Vancouver Indie Pop Group Hotel Mira Share New Single “Dancing With The Moonlight”

A new pop anthem released just in time for late night patio weather here in (most) of Canada, “Dancing with the Moonlight” is the latest release from Vancouver’s Hotel Mira. It’s the third single shared since the band’s breakthrough 2020 album, Perfectionism.

Opening with melodic synths, “Dancing with the Moonlight” quickly kicks into an upbeat dance tune. Steady percussion and the same opening riff carries throughout the track, and much like in the visualizer, you’re likely to find yourself dancing along and tapping your feet to the beat. Sonically, frontman Charlie Kerr compares the spirit of the tune to a three-in-the-morning delirium of “fried chicken sandwiches and Monster energy drinks”.

Lyrically, Kerr hints at the alternating waves of hubris and humility that come with a life in the arts, as well as at how ambition sometimes threatens to eclipse one’s true identity. “I’m thinking of changing my face to one that can land me a job,” he sings in one moment of vulnerability, resulting in him living an unrecognizable “hologram reality.”

While that precarious, seemingly elusive work-life balance is relatable even outside of the entertainment industry, these thoughts were stirred on by Kerr’s fears of an upcoming move to the unknown: “This song is about my anxieties of moving to L.A., and that ‘this town is going to eat you alive’ kind of shit. It’s a ‘Joseph Campbell’s’ ‘Hero’s Journey’ of a performer trying to make it, and the sacrifices you make to do that…and the fact that people do it anyway. There’s something noble about going after something with such a minimal success rate.”

“Dancing in the Moonlight” follows earlier singles “Fever Pitch” and “Eventually”, as Hotel Mira continues to work towards a soon to be detailed sophomore album.