Motel Sundown are a band based in Liverpool. Their influences range from Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles to Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash.With rich, earthy harmonies their music is a unique blend of Americana, Country and Folk Rock.
What are your ages?
Karen Turley is 31
Naomi Campbell is 26
Robert Johnson is 26
Dan Lock: How did you get your name? I hope it not from the book by Simone St. James?
We will have to look that up! We aren’t familiar with that book! Well, it took us quite a while to agree ha! Rob came up with Motel randomly and we had a brainstorming session and came out with Motel Sundown.
Tell me about your up bring?
Karen: Well I had a pretty lovely upbringing in Omagh, N. Ireland. I am the youngest of two older brothers and we all get on really well. I started playing guitar around 14 and then after school, I came to Liverpool at 18 for University.
Naomi: I grew up in a big family on both sides and have three brothers. Our family home is in the Countryside and we’ve always had lots of animals including donkeys! So, it’s nice inspiration sometimes when I go home, I also moved away when I was 18 for University.
Robert: I’m like Karen being the youngest of three. I am from the edge of southeast London and my folks were teachers.
How did you discover music?
Karen: My family was quite musical, my Granny (who is 92) was a piano teacher in the town, my Grandfather played the trumpet in the local brass band. My Dad, Uncle, and brother all play guitar/bass so I was always interested in picking something up. My Mum played piano and I remember there was always a piano in the corner.
Naomi: There were a few singers in my family including my Granda who sang on ships but I think it was probably in school when our music teacher introduced me to The Beatles and lots of bands I hadn’t heard of. I started playing guitar when I moved to Liverpool in 2014.
Robert: I think my first connection to music really was as a listener my parents both used to play cassettes in the car and I think that has informed most of my taste even now. So, it was very early on in childhood before I remember much else.
Tell me how you got your first guitar? And do you still have it?
Robert: I just went out one day and got one on a whim after my 12th or 13th birthday and then kept at it. I think it is still at home in a closet somewhere, but been through a lot of gear since then.
Naomi: I was kindly given an acoustic guitar from my Uncles on both sides of the family one when I was 16 and one when I was 21.
Karen: My Uncle took me to another town to a big music shop and I remember being really excited to have my own proper guitar. He did a bit of haggling for me!
What was the first song you learn to play?
Robert: In true English fashion from that time Don’t Look Back In Anger.
Naomi: I think Jolene by Dolly Parton.
Karen: Mine was ‘Hey Jude’ from a Guitar book.
What was the first time you played in front of a crowd of more a dozen people?
Karen: I think it was when I played some songs at a school plaything. That was nerve-racking!
Naomi: I very nervously played a song to the kids and the rest of camp at a Summer Camp I worked at.
How did you meet? I know both Naomi and Karen are from the same town in Northern Ireland?
Karen: We are from the same town but we actually met in Liverpool through the great music scene here. I met Rob when he was suggested as a guitarist for our band. We quickly became friends thereafter!
Naomi: I wish we did know each other when we were younger or met earlier as we could’ve written a lot more songs and went to some local gigs together.
What was the first song you wrote together?
Karen: We’ve worked on each other’s songs in the past but the first proper song we wrote was called ‘Cassie’s Lullaby’ which was about my niece who was born last year. We had a bit of a jamming session in my flat and that song was born.
You just open up for Bobby West with support artist Lucy Geffen (who I just interviewed) how was the show?
Well, it was great to get to play in the great new venue Jimmy’s – we got a good crowd and it was overall a great night. Lucy and Bobby were amazing and it was lovely to be on the bill with such good musicians.
How was it to meet and work with Bruce Springsteen’s nephew Greg?
Well, it was more of an impromptu singalong at our gig in a bar here in Liverpool! He was over with his family from New Jersey for the football and they were really lovely.
How did you write Chicago?
Karen: I wrote it a couple of years ago and I think I was watching Greys Anatomy at the time ha! Nothing to do with Chicago but I wanted to write more of a melancholic song and it was one of those songs I finished quite quickly which rarely happens for me.
You need to play Chicago in Chicago, IL. Have you looked into doing that?
Ha no can you help us out with that, please?
If you were to write a song with anyone who would it be?
Karen: I’d love to write something with Brandi Carlile. I’ve been a huge fan for years.
Naomi: I’d like to have a writing session with Stevie Nicks to see what we’d come up with as I really like her style of writing.
Rob: David Crosby just for the chord changes and harmonies.
Karen- Tell about the time you were on Arts Alive- Bay TV Liverpool?
That was a great experience. It was in a TV studio here in Liverpool and they would showcase Singer-Songwriters on the local TV channel. I had just started really playing by myself after being in a band so It was scary.
Karen and Naomi- I came across an old video of both of you playing Ain’t Me Babe by Johnny Cash and June Carter. Was that the first time you played together on film?
Naomi: It was most likely one of the first videos we made together but we’d just met around that time and had started to play at each other’s gigs.
Rob- Do people ever asked you about The great Robert Johnson?
Rob: Yeah almost always, and I say the same thing I think my dad being a music fan a big hand in it.
What is your favorite cover song to play as a group and solo?
Naomi: As a group, I’d say it would likely be The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, we play in an Irish Bar every Sunday and like to finish with it as it’s so lively. For solo at the minute I’m enjoying playing I’m on Fire by Bruce Springsteen.
Karen: Definitely The Chain with the full band. It’s great fun and the three-part harmonies are really special! Solo at the minute I would say ‘Have you ever seen the rain’ by CCR.
Rob: Solid Air by John Martyn, love to do a trippy version of that.
How do you see yourselves in five years?
Hopefully, we will have released 2 or 3 albums and have played in America again but as a band. Maybe we’ll come and play in Chicago!
Anything you like to say in closing?
We have a new single, Light of My Light coming out next month and lots of upcoming shows and festivals across the UK and Ireland which we are really excited about, including our first gig in The Cavern Club! We have all the dates and information on our social media!
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