mr. Gnome @ Sunset Tavern

Cleveland art rock duo mr. Gnome aka Nicole Barille and Sam Miester are returning to Seattle this coming Friday to rock the Sunset Tavern.

The duo are touring in support of their brand new album, The Heart of a Dark Star, which they recorded at Josh Homme’s Pink Duck Studios. The new album contains a lot of big, heavy sounds with a classic perspective, but with tracks that can act more as quick punches to the gut, too.

I had the chance to ask mr. Gnome a few questions about their new record and action figures. Make sure to check them out this Friday! Buy tickets here.

mr. Gnome, Young Tongue, Chrome Lakes: Friday, Nov 21, Sunset Tavern, 9p

the mixtape: Why did you choose to self record your new album The Heart of a Dark Star?

mr. Gnome: On our last album, Madness in Miniature, we started dabbling in recording some of the quieter songs and all of the interludes at our home studio and really loved the comfort and freedom it gave us. We didn’t set out to self-record The Heart of a Dark Star initially…we did a studio session with our good friend, Justin Smith at Pink Duck Studios in the summer of 2013. While we were mixing that first batch, we continued to write and felt like we had a lot more to explore before calling it a wrap. After we had written a whole additional batch of songs, rather than jump back into a studio, we decided we would give it a try ourselves.

tm: What was the biggest challenge of self recording and, in turn, what surprised you two about the process?

mG: The biggest challenge was doing all of it by ourselves…not having an engineer there to set up mics, tweak things, press record, etc. It ends up being twice as much work per session. A lot of running back and forth between takes! and wearing two hats. When we started it was a bit nerve-wracking because we didn’t know what we were in for but it ended up being such an enjoyable, fun experience. I think it just helped us fully understand exactly what were going for.

tm: In what city did you record The Heart of a Dark Star? I ask because I’m curious to know just how the city of choice might have influenced various aspects of this album.

mG: We recorded at our home studio, which is outside of Cleveland, Ohio. We have some of the coldest, snowiest weather in the country so recording all day was a nice distraction from the dark winter days.

tm: Where did you get the name mr. Gnome?

mG: Well we were originally called Gnome but found out another band already had that name. So we slapped on the mr. We weren’t taking ourselves too seriously at that time!

tm: How do you two keep things fresh and exciting with music regarding writing, recording, touring…?

mG: We’re constantly inspired by everything around us…music, art, the world, the people in our lives. We still feel like we have a lot of ground to explore and discover as far as songwriting and the creating process is always one of our favorite parts of what we do. Touring is always an adventure…we feel extremely lucky to have so much support throughout the country.

tm: If you weren’t making music, what do you think you would be doing with your life?

mG: We honestly couldn’t think of doing anything else at the moment. We’ve been making music for so long now that it’s just part of who we are at this point. I’m sure we’d be doing something else creative…making movies, cartoons, art of some type.

tm: If mr. Gnome was an action figure what accessories would mr. Gnome have?

mG: A time machine, a jet pack, a dog side-kick, a blunderbuss, and a wand.