If you’ve checked in to Noise Hotel before, you’ll know that you’ve signed up for no regular stay. You’re treated to a night full of eclectic indie rock and an immersive stage experience. The staff not only delivers superb customer service but also energetic songs with nostalgic 70s rock and jazz tones. Even though you’re not actually guaranteed a furnished room, complimentary breakfast, or room service, you are still promised a pleasurable escape from your everyday worries. That’s what the quartet ensures at every one of their shows – and everybody is welcome.
“We are different from a lot of what other acts do … we have some world-building in all of our sets,” says Eric Montpool, the band’s lead vocalist/guitarist. “We want people to dance, have a good time, and be welcomed into the Noise Hotel.”
The members of Noise Hotel. Photo by Audrey Pridham.
When they were first-year students at Carleton University in 2022, Montpool and his friend Christian Strong, the band’s bassist, bonded over shared music tastes and would often FaceTime each other while writing songs. When they met their initial keys and drum players at a Christmas party, Montpool and Strong quickly grabbed their guitars to jam with them and ended up performing Carly Rae Jepsen covers for the rest of the night.
Brendan Vandepol and Matt Scharfe, the band’s current drummer and fellow guitarist, joined Montpool and Strong after playing at other local Ottawa shows, most notably for their friend and fellow artist Hannah Vig.
Since naming the band after Montpool’s Swiss watch (Neuchâtel, Noise Hotel, get it?), the band members have assigned themselves roles within their hotel world-building, with each of them acting as the hotel’s concierge, accounting, valet, or head chef.
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“We kind of started out as a jam band,” Strong says. The band’s sound has transitioned over the years, taking inspiration from their favourite indie artists such as Mac DeMarco, Steve Lacy, The Strokes, and Cosmo Pyke,to establish their current “living room rock” genre.
Noise Hotel’s first album Poolside Fantasy was released last August (and garnered over 26,000 streams on Spotify). They started recording most of the album’s songs through GarageBand and later worked with Ottawa-based producer Kieran Isley, which consisted of a months-long process to get the album’s sound just right.
“I think that experience itself was a really good learning curve for us,” says Strong. “I think we really learned the importance of understanding a bit more in full what we want out of the project, like what we’re bringing to the table to get that image.”
Vandepol, who studied at Humber College’s music program, also produces.
Those lessons were also reflected in Noise Hotel’s last release “Can’t Go On,” in which all the current band members had a vision for how they wanted it to sound. According to Strong, they were able to “attack it all at once” and recorded the track in just one night.
The group has consistent gigs at popular Ottawa venues such as The Rainbow, Irene’s Pub, and Club SAW, and are often on the road performing across Kingston, Toronto, and Peterborough.
Their songs are also played on CKCU-FM. When the band first heard their single “Diet Cigarette” playing on-air back in 2023, it was a surreal experience.
“I had a friend of mine’s dad reach out and say that he heard us on the radio, which was really trippy,” says Scharfe. “It’s like a world’s colliding kind of thing.”
Being in a band isn’t easy — “The one thing that maybe not a lot of people realize is how much work that actually is, to constantly be sending emails, making content, posters, and photos and keeping up on all of that. It is a job on top of the actual playing,” says Vandepol — but the support from the Ottawa indie community makes it all worth it.
“I’m doing all that extra work so I can do what I love — play music in a live setting,” Montpool added. “It’s my favorite thing in the world, and I don’t mind putting in the work to get to do what I love.”
Clad in their suits, turtlenecks, and corduroy, the band delivers each of their songs with high energy and class, while also incorporating audience participation. This often includes having audience members give the band certain names and objects to create an impromptu song on the spot. At the end of each set, the band performs a 10-minute medley of their songs and Montpool delivers a thoughtful monologue about how when you check in to the hotel, you can wash your worries away.
“There’s always hints of truth about what he’s talking about in this kind of ramble interlude,” says Strong. “As much as we’re providing a place to escape, I think we’re also providing a place to process.”
Noise Hotel is looking forward to inviting more hotel guests at the North by Northeast music festival this summer, as well as releasing more songs. Until then, their doors are open and they will strive to provide the best service you can ask for.
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