There’s something strangely comforting about being in a hotel room — surrounded by unfamiliar furniture, behind walls that have held thousands of lives for a night or two. It’s quiet, but never truly still. The hum of a hallway. A distant knock. A song playing softly from a room that isn’t yours. It’s that blend of anonymity and intimacy that threads through 1tbsp’s latest release, Hotel Living, a six-track EP that feels like breathing in fresh air after a too-long stay in the same place.
Kicking off with “Rush (Missing Out On Me)” — featuring the spellbinding presence of Cherry Chola and Purient — the record starts exactly where it should: mid-motion. A spiraling beat, breathy vocals, and a little sweet melody. It’s a track that pulls you in without asking too many questions, and from that moment on, Hotel Living unfolds like a travelogue through rooms both real and imagined.
“Hotel Living feels like a zeroed in extension to my previous release Megacity1000,” 1tbsp says. “I wanted to find a concept that still had the busy-ness and variety of a city but could exist within a room, and hotel living came to mind. Unexpectedly, all the songs are very upbeat and to me feel like this mix between sensitivity and rushing.”
And that contrast — of movement and emotion, rhythm and restraint — is the undercurrent of the whole EP. Each track brings in new textures, new voices, and a different temperature. “The process was similar to how I always work. I make hundreds of sketches, usually a few a day, until some start to stand out,” he continues. “Also in DJing, I like to explore sounds that might influence my production, and I started to incorporate some old French house music that I listened to as a teenager. I think that really came through in the EP. I worked with Cherry Chola on three of the six songs, she’s become one of my favourite people to make songs with.”
Whether you find yourself on a sun-drenched train platform, dancing alone in your kitchen, or floating through late-night streets with no destination, Hotel Living gives you a feeling to hold onto. Just like a hotel room far from routine, it offers a moment suspended in time — open, vibrant, and entirely your own.
Photography by James Caswell
Upcoming Shows
Friday, June 20th – Electric Forest, Rothbury, MI
Friday, July 4th – Sala Siroco, Madrid
Saturday, July 5th – Phonox, London
Friday, July 25th – Star Theater, Portland
Sunday, July 27th – Shambhala, British Columbia
Saturday, Sept 20th – Portola, San Francisco
Follow 1tbsp fore more:
www.instagram.com/1tbsp.dj
www.facebook.com/1tbsp.dj
