The project began with singer/keyboardist Greta Morgan (the Hush Sound) in summer 2009, who traveled from Los Angeles to her native Chicago to record an album with guitarist/singer Dan Duszynski (This Is Me Smiling) and realized her songs were well-suited to a full band. That fall she recruited Duszynski's bandmates, bassist Matt Minx and drummer Adam Coldhouse, plus guitarist Eric Hehr (the Yearbooks), and by the end of the year the fully formed Gold Motel played their first show, celebrating the release of their self-titled debut EP. They returned in June 2010 with their first full-length, Summer House, followed shortly thereafter by the Talking Fiction 7", earning "hot new band" cred from SPIN magazine for their exuberant melodies and tight hooks. Gold Motel logged lots of time on the road in 2011, sharing the stage with Hellogoodbye, OK GO, and Cold War Kids, and performing at South by Southwest and Lollapalooza, getting press in publications like the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, and Alternative Press in the process. By September, the band began working on their sophomore record at Duszynski's home studio, culminating in the youth- and nostalgia-themed, self-titled album that arrived July 2012 on their Good as Gold imprint via Thirty Tigers. ~ Chrysta Cherrie