The spiritual motels
debut album available everywhere music is streamed and sold
NEW VIDEO: "ALONE TOGETHER"
Featured on KUSI
"Good Morning San Diego,"
NBC 7 SoundDiego's "Pandemic Playlist,"
and The San Diego Reader
THE SPIRITUAL MOTELS
Bio//
“Something magical often happens when complementary male and female voices come together in harmony,” writes Dustin Lothspeich, Senior Associate Editor at SoundDiego, of 2020 San Diego Music Awards "Best Pop" nominee The Spiritual Motels. “Angus and Julia Stone, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, the Civil Wars, She and Him, the Head and the Heart, the list goes on and on. Go ahead and add The Spiritual Motels, a local indie-folk/pop duo comprised of Amy Day and Omar Musisko, to it.”
Switching instruments through their live set, the band utilizes guitar, piano, mandolin, accordion, harmonica, effects, and live loops/loop pedals to create a unique and memorable style that draws from singer-songwriter, indie folk, country, Americana, spoken word, and electronic influences. The band features two of San Diego’s veteran singer-songwriters: Day of The Local and Shepherd Canyon, and Musisko of The Peripherals (former SDMA nominee for Best Americana). Lothspeich describes Musisko’s voice as having “a certain whisper to it, like he’s afraid to wake the baby in the next room,” while Jay Allen Sanford of the San Diego Reader writes that Day’s “ethereal vocals bring to mind Lana Del Rey and Hope Sandoval.” Lothspeich writes, “individually, the two are both fully capable singers, but when they're singing together in unison? That's the ticket.”
The band, which gigs frequently at a variety of venues throughout the region, had its first performances in Summer 2018, and launched its debut album, Super Tiny Disappearing Oceans, on November 23, 2019. Its music video for "Alone Together," a song about life during the Coronavirus quarantine, was featured on KUSI, SoundDiego.com, and in The San Diego Reader.
BASIC INFO
origin//
San Diego, CA
genres//
Indie-folk, Americana, chamber pop
awards//
2020 San Diego Music Awards nominee,
Best Pop Artist
associated acts//
The Peripherals, The Local, Shepherd Canyon, O.Musisko, Amy Day
website//
VIDEO
PRESS
ALONE TOGETHER: SPIRITUAL MOTELS, belladon, whitney shay, watkins family hour, pierce the veil
By Jay Allen Sanford
April 23, 2020
San Diego Reader
"'. . . We did this by getting video clips from our friends, fans, and families about what they’re doing to cope while at home in these strange times. We wrote and recorded the track on our phones in different houses, in our bathrooms while our kids yelled in the background, on an app called BandLab. We hope it can lift some of the heavy weight that the world is currently feeling.'"
CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Support your local music heroes on sounddiego's 2nd pandemic playlist
By Rosemary Bystrak
April 13, 2020
SoundDiego
"'Alone Together,' by the Spiritual Motels: This one is a sweet and pretty compilation of quarantine living: 'We've got lots of videos and photos of friends and fans depicting what they're doing during the quarantine. Our goal is to bring a little joy to our listeners in the midst of all the sadness and uncertainty.' Grab the tissues, then support SDMA 2020 Best Pop nominees Spiritual Motels . . . "
CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
review: the spiritual motels' "super tiny disappearing oceans" is out to break your heart
By Steve Semeraro
February 4, 2020
Americana Highways
"From the opening organ pad and piano figure, you just know that Super Tiny Disappearing Oceans is out to break your heart. And it does. But somehow, through the struggles that would should make it impossible, hope calls from just over the rise. It “covers a lot of emotionally heavy stuff like mental health, addiction, existence, and relationships,” song writer Omar Musisko explains. His raspy, whispery voice has this rootsie quality that belies the classification of this record as pop. It is, and while that could be just fine, this collection of songs is more than that. It’s roots; it’s Americana; it’s rap; it’s healing; it’s acceptance that we’ll never heal, oh, and that’s ok."
CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
2020 San diego music award nominees announced
By Dustin Lothspeich
January 26, 2020
Sound Diego
CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
the spiritual motels album, video premiere: 'super tiny disappearing oceans'
By Dustin Lothspeich
November 22, 2019
Sound Diego
" . . . Throughout the 10-track affair -- recorded over the last year at Earthling Studios in El Cajon with Mike Kamoo -- the two croon their way through velvety acoustic yarns, occasionally throwing in accordion, mandolin, piano, and stomping percussion for good measure. Those textures mainly serve to add an extra dimension to the nuts and bolts of the record, which is undoubtedly the fragile interplay between Day and Musisko's voices . . . if it's beauty you're looking for, there's no shortage of it on 'Super Tiny Disappearing Oceans' -- nowadays, that’s a very good thing."
CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
spiritual motels: making sense of the world with super tiny disappearing oceans
By Jay Allen Sanford
November 21, 2019
San Diego Reader
"Going back to when Day joined the Peripherals after her band The Local split, the pair honed their surprisingly lush dual-vocal sound by creating music composed with an eye toward live performances. . . 'We’re not trying to recreate the studio versions of the songs and like to improvise. We have different arrangements on different songs and mix them up and rewrite them all the time,' [says Musisko].”
CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
meet omar musisko and amy day
By Stephanie Hernandez
November 11, 2019
San Diego Voyager
"For us, if our music moved one person the gig was worth it. So I guess we struggle like most bands, but we try to find beauty in this struggle."
CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
PHOTOS
for download//
RECENT BOOKINGS
The Casbah
Soda Bar
Bar Pink
Humphrey's Backstage Live (2020 San Diego Music Awards nominee showcase)
Rexrode Productions San Diego Live @ Queen Bee's
Rexrode Productions Fallbrook Live @ Pala Mesa Resort
Seven Grand
San Diego Folk Heritage
The Riviera Supper Club and Turquoise Room
The Backdrop
Rosie O'Grady's
Lestats West
EVE Encinitas
The Navajo Live
The Merrow
Julian Public Library Music on the Mountain
Fallbrook Branch Library Music Series Acoustic Showcase
Mahogany Mountain Winery
Amplified Aleworks
The Sycamore Den
Grand Ole BBQ Flinn Springs
Kinship Cafe
Lady Brain Presents @ Art on Third
Harney Sushi
Art Around Adams 2018 (The Ould Sod)
Adams Ave. Unplugged 2019 (Polite Provisions)
Ocean Beach Farmer's Market
Goodbar
Harney Sushi
ALBUM LINER NOTES
lyrics//credits
O.Musisko
O.Musisko
Super Tiny Disappearing Oceans
O.Musisko
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