Hotel Mercy debuts Saturday night at Art Trap in downtown Joshua Tree (6/28)

Hotel Mercy is a new straightforward rock band that's playing their debut show Saturday night at Art Beat in Joshua Tree. Gabriel Hart and Tim Gray are half of the four piece and they joined me in the Z107.7 studios to talk about the new project, and how their mutual admiration of each other's musical stylings has created a band with solid, Americana-rooted rock songs. "I'm Gabriel Hart. I am one half singer-songer of Hotel Mercy." "And I'm Tim Gray. I'm the other half." Gabriel Hart: "I was a huge fan of Tim's band, Starlight Cleaning Company. I saw them back in 2021. My band, Jail Weddings, kind of maybe unofficially broke up in January, and my first instinct was to call Tim and see if he wanted to start a band. Half his songs, half my songs." Tim Gray: "Yeah, we were pretty kindred from the get-go out here, and I used to follow Gabe's bands. He was in a band called The Starvations. I've been a fan of those bands for years. Most of my stuff is kind of ballad-esque, and Gabe's is kind of the more rocking stuff, which is a cool, you know, it's a cool balance, I think. View this post on Instagram A post shared by HOTEL MERCY (@hotel_mercy_band) Gabriel: "We were kind of a duo until... When did we get Keith and Pablo in the band? Three months, yeah. Yeah, we're a lot louder than what you're hearing on Bandcamp. It's definitely two different versions of the band. "Well, I'm excited about the band because it's different for me. I'm usually the front man. It takes some pressure off having Tim sing half the songs. And everything I usually do is so conceptual and just sort of blown out, and this, to me, is exciting because it's just a simple, working-class rock and roll band." Gabriel: Stuck on Honey... Tim brought that song to us. Kind of came fully formed, and yeah, we just recorded it right away. To me, it just felt instantly classic. Robert: "It really kind of gave me an Athens, Georgia vibe a bit." Gabriel: "Oh, I love that. Early R.E.M. style. Love that. I was listening to Pylon yesterday. "Flying Mountains is opening. We'll wait till we get a good crowd there, so probably 7:45 p.m., and then we'll go on 8:30, 9:00... something like that. Art Trap's a great place, too. It's kind of a DIY spot, right in the heart of downtown Joshua Tree. There'll either be someone at the door, or we'll be passing the hat around, hi-desert style." Tim: "See who can collect the most $5 bills, and stuff them into their jeans." Listen to Hotel Mercy on BandcampHotel Mercy on Instagram