Sep 25, 2026 · 16 min · 9 segments
Find more on [**Hey You Listen to This**](www.heyyoulistentothis.com). Hailing from Detroit, **Protomartyr** have become one of the defining bands in contemporary American post-punk. The band…
Well, I wanted to congratulate you on Hotel.
Is it USONA or USONA?
USONA, yeah.
USONA? Yeah.
Congratulations on Hotel USONA.
Thank you.
It is a great, great album and huge fun to listen to, but also a very thought-provoking and kind of relentless listen, which I love.
Tell me about the concept behind the record.
Well, like as Greg was saying, me and Alex are kind of taken off the board for a while.
So I decided before he even like really worked on stuff, I just kind of give him a general idea of what I was thinking.
And then that way he can kind of be free.
And I was like, I don't know, I'm picturing like a place, like a hotel or something.
And then each song can be like a different character in it.
And then that was pretty much all I told him.
So that way he could just do what he wanted.
And then, you know, later on you try to populate it with, characters or you know you listen to the music and you say okay this inspires me to do this or write this or yeah
what what effect does naming an album after a real or imagined place have on the evolution of its concept or its development
Well, the last record we did was, I had a lot of personal stuff on it and kind of what Greg was saying, you want to do something different for the next record.
So I was like, I kind of want to not rely on that as my go-to.
And so that's the freedom you have when you're like, okay, I can write a song from a different perspective or a character than you, you know, you can maybe write or sing about stuff that you wouldn't normally do.
And so that was a freedom for me was, you know, what am I going to do to populate this hotel with, you
know? Thematically, you're going to a lot of different places on this record between things like American cultural hegemony, Gaza, geopolitics.
How do you go about consolidating these complex topics into a focused artistic statement?
Well, the music definitely helps because it kind of tells you, it leads you by the nose as to like what you can fit in and what you can't.
And, you know, just having a kid I was kind of angry with the way America is and, you know, the idea of them growing up in this country.
Well, I wanted to congratulate you on Hotel.
Is it USONA or USONA?
USONA, yeah.
USONA? Yeah.
Congratulations on Hotel USONA.
Thank you.
It is a great, great album and huge fun to listen to, but also a very thought-provoking and kind of relentless listen, which I love.
Tell me about the concept behind the record.
Well, like as Greg was saying, me and Alex are kind of taken off the board for a while.
So I decided before he even like really worked on stuff, I just kind of give him a general idea of what I was thinking.
And then that way he can kind of be free.
And I was like, I don't know, I'm picturing like a place, like a hotel or something.
And then each song can be like a different character in it.
And then that was pretty much all I told him.
So that way he could just do what he wanted.
And then, you know, later on you try to populate it with, characters or you know you listen to the music and you say okay this inspires me to do this or write this or yeah
what what effect does naming an album after a real or imagined place have on the evolution of its concept or its development
Well, the last record we did was, I had a lot of personal stuff on it and kind of what Greg was saying, you want to do something different for the next record.
So I was like, I kind of want to not rely on that as my go-to.
And so that's the freedom you have when you're like, okay, I can write a song from a different perspective or a character than you, you know, you can maybe write or sing about stuff that you wouldn't normally do.
And so that was a freedom for me was, you know, what am I going to do to populate this hotel with, you
know? Thematically, you're going to a lot of different places on this record between things like American cultural hegemony, Gaza, geopolitics.
How do you go about consolidating these complex topics into a focused artistic statement?
Well, the music definitely helps because it kind of tells you, it leads you by the nose as to like what you can fit in and what you can't.
And, you know, just having a kid I was kind of angry with the way America is and, you know, the idea of them growing up in this country.
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