Unsigned Spotlight: Winter Hotel
UK 5-piece Winter Hotel create a dynamic, hard hitting and emotive alternative metal sound that nods to a cross-section of genres.
Please list all of the band members and their roles in the band
Warren Porter - Vocals
Liam Osment - Rhythm Guitar
Charlie Wignall - Drums
James Clay - Bass
Matt Neave - Lead guitar
For starters, what bands were you guys part of prior to Winter Hotel? How long has the band been around?
Liam and Charlie were a part of a couple of post hardcore bands for a number of years, from when they were around 15 years old. They gigged extensively across the UK and played a small number of shows in Europe.
Growing up in North America before moving to the UK, Warren had previously been the drummer for various death metal bands in his hometown of St John’s Michigan. Winter Hotel is the first project Warren has been a part of where he’s taken on the role of being a vocalist.
Winter Hotel started as a casual project that met up to jam and write music every week in the Autumn of 2017. It soon blossomed into something far more serious and meaningful and has become a full time pursuit in which we are all driving towards taking this band as far as it will go.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
As many people have correctly predicted, the band’s name was inspired by the book The Shining by Stephen King but it was also influenced by the poem November Hotel by Phil Bowen. We’ve always loved that our name is quite vague and understated which allows us to play with listener’s expectations parallel to the way that our music can be unpredictable and sound both very light and very dark.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
For the most part, we all write collaboratively especially during the drafting process we strive to assist each other in the writing of our individual parts due to most of us being multi instrumentalists and we have the common goal of making our songs the absolute best that they can be. The only exception to that is with the lyrics which are written on a 50/50 basis between Warren and Liam.
What bands are currently inspiring the music you’re making?
We’re influenced by a number of bands and artists across the breadth of the metal spectrum and in music as a whole. A Hill to Die Upon by Mental Cruelty has been a really influential album for us lately, that record absolutely slaps, Korpse are also a band on the heavier side that have inspired us a lot. On the lighter side we’ve really been digging into the post-hardcore band Microwave a lot recently. We’ve been experimenting a lot with introducing other genres entirely for the music we’ve been writing the past few months and messing around with bringing in some elements of Midwest Emo and Post-Rock.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
As a whole, not particularly but Warren and Liam were very inspired by While She Sleeps’ early albums around the start of the band. Growing up we each individually had a lot of inspiration to start our own bands from hearing other bands and seeing them live. In Warren’s case Cannibal Corpse and Putrid Pile’s unrelenting ferocity and atmosphere they achieved with their live presence was a big influence for forming a band of his own.
For Liam, Alesana and The Elijah were both hugely influential for the energy and theatre that they presented in both their recorded music and live performances. Charlie saw the Chuckle Brother’s live DJ set at Fifth in Manchester, and that changed everything for him.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises etc…
Aside from the usual warm ups and gear inventories, we’ll take some time for us all to meet all the other bands, promoters and anyone else involved. We will often stand at our merch table and make ourselves approachable to anyone who wants to come and say hi.
Outside of that, we have a running record in which Charlie and Warren will select and purchase a chocolate bar which Liam will then consume at a speed faster than time itself in order to fuel himself for the performance ahead. The current record stands at a Kinder Bueno unwrapped and consumed in 8.9 seconds.
What’s the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
On June 18th 2021 we released our debut EP Vacancies, having worked on that throughout lockdowns the past year it’s felt like a big achievement to get to this point after all the difficulties that Covid-19 caused for ourselves and for music as a whole.
Having our tracks featured on Slam Worldwide and Ghost Killer Entertainment are pretty significant highlights for us as they are two platforms that have hosted music that has been incredibly influential for us on both the heavier and lighter side of our sound.
Our first headlining show in North Wales was also a really significant event for us. When it came to not only the audience’s response to our music but also the sense of welcoming that we felt and received from them.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Shadow of Intent, Parkway Drive, Cerebral Incubation would all be really sick bands to do a particularly heavy tour with. It’d perhaps also be a lot of fun to tour with some very different sounding bands for a contrast like Bombay Bicycle Club, Hawthorne Heights and Oh Wonder.
Also Cher.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for having us for the interview and a big thank you also to everyone who’s supported our journey thus far.
Our debut Vacancies is now available everywhere and you stream it on all platforms via this link: https://links.winterhotelband.com/vacancies