ says.
In a discovery that could have major implications for the US voting system, AJ is informed about the great Australian election tradition of the democracy snag.
"You see, that's the way to do it," he laughs. "All we get in the States is a sticker. If there was a sausage given out, man, we'd have perfect turnout. You guys are doing it right."
Saint Motel's first visit to our shores comes 16 years after the release of their debut EP 'ForPlay' in 2009. So, what's taken the band so long to tour here? "Man, I don't know," AJ confesses.
"It's often times just bouncing between the US and Europe, and we really push to try and go as far as we can. Even going to Mexico has been us constantly having to push for it because it's not as common a thing.
"I'd love to eventually go to Thailand where our bassist [Dak Lerdamornpong] is from and all these places, but it is financially tough; you've got to make it all work and finally get into a place where it could happen. I don't know why we've been a stranger for so long.
"Back in the day our first touring saxophonist was Australian. We've been talking about coming down here pretty much since those days. We always wanted to go down there and we're really happy everything aligned for this one."
Saint Motel will play headline shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne before making their way to the idyllic Sapphire Coast in southern New South Wales for Wanderer Festival (which runs 4-5 October). There they'll be joined by an impressive line-up of Australian and international artists such as Missy Higgins, The Living End, Boy & Bear, Magic Dirt, Jacob Banks, Lavern, Nikki Lane and many more.
Given it's their first Australian tour, AJ says Saint Motel are trying to present audiences with a broad taste of their discography, including snippets from previous albums and their latest full-length masterpiece 'Saint Motel & The Symphony In The Sky'.
"The festival is going to be a lot of older songs blended in, and then I think for the headline shows we're going to try to do more of what the 'Symphony In The Sky' tour is and just do that down under. We're bringing as much of the production that we can fit in a suitcase," AJ laughs.
"We'll really try to do the damn thing, the whole thing. It seems like it's going to be just incredible to be down there, what a location for the festival. I'm looking forward to getting out there early, for sure."
'Symphony In The Sky' is the fourth studio album from Saint Motel. Across previous releases, the band have continually expanded their sonic palette, seamlessly blending genres and styles in texturally rich compositions.
Saint Motel have once again excelled themselves with 'Symphony In The Sky', an album AJ says is near and dear to his heart. "I don't know how intentional it was, but it ended up being different in a few ways," AJ explains.
"It's coming back to when life came back online around 2021, I wanted to try a mobile studio setup, so I put everything in my backpack. Starting in Macedonia, then Turkey, then down in Mexico, we'd set up in a motel room, mess around with stuff, record sounds I heard as I was walking down the street, stuff like that.
"That birthed a couple of songs like 'Fine Wine' – there were a few that didn't make [the album] – then I think 'A Bluer Blue' started that way. When 'Fine Wine' happened, that piano take, I turned that into strings and I was like: 'You know, this sounds like a string riff, it'd be great to get a strings player.'"
The band enlisted the services of violinist and composer Nathaniel Wolkstein to arrange strings for the new songs. It was during this process AJ says the thematic core of the album began to take shape. "It started to have a throughline appearing and this concept [of] happy-sad," he says.
"This feeling that there's a beauty in the impermanence of life and 'mono no aware' – the Japanese concept that the trees are beautiful, but part of the beauty is that you know they'll decay, but the beauty in that decay is that they'll come back again. Everything is changing and that's amazing.
"That became this underlying vibe of the album and in that process of creating it – losing loved ones and gaining new loved ones, moving from places. It was a lot of change and personal stuff going on with various members.
"It came out in a way of celebrating in as beautiful way as possible, trying to celebrate the chaos and the darkness as going hand in hand with everything that makes it beautiful. I think there's something tied in there throughout the album that will make itself apparent, hopefully."
Saint Motel have undertaken an incredible musical journey together over the past 16 years, from grinding their way through the dingy jungle of LA clubs and bars to where they are now, playing bigger shows to people all over the world. "It is pretty crazy that the band has stayed together through all this and that we're closer than we've probably ever been," AJ says.
"Part of it I think is knowing we made it through the fire together. It is pretty wild. At one point it feels like just yesterday we were playing this back alley in downtown LA and it's like: 'Man, that was a decade ago.' There's this weird time warp that happens when you're on tour.
"At this point, we're very honoured to be able to do this still. It's our ultimate passion and we're very lucky to be doing it this long and we'll be continuing to do it for evermore."
Saint Motel 2025 Tour Dates
Tue 30 Sep - Metro Theatre (Sydney)Wed 1 Oct - The Princess Theatre (Brisbane)
Thu 2 Oct - Croxton Bandroom (Melbourne)
Sat 4 Oct - Wanderer Festival (South Coast)
Wanderer Festival takes place at Pambula Beach (South Coast) 4-5 October.
Wanderer Festival 2025 Line-up
SATURDAY
Missy HigginsSaint Motel
Hockey Dad
Magic Dirt
Lavern
Pierce Brothers
Grace Cummings
Folk Bitch Trio
Johnny Cash Recordings w Henry Wagons
O And The Mo
Jack Botts
The Tullamarines
Dust
MAD.DAY
Groove Society
Jimi The Kween
Bec Sandridge
Prodikal - 1
Sixten b2b Benjamin
Sunday Lemonade
Bega Sound Collective
SUNDAY
The Living EndBoy & Bear
Jacob Banks
Petit Biscuit
Nikki Lane
Cut Copy (DJ set)
The Vanns
DUG
Emma Donovan
Sylvie
The Bures Band
MAD.DAY
Groove Society
Jimi The Kween
Bega Sound Collective
Lotte Gallagher
Mika James
Radium Dolls
Val Moogz
Lillian Mcveity
WANDERHAUS Stage
Chicka b2b RangzDarcy M. & Carlo T.
Jai Cole b2b Kurtis Markwort
Just Andrew
Swell Records DJs
Usual Suspects DJs
ARTS
Circus Trick TeaseHannah Cryle - Giant Wheel
Josh Philips - Giant Ladder
Hobby Horse Gymkhana
Sam's Caravan
The Swell - Festival Zeen
I Wear Wanderer
Big Lost Band
Fling Physical Theatre
We Shaped Up Like This
Morning Dance Party
Hair Dressing Salon
Morning Yoga
Social Dancing
Welcome To Country and Smoking Ceremony with Duurunu Miru Dancers
