One-On-One: Interview with Mr. Gnome

It didn't take long for me to fall in love with Mr. Gnome's album Madness in Miniature. Released last year under El Marko records, the album displays an exemplary mix of the Cleveland based band's outer-worldly experimental sound: a blend of psychedelic and indie rock,  heavily influenced by surrealism.

The album has a distinct feel and flow, and upon a single listen, it is hard to not notice the incredible production value the record holds. But with Mr. Gnome, production isn't just production: it's a process of curating, and there is no fear involved at all. The use of experimenting with sound and arrangement on the record takes the listener on an actual quest: through extremes of light and dark, playful and powerful.  All are strung together seamlessly,  ultimately providing the soundtrack for a  dark cinematic adventure story about a lost world.




Perhaps most impressive about the entire endeavor-- the band is a mere duo: Nicole Barille on guitar and vocals, and Sam Meister on drums and keyboard. It's a mesh of two minds that provides a recipe for an album that is ultimately surreal; ultimately, hypnotic.



When the band came into town a few weeks ago, I of course couldn't wait to see them perform life, let alone meet the duo, and naturally,  interview them as well:

MF

 Where are you from? Has this influenced the way you both view and write musc? If so, how?

NICOLE:

We are from Cleveland, Ohio.  Yes, I think a person's surroundings/place of residence always seeps into the art they're making whether they realize it at the time or not.  The weather here is very extreme, very drastic from season to season and that can definitely affect your mood and overall feel of whatever you're creating.

*

MF
How did you start writing music?

NICOLE

I've been writing ever since I was about 14.  I got my first guitar the year before and just fell in love with the freedom of songwriting.  Especially during such a weird age…the joys of being a teenager - it was very therapeutic and helpful to lean on writing music as an escape from the real world.  Sam started writing during college - using a 4-track and layering vocals, guitars and a drum machine.  And then at the end of college we began playing together as mr. Gnome.

 *

MF
Can you talk a little about everyone involved with your band, its development, etc? How did you all meet? How many band members do you have?

NICOLE

We are a duo.  We met back in high school but like I said before, didn't start mr. Gnome until the end of college.  I don't think we ever set out to be a two-piece…we just started writing that way and things quickly developed naturally so we just kept moving forward.  I had a lot of songs that I had been writing on my own.  I couldn't finish any of them so I brought them to Sam and that's pretty much how the band started.  We had a lot of fun and we were both very open during the writing sessions so the opportunity to play without any restrictions was really exciting.

*

MF
What instruments can you play? What do you play within the band?

NICOLE

I play guitar and sing.  And I also play some bass and keys on the records.  Sam plays drums and keys.

*

MF
Your earliest memory with a musical instrument?

NICOLE

I used to play this little crappy Casio when I was about 7 or 8 and I thought it was the greatest thing ever.  I just taught myself to play different songs that I liked.  

*

MF

Can you talk a little about your songwriting process? 

NICOLE

Sure.  I'll either write some ideas on guitar - riffs and melodies - and then bring them to Sam and we begin developing them further.  Other times we'll just jam for hours and gravitate towards ideas that excite us or feel like they can really go somewhere.  Sometimes it takes a few days to feel like a song is complete, sometimes it takes a month.  

*

MF
I love the way you guys seem to experiment with sound. How you do this when you are in the songwriting process? In what ways do you experiment with/explore sound? Is it always changing?

NICOLE

Thanks so much!  I think with every album we make, we develop a better understanding of what we're going for.  With any job, over time you hopefully begin to evolve and grow with what you're doing and that comes with recognizing what you like and how to get that desired effect.  We demo out all of our songs before we head into the studio - layering instrumentation and vocals to push the song to be the best it can be in that moment.  And then when we get into the studio, we take those ideas and try to expand further on the demos.  We've had the pleasure of working at Pink Duck studios (Josh Homme's studio in Los Angeles) for the past two records and have been exposed to so much amazing vintage gear so that's definitely inspired our sound over the last few years.  

*

MF
 What sorts of things do you draw inspiration from in your work (could be anything - from other musicians to themes, objects, relationships, etc..)

NICOLE

We draw inspiration from everything - life, death, politics, family, life on the road, the people we meet, the bands we love.  We are huge art fans - folk art, surrealism, art nouveau.  All of that inspires every aspect of what we do.

*

MF
Why the name "Mr. Gnome?"

NICOLE

We were paying tribute to the tiny man that followed us around during our hallucinations.

*

MF
Discovering Madness in Miniature was unreal for me-- I absolutely loved everything about the flow of the album. How long did it take to write and record? What was the production process like, and how involved were you?

NICOLE

Thank you so much.  We wrote the record pretty much in between touring - so over several seasons - winter, spring and summer.  The winter material definitely has a different mood than the spring and summer songs so I think that explains the constant change throughout the record.  We produce all of our albums…take a lot of time to work on layering - whether it be instrumentation or vocal melodies. We like songs to build up, to create a climactic feel and always want it to be interesting from beginning to end.  After all of the full songs were recorded, we sat on the record for a few months, taking a minute to figure out how we were going to release the album and that's when I started messing around with interludes - writing really stripped down vocal melodies that helped transition each song into the next.  That was a really fun process and I think it helped the flow of the record…especially the first half of it.  We recorded those interludes at our home studio and sandwiched them between songs to create more of a full album vs. songs thrown on a record.

*

MF
Were there any artists and/or ideas that impacted Madness in Miniature?

NICOLE

Yes, definitely.  Like I said before, we constantly have our eyes and ears open to everything around us and feed off of other people's creativity.  Bands like Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, Portishead, David Bowie, Otis Redding…i could go on for quite a while - are some of our main inspirations.  With Radiohead and Pink Floyd - they've created some of my favorite records and I love the idea of putting on this piece of music that you could sit down and enjoy from beginning to end and get lost in the world they created…so that's definitely what we're always going for on every record.  Some of our favorite visual artists include Henry Darger, Frida Kahlo, Alphonse Mucha…lots of surrealism.  

*

MF
Favorite cities to tour?

NICOLE

We've fallen in love with so many cities in the country but some of our absolute favorites include Cleveland (of course!), Chicago, Seattle and Portland.

*

MF

Your ultimate goal?

NICOLE

To create a time machine. 

*

MF
Do you plan on recording another album anytime soon?

NICOLE

Yes!  We are very excited to record the next one.  Already have a ton of material that we need to sort through, decide what's best, and probably keep writing for the next few months.  We plan on recording sometime during the second half of this year.

MF
Can you talk a little bit about any of your music videos? How do you come up with a concept and the creative vision?

NICOLE

Just like our music, it's a totally collaborative process.  We'll sit down and talk about ideas, and generally speaking we end up doing the most twisted thing possible.  Sam directs and edits the videos, and our good friend Zack Kelly shoots for us.  It's a total DIY thing, with Sam's Mom making all the costumes, and us building the sets.  

*


MF
Three albums that impacted your life?

NICOLE

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie
Hail to the Thief - Radiohead
Any album by Otis Redding
The Footloose Soundtrack
oops thats 5! - these list questions are always way too hard…

*

MF
Favorite place in the whole world (and maybe a picture you have or have taken of it)?

NICOLE

Our home in Ohio…especially after being on the road for almost 6 straight months!

*

 MF
If you could meet anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

 SAM 

John Titor so we can talk about his inter-dimensional time traveling journeys.

*

MF
Favorite object of yours (and maybe a picture of have of it)?

NICOLE

Nicole - My 1959 Silvertone Hollowbody - "Black Beauty"

*

MF

Your spirit animal?

  

NICOLE

 a centuar

SAM 

Sasquatch

*

MF

Favorite films?

NICOLE

Both - The Goonies, Star Wars, Wizard of Oz and Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story.