Interview: Jupiter Motel

A Conversation With Steve Monteith

Steve Monteith is best known as the lead guitarist for Vancouver-based power pop band Star Collector, but he steps into the frontman role with Jupiter Motel.

The inspiration for this new side project came during the pandemic when he started thinking about the small town band he fronted in high school.

“I thought it might be fun to write some reunion music as we had never recorded anything together,” Steve Monteith told me for the interview below. “It turned out living in different cities and differing musical tastes never allowed it to happen, but I’d actually managed to finish some tunes by this point and was on a roll.”

The result is an eclectic 6-song EP that spans the stylistic spectrum from hooky hard rock to jangle pop and beyond.

“Growing up in a really small town we only had the local AM radio station and a couple non-cable video shows (‘Good Rockin’ Tonight’ on Friday nights!) to draw from—but, in general, ‘80s pop and rock bands with guitars and great hooks. I certainly didn’t know it at the time, but I was drawn to what I now know as power pop,” Monteith said.

I connected with Monteith by email to discuss Jupiter Motel’s EP, how it feels to step into the front man role, and some of his major influences.

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Steve Monteith Interview

Congrats on the great EP. How did it feel to step into the songwriter and lead singer role for these songs?

Steve Monteith: Thanks, Steve! (Hey, my initials are S.W., too).

It was little uncomfortable, to be honest (lol). I haven’t been in a lead role since I was teenager and have become very comfortable in the ‘support guy’ role. (Playing lead guitar is up front but should still ultimately support the song). I was quite nervous about singing lead as, other than a few covers, I’ve only ever sung backup for years.

Everything from completing the lyrics and demos to booking rehearsals and studio time and coordinating all the moving parts is definitely not in my comfort zone. Fortunately, Adrian (drums, engineer) and Tony (bass, co-producer)’s talent and enthusiasm made the process a lot of fun.

What inspired you to start writing songs again?

Steve Monteith: I always have demos of music lying around (stuff that doesn’t make the Star Collector cut), but lyrically I could never finish anything. The pandemic and having way more time at home to create helped a lot. And, like many, contemplating mortality and feeling nostalgic for simpler times, I started thinking about my (very) small hometown high school trio that I fronted.

I also found Jeff Tweedy’s How to Write One Song book which gave me permission to not be so self-critical and just write. I’ve always co-written the music with Vic Wayne (from Star Collector) in our various projects (30+ years), but he’s always been the lyric-guy and the finisher, so, of course, when you have someone already so good at it, it tends to be bumped to the backseat.

The opening track, "Do You Think You're Right?," has an early '80s guitar rawk vibe about it. What was the inspiration for that one?

Steve Monteith: The initial kernel of inspiration was listening to quite a lot of Sloan at the time, but it came out rawk pretty naturally anyway as my formative musical years were in the hairband ‘80s. At 14-15 years old I was the guy with Circus Magazine posters plastered on my walls. We actually wanted to go more Roy Thomas Baker/Mutt Lange production on the vocals on this one and ‘Summer Kids,’ lol… but we held back.

Lyrically it’s unusually aggressive for me as I’m generally a pretty chill guy. I have a few more demos in this vein, but when we were deciding what to record for the EP we thought we’d go for variety instead. Tony has a similar love of early ‘80s rawk and was pushing for this one as the single as soon as he heard it.

That feel carries over into "Summer Kids," with a bit more of a Cars sound in the verses. Who are some of your favorite '80s bands?

Steve Monteith: The Cars first album was one of my first cassettes from right around the time I started playing guitar (1980). Definitely inspired ‘Summer Kids,’ which is essentially an autobiographical song of fun teenage years growing up in a small lake town on the beach every summer. I was a huge Van Halen-head like most good small-town rockers. I went through the various fashion stages of big hair ‘80s whether it was pop or hair metal…apparently videos had as much to do with my inspirations as the music… ha ha…

Oh man, ‘80s favorites? I think nowadays I’d probably say more like The Cure, The Smiths, The Police… but the motley collection of albums that inspired me back then were Van Halen (Diver Down), Def Leppard (High ‘n’ Dry), Angel City (Face to Face), Greg Kihn Band, Rolling Stones (Tattoo You), Cheap Trick, and anything with a cool cover that I found.

"Playing With Ghosts," has more jangle to it. Was that one written around the same time as the previous tracks?

Steve Monteith: This was one of the nostalgic tunes that I was attempting to craft for my high school band. All of the tunes were actually written (or at least started) within a year or so of 2021/22. I was probably aiming for something a little alt-country, but it came out more jangle pop. (My former drummer is more of a country or Southern rock guy now and this was probably the closest I was ever going to get to that). The song is kinda thinking back to practicing in my parents’ basement and my earliest guitar memories of playing 3-chord classic country with Dad.

I like the message of "Make Time." Are the lyrics for that song about the process of putting this EP together?

Steve Monteith: It was a bit prophetic, I think. I wrote it before I was considering actually releasing anything… but, yeah, I would say it does summarize the process well and what my mindset was at the time.

Seeing how much faster time seems to move as we get older I was keen to record something solo, and if not release it, at least finish something to say I did. Musically I was listening to a lot of Bash & Pop (even though it sounds nothing like it).

Any plans to tour with Jupiter Motel?

Steve Monteith: Nothing planned at the moment but we hope to do a few shows between Star Collector commitments.

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