Pack your bags and leave a little room for emotional baggage, because Tiger La Flor is taking us on a ride with her brand-new single “Motel 6” — a wistful, cinematic slow-burn that sounds like it was ripped from a vintage postcard and your latest situationship at the same time.
Out now via Arista Records, “Motel 6” marks the start of a bold new era for the Seattle-born singer/songwriter who’s turning roadside motels, late-night drives, and emotional whiplash into high art. It’s soft. It’s strong. It’s heartbreak wrapped in pastel lingerie and bathed in Pacific Northwest sunlight — and we can’t stop playing it on repeat.
With her signature blend of nostalgic indie-pop, country-tinged Americana, and unapologetic feminine grit, Tiger is redefining what it means to be an “All-American Girl”— and making sure the story includes her name.
“‘Motel 6’ was inspired by a road trip I took from Seattle to LA,” Tiger tells Celeb Secrets in our exclusive interview. “You’re physically moving on from a relationship, but emotionally… not quite. That limbo is what I wanted to capture.”
And capture it, she did.
But before she was writing heartbreak anthems behind vintage motel curtains, Tiger La Flor was shredding with her sister and cousin in an all-girl grunge band named “Seattle’s Best Underage Band” by Seattle Weekly. “We were gigging every weekend, just trying to get our music out there the old-school way,” she says. “That experience instilled this love of music—and rebellion—that’s stayed with me.”
After launching her solo project, she kept that DIY spirit and infused it with a vulnerability that hits like a late-night voicemail. Think glitter and gravel, softness and soul.
“Motel 6” is not your average breakup song. It’s a sun-drenched, slow-burn reflection on the bittersweet in-between — the kind of track you blast while driving away from someone you’re not quite over, windows down, hair in chaos, emotions messier. The song acts as both a love letter and a goodbye note folded neatly into a motel Bible.
“There’s this specific night where I stayed at a Motel 6 in San Rafael, and it just stuck with me. I was physically moving on—but emotionally, I was still halfway in that relationship,” Tiger shares with us.
“My favorite lyric is ‘I hope you find me in the wind blowing behind me,’” she shares. “I’m leaving, but I still want to be remembered. Maybe that’s toxic… but it’s honest.” In a single line, Tiger captures what it feels like to leave, but still secretly hope someone’s chasing you—iconic main character energy if we’ve ever heard it.
Sonically, “Motel 6” glides on warm guitar strums and airy West Coast production that channels everything from Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell to Lana Del Rey’s hazy melancholia. But make no mistake: this isn’t throwback for the sake of throwback. It’s personal, rooted in Tiger’s own childhood memories of desert road trips and the old-school records her dad would play.
“My dad’s from Spokane and my mom’s from Walla Walla,” she says. “We’d drive through the Eastern Washington desert a lot, listening to old Beach Boys, Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac. That’s where I fell in love with music. ‘Motel 6’ feels like the soundtrack to that time, just reimagined through my own heartbreak.”
With visuals that look ripped from a 1970s dream and lyrics that feel pulled from your Notes app at 2AM, Tiger’s art direction is as intentional as her music. Whether she’s styling vintage lingerie in a dusty motel room or texting creative vision boards with her sister and cousin, the vibe is always fully realized.
“I’ve always been drawn to vintage aesthetics and analog vibes because they reflect how I feel,” she says. “I’m super nostalgic—and I think a lot of my fans are too. That’s who I write for.”
And when she’s not writing, she’s quietly pushing boundaries as a Japanese-Korean-American woman in the indie-pop and country-adjacent space.
“There was no one who looked like me growing up doing the kind of music I loved—Fleetwood Mac, The Mamas and the Papas, Neil Young,” she shares. “So it became this mission. If people say I don’t belong in this genre, I want to prove them wrong just by existing in it.”
With “Motel 6” serving as the first peek into a larger project, Tiger hints that more music is on the way — stuff that leans even harder into her Americana-meets-indie-pop fusion. “It’ll still live in that ‘Drugstore Cowgirl’ world,” she says, “but I’m pulling deeper from the weird, wonderful records my grandparents had stacked in the basement. Fifties, sixties, seventies stuff—stuff that sounds like the desert and the sea.”
She’s also continuing to use her voice for visibility, most recently landing on an Amazon Music Billboard in Times Square for AAPI Heritage Month. “I called my grandma immediately,” she laughs. “That was the first time she really got what I do.”
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Tiger La Flor is not just making music—she’s building an aesthetic, a movement, and a mirror for all the nostalgic, genre-bending, heartbreak-healing girls (and gays) who see themselves in her lyrics. “Motel 6” is the beginning of a wild new ride, and we’re in for every emotionally messy, aesthetically perfect mile.
For more on Tiger La Flor, make sure to press play and watch our interview below. Don’t forget to let us know if you’re loving “Motel 6” by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecrets.
Interview quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity.
