The Saint Motel Experience
You likely know Saint Motel as an alternative/indie pop band, but I think they can more accurately be called expert content creators. Band members AJ Jackson and Aaron Sharp were attending film school in southern California when the band met and formed. Due to their knowledge of film, they have blessed us with a variety of content to accompany their already theatrical music. Obviously, I enjoy Saint Motel’s music, but I think that they have really shown us what you can do with technology to enhance the musical experience. Thus, today I will be sharing with you the Saint Motel experience.
Due to the film expertise of Saint Motel, their music videos are really cool. For their debut EP ForPlay, they created quite a few of these cool music videos. The videos for this EP can best be described as eclectic and fun much like their music. The music video for the song “To My Enemies” off of this EP features a murder taking place in reverse so it doesn’t get more entertaining than that. Since this EP came out, Saint Motel has continued to make awesome very theatrical music videos with great stories including for their song “My Type” which most people have undoubtedly heard. Though they never took a break from creating this great video content, they are back in full swing with The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack the second part of which came out on September 18. In case you couldn’t guess by the title of this album, the songs are like those in a movie and there is a visualizer video to accompany each song for part 1.
As if the awesome music videos weren’t enough, Saint Motel took their content creation to the next level with their album Saintmotelevision. To go along with this album, Saint Motel created an app with both an AR and a VR video to go along with each song. When watching one of the AR videos, you step into a TV and can move around within it. Your screen is filled with the video everywhere you look (360 degrees) when you stand within the TV which is just unbelievably cool to experience. It’s like you’re in the video and are taking in the music in the most immersive way possible. I’m sure I sound crazy trying to explain this, but this tech is so cool that I can’t recommend the app enough. These AR/VR videos feature bouncing trees, neon signs, and much more. If you’re interested in diving into the Saint Motel experience, check out the app here.
Music doesn’t necessarily need other content to accompany it, but man did Saint Motel show us how cool it can be when there is. The stories told by music are only enhanced through visual content like this. I can’t wait to see how other people create content to accompany their music with how quickly technology is adapting and making it possible.
