Cordovas have shared the emotional centerpiece of their new album ‘Destiny Hotel’, the bittersweetly beautiful ‘Afraid No More’. “When we look around, we see a lot of fear,” Cordovas’ Joe Firstman says about the song. “Some of us feign courage but it’s just those same old fears. Fear of the unknown. Fear of strangers. Fear of our own potential. And of course, the fear of failure. Let’s not be afraid anymore.”
Upcoming album ‘Destiny Hotel’, out 30th October on ATO Records, is a work of wild poetry and wide-eyed abandon, set to a glorious collision of folk and country and groove-heavy rock-and-roll. In a major creative milestone for the Tennessee-based band—vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Joe Firstman, keyboardist Sevans Henderson, guitarist/vocalist Lucca Soria and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Toby Weaver—the album harnesses the freewheeling energy of their live show more fully than ever, all while lifting their songwriting to a whole new level of sophistication. The result is a batch of songs that ruminate and rhapsodize with equal intensity, inviting endless celebration on the way to transcendence.
Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Rick Parker (Lord Huron, Beck, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Firstman’s Atlantic Records-released debut solo album The War of Women), Destiny Hotel expands on the harmony-soaked roots rock of That Santa Fe Channel, a 2018 release that earned abundant praise from outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR Music. Before heading to L.A., Cordovas spent over three months in their second homebase of Todos Santos (an artist community in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula), sketching dozens of songs partly sparked from their voracious reading of authors like mythologist Joseph Campbell, poet/novelist Rainer Maria Rilke, and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. And when it came time for the recording sessions—a frenetic seven-day stretch squeezed in just before stay-at-home orders took effect in response to the global pandemic—the band methodically eliminated any lyrics they deemed inconsequential.
“We wanted to strike the term ‘want’ from our music—to get rid of all the ‘Baby, baby, baby, I want this, I want that,’ and create something more useful,” says Firstman. “We needed to make sure these were songs we’d be proud to sing forever.”
Cordovas will perform a Lightning 100 “Nashville Sunday Night” show at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville on Sunday, October 18th (a limited number of tickets are on sale for the show, and COVID safety measures will be enforced). The show will also stream live via Nugs.net and broadcast live on Lightning 100.
