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| Photo by Clay Lerner |
On Wednesday, I braved freezing temperatures and
unnecessary traffic from Detroit to Columbus to witness my first Mini
Mansions performance. Lured in by Queens
of the Stone Age bassist, Mikey Shoes aka Michael Shuman, I
fell hard upon my first listen of their cover of "Heart of Glass" by
Blondie. Consisting of three sharply dressed men, the ballsy harmonies in their
perfect show were seemingly tighter than their pants. Tyler (keyboardist,
guitarist, and vocalist), for some reason, took time out of his day to answer my
questions about Mini Mansions, Alex Turner, and his current go-to album.
Motor City Blog: Where did the concept and sound of Mini Mansions come from? You
don't sound like any other artists coming out of L.A. currently.
Tyler Parkford: Well, we had this dreamy lure that we were going for but not a
specific concept. if anything, we wanted our work to be regimented by the
instrumental limitations we enforced (bass, keys, cocktail kit drums).
Michael (Shuman) and I had been writing our own lo-fi material way before
all this, so we did have a basic idea of the strange terrain laid out for us, but
no idea how we'd navigate it at first.
MCB: Upon
first hearing about Mini Mansions, roughly a year or so ago, the very first
track that came up on YouTube was the cover of Blondie's "Heart of
Glass", why that particular song?
TP: Michael had this sort of epiphany listening to it from his car
radio, like wanting to watch a sped-up party in slow-mo. Blondie's version is
like a manic disco ballad littered with hopelessness, so we simply accentuated
that same melancholy from our own side of the discotheque by slowing down the
mirror ball and dimming the lights a lot more.
MCB: Let's
talk about the full-length album. Doing research I did see Alex Turner from
Arctic Monkeys and Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys are taking part. How does a
band get these two to appear on an album, even after going on a tour with
Arctic Monkeys?
TP: We're all good homies with the Monkeys, so Alex was in and out
of the studio bringing beers and treats and jokes and spicy conversation.
We had an open verse on this song Vertigo that we were trying to fill
with a sort of hip hop English alter ego, and we thought Alex would
be perfect. He loved the tune so he went forward and wrote the
words/melody and laid it down raw. Turned out perfect. As for Brian
Wilson, that was mainly through (guitarist) Zach Dawes. He'd been doing a
lot of session work for TBone and other people and got asked to play bass on
one of Brian's new songs for an upcoming record. Zach actually had known
him before through family friends, so they hit it off. Brian ended up
being really down with what we were writing and was more than happy to sing on
this pseudo-dream-pop tune called "Any Emotions". Still feels
like a dream.
MCB: After
this tour with Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, you're playing a show with The New
Pornagraphers and then on quite a few dates with Royal Blood, are there any
plans to include Alex Turner on the road since these dates are all in the UK?
TP: Well, Alex is a scientific enigma that no one can tame, explain
or plan for, he just shows up. One can only await his next manifestation
and be prepared for the effects.
MCB: Enough about Alex Turner. Is there a date in 2015 when we should expect your debut album?
TP: The specifics have yet to be 100 percent verified, but early March
is planned to be our summit.
MCB: Is there a certain theme
that runs along with "The Great Pretenders"?
TP: It came from a lyric I wrote in a song called
"Ordinary Man". We all gravitated towards it immediately.
It felt both alarmingly simple and intriguingly undefined, like the
title to a Steinbeck novel never finished or a historical mythology created by
other beings to exemplify the (late) human race. It’s hard not to apply a
title like that to everything, but in context with the record, it has a lot to
do with this impossible union between the constant refining of personal
identity and the search for truth outside of that, or the costs of choosing one
over the other before we die.
MCB: What
is your go-to album currently?
TP: "Ruins" by Grouper. Its taking
me everywhere.
MCB: What
are the best and worst things about touring?
TP: These are all new songs so it’s really gratifying to perform
them every night in front of a completely new mob of strangers, I love to zone
out on the road, on that 80 mph meditation tip. Don't even mind the
late-night roll-away beds, feels like sleep-away camp for adults. I
really really really miss my bunny though. He probably doesn't even
remember me by now.
Tour rolls on without
a stop in Detroit, but if a road trip out of the city is on your mind, they are more than worth the gas money. Here is their dreamy latest single, "Death is a
Girl".