Skip to main content

Maverick Ad

Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Cover Stories
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Legacy Awards
  • Past Covers
  • Weekly Archive
Folk-Rocker Kele Fleming Serves Up Futuristic Film Noir in Remastered Single "Carrier Hotel"

Breadcrumb

  • Home
  • Folk-Rocker Kele Fleming Serves Up Futuristic Film Noir in Remastered Single "Carrier Hotel"
Kele Fleming
Fri May 05, 2023
Cashbox Canada

BC-based folk-rocker Kele Fleming connects two separate concepts with the same name to examine humans’ relationships to technology in her newly remastered, cyberpunk-tinged single “Carrier Hotel” –

Check it out on YouTube here:

But first: a ‘carrier hotel’ is a facility where servers and other computing equipment owned by multiple enterprises share space (although each company’s equipment is physically secured in its own space). The concept, obviously, takes its name from the long-established model of a hotel. And, of course, hotels are often places of secrets and intrigue, a break from the humdrum of everyday – a place for one-night stands, affairs, being on the lam, or simply cloaking oneself in a shroud of incognito and anonymity.In “Carrier Hotel,” which blends traditional folk-pop with synthwave, darkwave, and cyberpunk all in the same song, Fleming imagines the carrier hotel as a setting in a hard-boiled detective story.  “It’s about shifting identity in the ‘cloud’ and becoming someone else for convenience and fantasy,” she explains. In other words, the sort of stuff people do on the Internet every day, but Fleming makes it sexy and futuristic film-noir:
from streetlight to streetlight
wind your way down Front Street
you dodge the net sweepers
squeeze through a choke point
you carry a message close to your heart
you carry a message close to your heart

The juxtaposition of the folk elements with the electronic elements allows for a further marrying of the two concepts, and Fleming serves up dark, swirling atmosphere overlaid by a cleverly deceptive sunniness. “At the carrier hotel/ You can kiss but we won’t tell,” she sings. “At the carrier hotel/ We’re all a little closer to hell/ At the carrier hotel.”

Cowritten with longtime collaborator Ron Yamauchi, “Carrier Hotel” initially appeared on Fleming’s 2016 album No Static, and this version is the 2023 remaster. A corresponding music video with John Flatman as videographer depicts a lone, anonymous female backpacker getting into an Uber and wandering a city, finally settling on a hotel for the night.

Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/track/3KoUZSYWsXkUv4rdIomLy0

The song is meant to explore the realities of reality itself, as well as anonymity and image management on the Internet. “We have no secrets in the networked world,” Fleming observes. “There is a data echo for every move you make. A digital artifact for every facet of your identity, every crumb, that you leave in the fibre optic pathways.”

She provides further food for thought: “Identity and how the Internet and social media give people the ability to become shapeshifters and become someone else – if you’re shaping your identity through a make-believe world, are you really connected to, and present in, your real world?”

Since the pandemic, Victoria's folk-rock artist Kele Fleming has been collaborating with DJs and, as a result, her music has taken an unexpected change in direction. Her original songs are intelligent, conscious, and often challenging, documenting her thoughts on the environment, society, and politics. With Neko Case’s tenacity and Lucinda Williams’ grit, Kele Fleming’s songs are now fused with electronic beats for an extremely unique sound. A proud member of the LGBTQ2A community as well as an older woman in the music industry, Fleming’s presence in today’s music scene is an important one in making it a more diverse and inclusive space.

tinforest.com

Reviews
Album
Kele Fleming
Month: Mar 2022
Chris Sunfield Canadian Artist Chris Sunfield Releases New Single, “Tomorrow’s…
Chicago Electropop Artist David Poole Debuts Other-Worldly (literally!) “Getaway Driver” Single Chicago Electropop Artist David Poole Debuts Other-Worldly (…
Peter Serrado Americana/Soul Rocker Peter Serrado Gets Honest and Self-Reflective…
Rory Taillon Rory Taillon Releases New Single “Welcome” from the album Drifting
The Black Gasolines Theatrical Art-Rockers The Black Gasolines Unleash Dynamite New…
Sarantos Chicago's Sarantos Assures That “Love ALWAYS Wins!” in New LGBTQIA+ Single
Victa Harnesses Sultry Late-Night Vibes in Seductive R&B-Pop “Keeping Score” Single Victa Harnesses Sultry Late-Night Vibes in Seductive R&B-Pop “…
Jackie K Jackie K Celebrates Gratitude in Hopeful ‘70s-Inspired “Dandelions…
Country Rising Star Amy Nelson Celebrates the Joyful Clumsiness of Falling in Love with “Trippin’” Country Rising Star Amy Nelson Celebrates the Joyful Clumsiness…
Beny Esguerra and New Tradition Music Nominated For 2022 Juno Beny Esguerra and New Tradition Music Nominated For 2022 Juno
Bobby Cameron (penned by Jamie Oppenheimer) Audiences are Taken On A Musical Road Trip with “White Car” Bobby Cameron (penned by Jamie Oppenheimer) Audiences are Taken On…
Chris Cachia Channels Old-School MC Energy with Modern Hip Hop on “Abundant Bank” Chris Cachia Channels Old-School MC Energy with Modern Hip Hop on “…
Canadian Folk & Roots Artist James Culleton Totally Rocks at Child’s Play with “Superfun” New Single Canadian Folk & Roots Artist James Culleton Totally Rocks at…
Laura Brino Singer/Songwriter Laura Brino Brings Audiences Back Home with New…
Marito Marques Marito Marques’ Marries Portugal’s Music Traditions with Two of…

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • …
  • Page 61
  • Page 62
  • Page 63
  • Page 64
  • Current page 65
  • Page 66
  • Page 67
  • Page 68
  • Page 69
  • …
  • Next page Next ›
  • Last page Last »

CEO/PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF
SANDY GRAHAM

email:sandygrahamemg@gmail.com 

Canadian Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Don Graham
email: dongrahamwriter@gmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Lisa Hartt
email: lisahartt87@hotmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada 
Michael Williams
email: greydread@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

International Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Malin Osth
email: malin@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Jonas Tancred
email: jonas@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - USA
Rob Durkee 
email: rockster2746@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Developer/Technical Support
Chris Wardman

email: info@chriswardman.com
website: chriswardman.com

Cashbox Cover Design and Graphic Artist
Jain McMillan

email: jainmcmillan@gmail.com

Contributing Photographer 
Tracey Savein - South Paw Productions
southpawproductions@rogers.com

 

 

 

Footer menu

  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Archive
  • Issue Archive
  • Past Covers