The Joy Hotel

In the summer of 2018, two songwriters met and formed a friendship and a musical partnership. Their chemistry was instantaneous. They called upon names they knew one by one until there were seven: Emme Woods, Luke Boyce, Jack Boyce, Jack Borrill, Jenny Clifford, Juan Laforet, Scott Flanagan. The following three years were dedicated to writing and arranging songs and piecing together a live show. The Joy Hotel played their first show at The Blue Arrow in Glasgow, which sold out through word-of-mouth alone, as did their next three hometown headline performances at McChuill’s, King Tut’s and St. Luke’s, doubling the venue size with each show and selling every ticket they put on sale. They took the act to festivals across the UK and Europe. The band then spent eleven days at Rockfield, the legendary studio in Monmouth, Wales, recording live-to-tape. When they left, they had a sound. It is often contradictory, in that it combines the songwriting sensibilities of pop and country with arrangements reminiscent of the psychedelic scene of the 60s, six-part vocal harmonies with elements of noise rock, beautiful balladry with a sense of humour, and is cinematic even when stripped of any visual aspects. The result of those eleven days is ‘Ceremony’, their critically acclaimed debut album, and short film documenting the creation of the album called ‘Come The Ringing Bell’.