The crew behind the favored Resort Ziggy on Los Angeles’ Sundown Strip have spoken to NME about their mission to revive the counterculture of West Hollywood and “free the music”.
Final April, Resort Ziggy opened on Los Angeles’ storied Sundown Strip, on the identical 2-square-mile as legendary California venues like The Viper Rooms and Whiskey A Go Go.
The 108-room idea which takes its title from David Bowie and pays homage to West Hollywood’s eccentric musical historical past – with visitor rooms, eating places, and memorabilia that replicate the lodge’s catchphrase “free the music”.
The foyer partitions are lined in classic vinyl, gig flyers, document plaques and portraits of bands. However in contrast to many idea areas that present highlights of music historical past by means of memorabilia, authorized paperwork are additionally on show. It was an intentional alternative from Chief Resort Imagineer Jon Bortz to be able to immediate friends to ask, “Who actually owns the music?”
On one wall, there’s a printout outlining the lawsuit between Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams v. Marvin Gaye’s property for his or her monitor ‘Blurred Traces’, not removed from an ‘AM’ period black and white portrait of Arctic Monkeys. On one other wall, there’s a small flyer selling one in all The Doorways ‘70s gigs on the strip subsequent to a duplicate of the John Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. case, the place the Creedence Clearwater Revival singer sued the label for rights to his songs.
“We created Ziggy to impress stimulating and significant conversations with the intent to spark curiosity and playfully problem views,” mentioned Bortz. “We push boundaries with our lodges, and we definitely did that with Ziggy”.
The lodge’s Sundown Blvd. location was additionally an intentional alternative. “What higher location than the sundown strip to have a good time the rebellious spirit of norm-breaking musicians who’ve modified how we dwell?” Bortz added.
He continued: “Resort Ziggy is positioned proper down the road from the previous websites of two world-famous music locations, Tower Information and Home of Blues. As these and different icons at the moment are gone, a legacy right here must be remembered.”
One of many ways in which legacy is being remembered is on the lodge’s music venue and dwell music lounge, Backbeat. Positioned within the foyer, DJs and musicians carry out there virtually nightly except they’re taking part in exterior on the patio subsequent to West Hollywood’s solely saltwater pool.
In line with the lodge’s design crew Dawson Design Associates, each component of the area was constructed to “honour and help the rebellious and unbiased perspective of musicians’ struggle to be heard”.
“It was very important that this lodge didn’t take itself too severely,” mentioned Andrea Sheehan, Founding Precept and Artwork Director at DDA. Lots of the partitions surrounding and contained in the lodge that aren’t lined in music memorabilia are embellished with road graffiti. “We stored issues easy so the artwork might communicate for itself,” Sheehan mentioned. “We stripped away all earlier makes an attempt to make this quirky constructing look fashionable. As an alternative, we uncovered its blemishes and embraced the awkward construction for what it was – genuine, identical to our friends and the musicians we’re celebrating.”
Resort Ziggy CRDEDIT: Press
The boutique lodge additionally provides friends a chance to get in on the music-making, providing entry to “The Shred Shed” which comes outfitted with electrical and acoustic guitars, amps, document gamers, a curated vinyl assortment, ring lighting for vlogging, ukuleles, and tambourines.
The Shred Shed additionally rents out headphones and Walkmans with cassette tapes so friends can take them out whereas sightseeing on probably the most iconic elements of the strip to be able to “assist Ziggy on its mission to free the music”. Even the lodge’s pizza restaurant, B-Aspect Pizza, displays the town’s wealthy historical past and was impressed by LA’s first document retailer Licorice Pizza.
The lobby-located venue, Backbeat, is at present house to a dwell music showcase referred to as We Discovered New Music (WFNM) which presents contemporary expertise two nights per week. Hosted by Grant Owens, the artists discovery sequence just lately launched the downtown LA run of exhibits, however beforehand launched new acts within the metropolis by means of performances, interviews and radio exhibits since 2012, working with the likes of Sigrid, Bishop Briggs and extra once they had been first launching their careers.
“Undiscovered artists carry out dwell, up-close, and at their most pure state, untouched by industrial publicity or elaborate stage productions, and backed by their very own friends and music lovers,” Owens mentioned of the showcase. “It isn’t a lot the venues, however slightly the platform that hand-picks and delivers the artists to these venues. WFNM, which is understood for conducting Billie Eilish‘s first interview in addition to presenting Kim Petras’ first present, has constructed a popularity in its 10 years of existence as a tastemaker.”
Final month, Austin, Texas indie duo Jane Ellen Bryant and Daniel Leopold of Jane Leo carried out on the showcase, serenading the packed crowd of lodge friends with a medley of moody, retro guitar rock tracks all in hopes of reaching new followers. “New and beforehand unfound music at all times had a house on this explicit hotbed of Los Angeles,” Leopold instructed NME when requested concerning the venue and the importance of its placement on the strip.
“The notorious road could also be one of many final bastions the place fame and reckless abandon nonetheless have an opportunity of blending with the undefinable new.”
Jane Leo CREDIT: Crystal Sensible
Jane Leo CREDIT: Daniel Cavazos
Jane Leo CREDIT: Daniel Cavazos
The performer additionally famous the “nostalgia seething from each nook of the Sundown Strip” and the way the vitality and “ghost” of artists like Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix, who performed a few of their first exhibits on the long-lasting Blvd. nonetheless linger in its venues. For Jane Leo, new music showcases in romos like Resort Ziggy provide “artists a strategy to sharpen their tooth on the identical concrete one million others have for eternity.”
“It’s in our curiosity and musical DNA to without end stay slouching alongside the Blvd.,” Leopold added.
Resort Ziggy is about to proceed its WFNM sequence weekly, in addition to a number of dwell exhibits taking place later this month. View a full listing of upcoming occasions and particulars right here.