Here’s what not to do in Morocco.

Arriving on the ‘scene’ with his genre-hopping number ‘Loose Change’ last year, Sydney’s Andrew Tudehope AKA Hotel can already boast some impressive stats. Amassing 300K Spotify streams and receiving all-important backing from triple j and FBi, his slacker-indie-meets-rap style has clearly found an audience, despite its unboxable sound. Or perhaps it’s his avoidance of labels and genres that has piqued the ears of punters around Australia and beyond…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuVkGLKWv-o

His latest track ‘Holy Smokes’ sees him once again team up with Triple One’s gritty-voiced enforcer Obi Ill, with Hotel’s steezy hooks nicely rubbing up against the wordsmith’s melodically grounded flow. We got the duo to sit down and interview each other, and it 100% didn’t feel weird or forced. Check it out below and head here to follow Hotel on IG:

Andrew: So you’re a rapper. who’s now involved in making rock music. What next? Jazz? big band Sinatra style. Also as a rapper I expect your answer to this question to rhyme

Conor: Rock really bops my jocks, I maybe will start wearing docs, doc martens remind me of reverse parkensons disease, wow look at my knees. Next up I’ll start singing on sounds, with hounds and mounds. Jazz is really cool, check my spanner it’s a nice tool.

Conor: So you’re a singer. Who’s now involved in making rap music. What’s next? Public microaggressions? Stitching your mates up on blogs? As a singer I expect your answer to this question to be rapped

Andrew: Rap’s what the cats be listening to these days
and I guess I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do,
make the hail mary plays.
I might get covered in tatts and start singing about being sad,
so teenagers can relate
or wearing champion hoodies and stitching up more mates.
It’s a wild genre-bending trip that never seems to stop:
rap, sleep, sing, repeat,
you are the only grown man I know who still wears knee high socks.

Andrew: You love a bit of anime and watching Paprika with you was one of the more shocking movie sessions I have had. What are some of your favourite anime movies?

Conor: Favourite films and series that spring to mind are Made in Abyss, Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in a Shell. As I have gotten older I now struggle to watch Shonen anime, it makes me cringe, except for Jujutsu Kaisen, that came out last year and it’s fucking mad. Highly recommend it.

Conor: Give me a top five list of the most shocking films you have ever watched, and reasons why plzzz.

Andrew: The time you showed me Paprika threw me for a bit and questioned everything about our friendship, I guess it was because I had never seen an anime like that before. It might have even been my first anime. But I do love it now.

Oldboy (Korean version) is also one of the best and most shocking movies I have seen. Can’t explain why. Just watch it. I was recently recommended by a friend who I trusted to watch a movie called Deliverance. One person went to bed and the rest of us didn’t even make eye contact with each other after some of the scenes. I would not recommend that movie or going on a canoeing trip with friends.

Heredity was pretty shocking recently. Mostly just one scene in particular but it wasn’t enough to make me lose my head about it. I also watched Mulholland Drive recently. If you want to relive the feelings of puberty and feel both confused and turned on at the same time. This is the movie for you.

Andrew: Do you find that having a reputation for being a ‘sad boy’ rapper pushes you to hold onto sad emotions as it is part of your image and might be negative for your mental health at all?

Conor: Good question. I feel like I heavily identified with the ‘sad boy’ scene when we first started making music. It was current and relatable, I also loved emo shit growing up. I’m a bit older now and my musical taste has definitely changed. I feel less angsty and understand my emotions a bit better, I’m still learning. But yes, having that as a part of my image or what I projected definitely negatively affected my mental health, as much as ‘that’ art explores yourself it also has elements of getting off or justifying your own sadness and destructive behavior. The music/scene promotes heavy drug use and stunts emotional growth. I feel like I’ve grown out of this stage now but I still like that music, just don’t live it anymore.

Conor: Your earlier music career had you playing in multiple bands including: SCK CHX and running parties with the collective Yeah Nah Yeah. What has that helped you realise creatively? How has that shaped your current direction?

Andrew: The involvement with the yeah nah yeah collective and the bands which evolved because of it was key in shaping my interest and confidence in making music. Essentially it is five close friends who push each other creatively but also bring our own musical influences to the table in a way that helps us all grow due to new perspectives on different genres. Overall it has made me see the Hotel doesn’t need to be a genre defined project. I want to use the influences around me to try to create songs that slap in any genre that is of interest at the time to me.

It has also helped me to understand the effectiveness of collaboration and the way in which I can bounce off others creatively and each person differently in order to achieve musical outcomes which I could not do alone.

Andrew: Best and worst thing about making music?

Conor: Best thing is just making the music, I love sessions and collaborating with other humans and listening to their sounds, it all excites me. Performing the music to the audience is also another massive boner, but I feel like the creation process is becoming more important to me. Worst thing is releasing, it’s mathematics and strategies, I now understand the importance of this, but I really don’t give a fuck, it’s a headache.

Conor: Worst and worst thing about living in the same house as the lead singer for Johnny Hunter and lead singer for Triple One?

Andrew: Having to listen to their music and pretend I enjoy it. It’s like a parent who tells their 4-year-old that the scribble they brought home from pre-school is amazing and should go on the fridge. I guess it’s good practice for becoming a parent.

Just joking. It’s really inspiring to live with them and I think it pushes us all to explore things creatively and are working on some music together at the moment. There isn’t anything bad about living with your best friends. Except for that one time I walked in on them doing that thing that I will never be able to unsee…

Andrew: Best food you’ve eaten lately?

Conor: Soggy chinese fried chicken from Woolworths at Central park.

Conor: Tell me a story about you in Morocco.

Andrew: This is a bit of a stitch up. I will dot point it as it is a longey.

How to get hustled in morocco with Hotel:

Step 1: Go to a musical festival in Poland for three days and have minimal sleep.
Step 2: Have someone at the festival tell you not to accept any help from kids in Morocco when you get there as they will hustle you. Listen carefully to this advice even though you will ignore it later.
Step 3: Leave the festival and drive a car full of people from the middle of Poland to Berlin where you will have to sit around for 6 hours in a park before getting on a four hour plane trip to morocco.
Step 4: throw up in said park from exhaustion.
Step 5: Arrive at Tangier airport in Morocco alone at sunrise and ask a taxi driver to take you straight to your hostel so you can get some much needed sleep.
Step 6: Taxi driver will drop you at the start of the city and say the hostel is deep inside but cars can’t go there.
Step 7: Ignore the advice of your friend in Poland and approach a kid for directions.
Say the following: ‘dude, I know that you are going to want money for this, so I am happy to give you $10 if you take me straight to my hostel.’
Step 8: Kid around 12 years old will agree and introduce himself as Mohammed. He will then as you begin walking suggest that you stop to get some food and that he knows a really great place around the corner. Realise you are starving and agree.
Step 9: Sit in a random restaurant with Muhammed eating pie. Ask him questions about himself which he will ignore. So you both sit in silence and eat. Remember to keep an eye on your 18kg backpack which you have been carrying for the last 6 hours.
Step 10: After paying for both of your lunches, ask Muhammed to take you to the hostel. He will ignore this and suggest a lookout that can see all the way across the ocean towards the mountains of spain. This sounds interesting so you agree. Follow him to a random building where an old man opens the door and warmly welcomes you. Go to his rooftop and take selfies with muhammed.
Step 11: Begin to wonder if Mohammed is becoming your close friend as you take selfies arm in arm.
Step 12: as you leave the rooftop, have the old man who owns the building approach you. He will offer you tea which you accept. As you sit in his house sipping tea he will begin showing you all the fine rugs he makes. Tell him they are beautiful but that you are at the end of a three month trip and have very limited money so can not buy a rug at all.
Step 13: as the old man continues to show you rugs make eye contact with Mohammed and give a signal that you should both leave.
Step 14: Mohammed ignores you, as the old man offers you a large rug for $10,000.
Politely decline, which makes the old man get angry at you for accepting his hospitality and not looking at all his rugs.
Step 15: watch as he shows you 15 more rugs. Each time saying you can not buy one.
Step 16: Old man shows you a small blue rug which he offers to you for $5,000. Say no. He offers you $2,000. Say no again and ask Mohammed if you can leave. He ignores you as the old man offers you the rug for $500. Say no and tell him that there is no way you can buy one of his rugs. Old man will now offer you the blue rug for $100.
Step 17: realise that a rug that was originally offered to you for $5,000 is now being offered for $100. Buy the rug. Wait as the old man wraps it and tells Mohammed that you really would like to go to the hostel.
Step 18: walk out of the old man’s shop with Mohammed and find yourself instantly in another shop of another old man who sells middle eastern robes. Tell him there is no way in hell that you can buy anything from him which makes him angry. Look to Mohammed for support but he seems to be gone.
Step 19: The old man pulls a robe out and says that you would look great in it. He then compliments the horrible beard you have been growing which makes you feel good. Agree to try on the robe as you feel delirious at this point.
Step 20: Come to the realisation that you look amazing in the robe and begin to think of all the ways you can wear it during summer back home in Sydney. Have Mohammed take photos of you and the shopkeeper whilst you wear the robe. Feel on top of the world at this point.
Step 21: After 10 minutes of haggling with the old man, purchase the robe for $130 which also includes a handful of jewelry that you tell yourself your family members and girlfriend will like. (you later find out they don’t)
Step 22: re-emerge from shops and beg Mohammed to take you home. He agrees and as you walk turns to you asking if you want hash.
Step 23: Buy $20 worth of hash from Mohammed, he then turns to you and tells you you will need tobacco and papers for this. Follow him to another shop where you buy these things.
Step 24: beg Mohammed to take you to the hostel. He agrees and as you reach the hostel he turns to you and asks for payment for the day. Offer him $10
Step 25: Mohammed declines the money and says he is owed $30.
Step 26: realise that the bond you thought you were building with Mohammed was a total lie and that you were a fool to think that it was real and that you will never let love into your heart again.
Step 27: get into an argument with a 12-year-old on the streets of Tangier and people begin to crowd around you.
Step 28: Pay him $15
Step 29: check into the hostel and after a brief conversation with the owner, go up to your room. Put on your headphones and listen to Jeff Buckley as you drift off to sleep after four days of being awake surrounded by all your new items, and wonder what the point of existence really is.
There is a part two to this but it’s for another time.

Andrew: If you had to choose one outfit for the rest of your life what would it be?

Conor: Grey Track pants, black hoodie, white AF1s.

Conor: If you had to choose one outfit for the rest of your life what would it be?

Andrew: Black shirt, High waisted olive green pants, 70s cream high-top cons, Coloured jacket of somesort.