GRAND HOTEL is a rock band from Portland, Maine whose tendency to mix solid grooves, four-part harmonies and pop hooks with a bit of an edge has already gained them a strong following. The band is anchored by the drumming of Aaron LaChance, who also serves as the band's producer, tightened up by bassist Jason Elvin, the band's manager, and filled out and colored in by lead guitarist Glen Capen and singer/guitarist Kyle Gervais. The band started in August of 2008 and released an EP the following year consisting of six songs produced and mixed by Noah Cole (engineer on The Cambiata’s self titled release). The disc was named the #2 EP of 2009 by the Portland Phoenix. GRAND HOTEL was a part of WCYY’s “Summer Camp” in August of 2009 and were inducted into the “Class of 2009,” a concert series put on by WCYY Spinout to honor four bands that have successfully broken into the Portland music scene in that year. GRAND HOTEL was nominated for “Best Rock Act” in the Portland Phoenix in May 2010 . Members of GRAND HOTEL have played with the Against Me!, Murder by Death, Rustic Overtones, Sparks the Rescue, The Leftovers, As Fast As, brenda, Metal Feathers, Lost on Liftoff, Twisted R ROCK THE SCENE WITH KYLE GERVAIS (of Grand Hotel). Safe to say, great performers and musicians should be extremely memorable. Kyle Gervais is easily memorable and one of the best frontmen in the music scene. From his fiery stage presence to his fiery off-stage presence (have you ever seen him in a passionate conversation about something? Oh, mama!), Gervais is someone you will remember when you watch him do his stuff. He's the real deal. Gervais cut his teeth early with two high school bands and by the time he broke out with Cosades (he was 19), he was fronting one of the most original local acts we'd seen in years. He loves music of all kinds. He listens to more music than anyone I know in town, easily. (I'm pretty close though!) His name has grown from some of the legendary Clash of the Titans performances he's given. Right now, his current band Grand Hotel is one of the hardest-working bands around. From Nateva to the soon to be Kah-Bang Festival, to radio to press to TV to the clubs; Gervais and Grand Hotel are out there doing it right and getting in your face. That's what "Kage" does. He's in your face and trust me you'll love him for it. YOU'RE ORIGINALLY FROM UP NORTH. SO, WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP AND STAYING IN TOUCH WITH MUSIC BEING SO FAR REMOVED FROM BIGGER CITIES? I grew up in Fort Kent and then moved to Saco in the middle of seventh grade. Oddly enough, it wasn't that big of a deal back then. During the time I was up north, MTV still played videos and I was able to at least be exposed to popular music that wasn't on one of the only Top 40 stations in the area. 120 Minutes was still on so I got to hear some of the stuff that was a little under the radar, too. Plus, I was reading Spin and Rolling Stone from a young age so if I wasn't hearing it, I was at least able to search it out. YOU HAVE A WIDE RANGE OF MUSIC TASTES, FROM POP TO ROCK TO INDIE TO DANCE TO HIP HOP. WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON WHAT'S GOOD MUSIC? Good music is whatever is able to hold my attention while it's going on. I don't really discriminate when it comes to styles because if it's well done, it's good. Doesn't matter what it is. YOU WERE IN A COUPLE OF SERIOUS BANDS AT AN EARLY AGE; GLORY TRAP AND THE CHECK. YOU WERE PRETTY YOUNG THEN. YOU SEEMED TO MUSICALLY GROW UP AND WORK OUT THE INFLUENCES QUICKLY, DIDN'T YOU? Glory Trap was formed as soon as I hit high school and had Miek (from the Holy Boys Danger Club) on guitar. We definitely wore our influences on our sleeve back then. Doing things your own way, making things your own, it tends to last a little longer and mean a little more. WHAT LOCAL BANDS, IF ANY, INFLUENCED YOU AS YOU CARVED OUT YOUR OWN NICHE IN THIS SCENE? I don't know if there are any that influenced me musically, but certainly Rustic Overtones, Even All Out, Jeremiah Freed, and 6gig influenced me to try and play music and be in a band and have the opportunity to be heard around town. WHAT LOCAL BANDS TODAY ARE YOU BIG ABOUT? I'm really good friends with the guys in The Lucid. I grew up with half of them up north and they are always doing interesting stuff. We just played with Brenda and The Mallett Brothers at the Nateva Festival and they both just put out great records. Holy Boys, Dead Man's Clothes, Jacob and the House of Fire, Murcielago and a new band called Nice Places. COSADES IS ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE BANDS WE'VE SEEN IN MUSIC SCENE IN YEARS. WHEN YOU STARTED THE BAND, IT WAS DEMOS DONE BY YOU AND YOUR BROTHER THEN TURNED INTO A FOUR PIECE. IT WAS TOUGH TO EXPLAIN THAT BAND, WHICH IS REFRESHING. EXPLAIN COSADES AND WHAT YOU HOPED TO DO WITH THEM. Cosades started with my brother Chris on drums. It was just a way for me to get some of the songs I had recorded released. As it developed into a band, I think the game plan was to write catchy rock songs, or at least our idea of catchy rock songs, in unexpected ways. I think we were all just trying to challenge ourselves as players and songwriters but still have fun rocking out. We would just get together and try to feed off of each other's energy, because we were coming from such different musical places. WHEN YOU PUT COSADES TO BED, YOU SEEMED PRETTY SERIOUS ABOUT STAYING AWAY FROM MUSIC. HOW DID THE FORMER MEMBERS OF ALIAS GRACE CONVINCE YOU TO COME OUT OF A SHORT RETIREMENT TO START GRAND HOTEL WITH THEM? They really just called and asked me to sing with them. Being serious about quitting and actually wanting to do it are two completely different things. I KNOW YOU'RE A BIG FAN OF SEEING LIVE SHOWS. WHAT MAKES A GREAT PERFORMANCE TO YOU AND WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE LIVE ACTS TO WATCH? A great performance is when I can't look away from the stage, and if I do, it's because I'm rocking out or dancing. The National put on one of the best shows I've seen recently. The set The Flaming Lips put on at Nateva was the fastest two-hour show I had ever seen, very entertaining. Two bands that I will always check out when they are in the area: Interpol and Deerhunter. YOUR GREAT PERFORMANCES HAVE EXTENDED TO THE CLASH OF THE TITANS STAGE. YOUR PERFORMANCES AS IGGY POP, SUPERTRAMP, BLUR AND EVEN JANET JACKSON HAVE BEEN AMONG THE ALL-TIME BEST. I guess I just like an excuse to play dress-up, or dress-down in some cases. It has definitely helped get my original music out to an audience that probably wouldn't have otherwise paid attention. The only bummer is when people come see Grand Hotel expecting me to be half-naked, smearing peanut butter all over my chest (like Iggy Pop). It's like, "No, that was last week!" WHAT COULD MAKE THIS LOCAL MUSIC SCENE BETTER IN YOUR OPINION? The best thing that could happen to this scene is if there were even more outlets for local music to be heard, and if more people started paying attention to the great bands that are right in their backyard. You have Spinout on WCYY, Charlie Gaylord has Greetings from Area Code 207 on WBLM, WCSH does the 207 program, but that's only so much and if you're not dialed in at that particular time, you miss it. There's a dedicated circle of people who are aware of the bands that are active in town, but for everybody else it's a hard sell. It shouldn't be, there are artists here that are just as good, if not better, than anywhere else. It's just a matter of getting people to hear it. (Mark Curdo is a DJ on 94.3 WCYY and the owner of a record label, Labor Day Records, based in Portland. Mark is not only a board member of the Portland Music Foundation, but he loves the Boston Celtics, Ginger Ale and Jack Lemmon movies. He is a weekly Daily Sun music columnist.) Grand Statement - A different take on Hotel California cool -Sam Pfeifle Portland Phoenix There are times when I just can't get Grand Hotel's new self-titled LP loud enough. Not because it isn't recorded or mastered well — it is — but because I'm willing to risk my hearing just a bit in trying to let this album wrap itself around me. I want to live inside it. The spiky guitars, the rippling full-throated harmonies, the raw emotion and heartache combine to make this the kind of record you can listen to dozens of times — maybe in a row. And while it's tempting to label Grand Hotel a Kyle Gervais vehicle, considering his songwriting and frontman work with the likes of Glory Trap and Cosades, this album evinces a band that is tightly cohesive, working in concert to get a whole that's more than its disparate parts. From the opening "Telephone," in fact, Gervais almost seems to be sublimating his role in the band, singing his first verse through muted distortion following an intro filled with excellently crisp drum sounds (possibly no surprise, as drummer Aaron LaChance produced the record, with help from Noah Cole). And when the chorus launches in, it is a chorus of voices that sing it, doubled over and amplifying one another. It's like the band are emerging from a cave's opening into the bright sunlight of well-crafted alt-rock songs that are filled with pop hooks that make them utterly listenable without seeming to be desirous of commercial appeal. When Gervais sings "I do things that I shouldn't do/But I am missing my calling," it's enough to make you wonder if this band aren't missing their calling to be the next great radio-rock band. But who even wants to be that anymore? Much better to just crank out great edgy songs like "Happy," which opens like a Phantom Buffalo tune, with a descending lick from lead guitarist Glen Capen heading into each line of the pre-chorus and then blows your doors off with a chorus that's hard not to yell along to: "All I want to do is make you happy/And all you want to do is hide away." There's even a bridge where Grand Hotel segue into an ironic, vocally muted, all-pop verse, almost mocking today's radio fare, before exploding into a final go-round with the chorus as Gervais has always done so well, as though there's a direct pipeline from his bursting heart to the 'phones wrapped around your head. The way that Capen and Gervais play off each other is superb throughout the disc (guitarist Michael Reid has since been added to the line-up, relieving Gervais of some rhythm duties live), Gervais's rhythm work subtly lays foundation for Capen's reserved lead work, often grouped into three- and four-note bursts, and rarely moves into what might normally be considered a solo. In "Disillusion," they create a frantic, alt-country vibe as Gervais scatters all over the place and Capen pairs mirrored three-note riffs that set up the song's melodic foundation. Moving into a melancholy shoe-gazer, Gervais sings, "I remember when we were young we used to sing," and you keep expecting a song title or some other finish to the sentence, but that's it — "we used to sing" — leaving the 30-second jam that runs the song out to let you wonder what it is we do now. Nor is bassist Jason Elvin to be overlooked. His work turns "Tastees" into a must-hear song, mixing the Brand New Heavies with Queen and getting a strutting, smoking, kick-ass bass line that's full of venomous cool. It's the perfect support to snide comments like "the only person that I'm certain that you love is yourself" and "you say you'll be there/You say you'll make time/You know I can't believe every single thing that I hear." Despite a rock foundation, Grand Hotel are often able like this to reference an R&B or urban feel. "California Cool" is a vampy, chanting kind of rock like Living Colour used to put out, with a bouncing guitar chime. "Moving," incorporating strings and a bounce in the open, reminds of Curtis Mayfield, though the chorus is more straight rock/pop, guitars full of treble. It's a penetrating, continuously interesting record they've released here, both intellectually satisfying and appealing on a very gut level. By the time they finish up "Dade" with the mesmerizing chant of "I wanna go back, I wanna go, I wanna go back there," you're right with them, wanting to go back to the beginning of the record and start all over again. Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com. GRAND HOTEL | Released by Grand Hotel | with Bronze Radio Return + Marie Stella | at the Empire, in Portland | July 16 | grandhotelmusic.com