For The American Hotel System, a new EP offers inspirational messages of hope, growth and perseverance.

The Grand Rapids, Michigan alt-rock quintet digs deep into past experiences and personal reflections to share words of encouragement on Can You Hear It?

“I think these songs are the most hopeful for me. It’s a great reflection of the journey personally that I’ve been on between all the crazy stuff that’s happened with the band … but also my personal life with my relationship with my wife, my son and my health,” said Jacob Betts, the band’s vocalist and guitarist.

“I feel like these are the songs we’re supposed to be singing right now, and I’m eager to see who we cross paths with. My prayer is these will hit people where they are.”

On Can You Hear It?, The American Hotel System instantly hits listeners with six anthemic tracks, which explore emotions and situations dealing with desire, mental health, love and pride. The EP’s insightful lyrics, fiery electric guitar solos and epic pop-rock instrumentation offer a highly cathartic listen within an arena-sized sound.

“This is our label debut; it’s a new era for us. This is the first time we’ve been able to work with such an amazing team of professionals behind the scenes,” said Betts, who’s releasing Can You Hear It? with his bandmates via SONO Music Group.

“We’re trying to say something here, and asking this question, ‘Can you hear it?’ Well, that encapsulates the whole thing we’re going for. Not just with the theme of ‘Can you hear these things? This longing that you’re longing for,’ but here’s what we have to say.”

Yearn and Learn

Alongside Betts, The American Hotel System’s Hailey Petty (drums), Jake LaMotte (bass), Samuel Overman (guitar, strings) and CT McCallister (guitar) speak volumes about Sehnsucht—a German word that translates to wistful, yearning desire—on the EP’s uplifting title track.

Backed by heroic electric guitar and drums, Betts sings, “The melody inside, I can hear it and feel it / Calling me to life and I need to be near it / Opening my eyes so I can see clearly / The longings in my heart I’ve been searching for fiercely.”

“I’m a big C.S. Lewis fan, and the title track comes from him and the theme of Sehnsucht,” said Betts, who counts Switchfoot, Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and AFI as some of the band’s biggest influences.

“And then on ‘Not the End,’ the very last line says, ‘When I’m gone and my body becomes dirt / All that I’ve been longing for has finally given birth / ‘Cuz this is not the end.’ I thought that was a really special way for me to bookend this project.”

Like Betts, McCallister also noticed a special connection to the title track. “My first time playing the song … and what I played when we sat down at that time is exactly what I played in the studio. It’s what you hear on the record. I had never played the song before, and it just happened and it was incredible.”

After discovering profound yearnings on the title track, The American Hotel System examines the challenges of mental health, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and intrusive thoughts, on “Tripping.”

Surrounded by tenacious electric guitar, synth and drums, Betts sings, “I keep running when you call / Then I hear your voice and my heart falls / Then my thoughts overcome me / It’s overwhelming to me when I see your face.”

“After my brain injury eight years ago, I was wildly depressed for the first time in my life. I wrote a lot about depression on our first record [2019’s The Sunken Truth], and that was a thing I was pretty open with, but inside the very strong inner critic that’s there with OCD, perfectionism and all these things, I never talked about,” said Betts, who started therapy in 2021.

“It was a suspicion I had my whole life … and then I had a mental breakdown and realized, ‘Oh, I’m not fine.’ I wrote this song in response to that, and I want to be as much of an open book as possible about these things because holing them away, withholding them and guarding them up I feel only stigmatizes it more.”

Next, the band shifts from mental health struggles to new beginnings on “Seattle,” an infectious ode to love, growth and marriage.

Immersed in spirited electric guitar and drums, Betts sings, “Won’t you quake the ground / When we fall down and we’re calling out to be free / Come on, shake the clouds and let it rain down / ‘Cuz love is the storm we need.”

“The start of our relationship was right at the beginning of my health struggles after my brain injury, and she was right there with me. She’d drive me to rehab three times a week, and she was there through the whole journey and didn’t leave my side. That was an experience most couples don’t get early on in their life,” said Betts, who got married in 2018 and honeymooned with his wife in Seattle.

“The song was released on our fifth wedding anniversary, and it was meant to be. When I sing it, and we play it, it’s a testament to personal growth and perseverance through adversity because relationships are not easy. When you’re newlyweds, everything is good and sunshine and rainbows. But what do you do when that’s not the case anymore? You need to have more than that to fall on and that’s what that song means to me.”

Finally, The American Hotel System exposes the pitfalls of pride and embraces the power of love on “21st.”

Comforted by honest electric guitar, Betts sings, “It’s 21 days now; the habit has formed / The old man is gone now and new life is born / Growing slowly – a heart that’s adorned.”

“I wrote that song the day before my 21st birthday. At the time, I was consumed with a lot of petty opinions and things that didn’t matter, which immaturity is an aspect of it. It was having your priorities be out of alignment and out of whack with your core values … and realizing the misalignment and fixing it,” Betts said.

“I wrote that as an anthem for myself just to remind myself to let go of selfish pride, and it means more now than it did six years ago when I wrote it. I’ve loved that song for years, and we’ve played that song for years. We were playing it before we recorded it our first time around in 2019, and it’s been one that’s grown with us as a band.”

McCallister also played a crucial role in helping evolve the sound of “21st,” which was written before he joined the band. The track first appeared on 2019’s Sunken Truth as an intimate ballad and was rerecorded as a rockier anthem for Can You Hear It?

“His first recording of that song was pretty soft and very introspective. When he was showing me this song, I was like, ‘This is a rock song, man. This is a ballad; this is gonna get big, it’s gonna be a powerful thing,’” he said. “It took some pushing because this song had been molding in him for years. After poking and prodding, we got there.”

Studio and Stage

To fulfill their creative vision for Can You Hear It?, The American Hotel System started recording the EP’s six tracks with producer Jake Rye and engineer Nate Morris at Grand Rapids’ Local Legend Recording in February.

The seven-day recording process included laying down the tracks at Local Legend Recording and later adding strings, synths and overdubs at Rye’s Social Recording Company in Adrian.

“We got the bones of the songs over a weekend … and we did guitar, bass, rhythm guitar and drums, which is a huge undertaking for two days. We were able to record five out of six of Samuel [Overman’s] guitar songs,” said Betts, who formed the band in 2017 and attributes the band’s moniker to a Holiday Inn billboard sighting during a road trip.

“Then, we spent an extra five days with Jake [Rye] over in Adrian to overdub vocals and track guitar, so there wasn’t much time spent in the studio. There was a lot of pre-production that went into as well, so we had a really good vision of where we were going, and the demos were very fleshed out.”

Betts also credits Rye with helping capture the sonic magic of Can You Hear It? during the recording process.

“We just really clicked, and he was able to address every one of us and approach us each in a way that brought out the best performances out of all of us. He knew how to be goofy with CT and Jake [LaMotte], and he knew how to help me be not so perfectionist,” Betts said.

“And with Hailey [Petty], he was able to pull the performances out of her and the confidence that she has. It was a beautiful experience, and I’m so grateful for him. We’re already talking about what we’re doing next.”

Before starting their next project, the band will celebrate the release of Can You Hear It? with a Nov. 17 show via Kickstand Productions at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids. They’ll be sharing the stage with Low Phase, Feeding Grizzlies and Bedroom Ceilings.

“We’re playing the whole record. We do have a few, pretty neat ideas that we’re trying to make happen. It’s not going to just be any normal show—this is going to be a celebration,” Betts said.

“We’ve played with all three of those [bands] multiple times. Feeding Grizzlies and Low Phase are the two bands we’ve played with the most. We’ve played with Bedroom Ceilings two or three times.”

After the EP release show, the band will perform Nov. 25 at Grandville’s Littlefoot Coffee Roasters for Small Business Saturday and work on new material.

“We’re going to demo as much as we can, and each of us has the capability to do that on our own. I can send tracks over, and CT [McCallister] can track some ideas,” Betts said.

“I would say without a doubt we will be in the studio sooner rather than later. After this record comes out, there’s at least two more tracks that will be released in the first half of the [new] year.”

Show details:

The American Hotel System with Low Phase, Feeding Grizzlies and Bedroom Ceilings

Friday, Nov. 17 | 7 p.m.

The Pyramid Scheme, 68 Commerce Ave. SW in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Tickets: $15