Congratulations to Hotel St. George for being voted by YOU as Commune’s Featured Local of the month. I met up with the hilarious lead singer Matt Binder to congratulate him and the rest of the guys on winning and to see what they have going on.

1. How long have you guys been playing together and how did you come up with the name Hotel St. George?
The band started a little over two years ago when I (Matt) met Erik while doing a ride along with a SDPD officer. It was part of a probation program that I was on for when I got busted impersonating a real police officer.  It’s a long story but the short version is that a friend of mine and me had rented some police uniforms and then went out to bust up high school parties for kicks and to take their kegs, pot, whatever else we could find. Anyways, it was a long time ago and we’re much more mature and wiser now.

Anyways, Erik had had a break in at his apartment and we went to investigate. Some of his musical equipment was stolen and that got us talking about music and then boom; we started a band.

We named the band Hotel St. George because that is where Simon lost his virginity.
2. How would you describe your music?

Each member has their own influences and inspirations that are splattered across a canvas.  We put all of those styles into a song and then work collectively to mold a personality for the song.  Garage, punk, shoegaze, pop, rock, electronic, and even metal influences come into various parts of the music to really push ourselves into different and new directions.

Check out the new HSG music video “little childrens bones” below.

3. What’s one interesting fact about each person in the band?

Erik won’t disclose any facts about himself; something to do with government clearance for his job.

Brian is so bad but tastes and smells great.

Matt is missing the pinky toe on his left foot; the result of dropping an antique bathtub on it.

Simon subsides on a strict diet of less than 1000 calories a day.

4. Have anything exciting coming up that people should keep their eye out for?

We are going to be at U-31 for the North Park Music Thing this year.  Since most of us live in North Park we are really excited to not have to go far.   Right after that show we are going back to the studio to record some brand new songs whose desired effect is to end world hunger.

5. What’s your favorite thing about Commune?

We love our girl Jenny!

[haha thanks for the shout out guys =) ]

6. Why do you think it’s important to take a stand against Big Tobacco?

I suppose the biggest bummer about Big Tobacco is that they target teenagers. Teenagers are very stupid and impressionable so it’s not really fair to court their money. I mean if I can trick them into thinking that I’m a cop than I can only imagine how easy it would be to get them to smoke. It would be interesting to devise a policy where Big Tobacco would have to relinquish all the revenue generated from people that started smoking before they reached a legal age to smoke. It would be impossible to enforce but it’s a nice idea, regardless.

Congrats again to all the guys in Hotel St. George for winning Commune Featured Local and thanks to everyone who voted.

For More on Hotel St. George click here to visit their myspace page and here to add them on Facebook.

If you would like to be part of Commune Wednesdays and stand up for a smokefree scene, contact us at jointhecommune@gmail.com or www.jointhecommune.com.