“And the laughs we had / Came from the watered-down beer / Watered-down beer at the City Hotel / And the laughs we had / Were born in the springtime / For small change at the City Hotel.”
Kingston, ON-based musician Aruna Antonella Handa releases “City Hotel” today (via Frozen Lakes Records), the first teaser of new music from her upcoming concept album set to explore personal experiences about addiction and recovery. This single may seem light and breezy on the surface, thanks to the stunning old-time country charm, but delve in and you’ll quickly discover a dark and disturbing account of racist attacks in Ontario, and the social costs of addiction.
The stories found in “City Hotel” recount four racist incidents – two of which resulted in death – that occurred in the Ontario cities of Hamilton, Thunder Bay, and Whitby between 2016-17. Handa was inspired to write the tune when reading about the Hamilton incident, and quickly discovered that the common denominator for each instance was the unprovoked attacks on people of color by intoxicated assailants.
“Melissa and Barbara / Walking through town / Car rolls by / And Barbara is down”
“City Hotel is the first country song I’ve written. I wanted a country tune because the theme has been handled so well in jazz and folk songs,” Aruna shares. “I wanted to recognize that racism is not something that happens uniquely in the southern United States but is baked into the way we live here in Canada. I also wanted to bear witness to the people who were attacked, especially those two who lost their lives for nothing.”
Recorded at Canterbury Studios in Toronto with NY-based producer David Seitz, and engineer Jeremy Darby, Aruna’s lead vocals are accompanied by The Sirens – Caitlin Holland and Alejandra Ballon – along with Olivia Blumenthal. Instrumentation comes courtesy of Aruna’s bandmates Chris Adriaanse (double bass) and Raphael Roter (drums), rounded out by guest guitarists Doug Tielli and Tzevi Sherman.
“On the day we recorded this tune, the slide guitarist with whom we’d been practicing had a last-minute conflict,” Aruna recalls. “Chris made a call, and his pal Tzevi stepped in. David and I looked at each other through the studio glass. Tzevi delivered the atmosphere we were looking for from the slide guitar.”
“Dafonte Miller / You were chased down / By an off-duty cop and his brother”
As a vocalist, Aruna loves the wide-open spaces created by the chord progressions found in country music. “When I listen to this song, instead of singing the lead like I do on the record, I often sing the harmonies along with The Sirens, as there’s always another part to add,” she shares, before steering the conversation towards the since-demolished hotel in her hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo from which the track takes its title. “It was an interesting place to grow up as a brown skinned kid of mixed Italian and East Indian background. In some contexts, the racism was palpable, and in others absolutely absent. The key to survival was to know which was which, and it was not always obvious.”
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
