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Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with unsigned UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with unsigned duo Kyoto Love Hotel to find out more…

Who is in the duo, how did you meet and where are you from?
Kyoto Love Hotel are an electronic duo made up of Joe Geaney and Laura Sheary.

We grew up in the same town in Tipperary but nowadays share music with one another from our own homes in Cork and Belfast.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
Joe : Mainly anything my older brothers were listening to. I spent a lot of time listening to Pink Floyd, Interpol and The Chemical Brothers growing up. I’m influenced now by some other aspects outside of music. My mam’s paintings, cities and nature.

Laura: My Mam and Dad would have listened to a lot of trad/folk when we were growing up – The Black Family, Kate and Anna McGarrigle. My older sister Emily would have introduced me to Joni Mitchell as a teenager and she’s someone I’d still always to come back to as an artist and lyricist. These days Adrienne Lenker of Big Thief is one of my favourite songwriters. I like the idea of taking lyrical inspiration from a folk tradition and applying it to the sort of electronic pop music we’re making now.

How would you describe your sound?
Atmospheric, alternative-pop. Songs that you can dance to, or cry to, or maybe both, depending on your mood.

What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest release is entitled ‘Machine’. It’s the second track taken from our upcoming EP out this November.

Parts of the song explore what it means to have a body, a mind, and the anxiety that can sometimes take hold when the two don’t connect. More often than not, it’s the sea that washes this anxiety away and reminds you of the beauty that exists in the unknowable.

What’s your local music scene like?
Amazing! Tipperary isn’t exactly the most well known in terms of a music scene within Ireland. However our home town of Nenagh had an amazing live scene when we were growing up. The town was populated by a number of bands playing different genres and constantly supporting each other.

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We wrote one or two new songs which we’re now incorporating into our live set. We will be releasing our next single in September and our debut EP is out in November too. We really hope to get back to playing live shows soon!

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
We’d love to work with a composer like Jon Hopkins or Brian Eno (dreaming big!). We’re making fairly snappy songs and it’d be a nice contrast to work within a more expanded landscape, experimenting with vocals in an ambient way along the lines of Grouper and Julianna Barwick.

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
A girl stole Joe’s drumstick on stage at a festival once and started erratically thumping his drum pad. She disappeared into the night before we could ask her if she wanted to join the band.

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
We both have an irrational fear of speaking in public, so God knows what will come out of our mouths on stage or in interviews. This kind of written content suits our awkward Irish demeanour down to the ground!

You can find out more about Kyoto Love Hotel via Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitter or YouTube.