Interview: Mini Mansions

LA based rock n rollers upcoming album ‘Guy Walks Into A Bar…’ exudes infectious attitude, mysterious guitars & deep, dark disco

The idiosyncrasies of Mini Mansions make it hard to pin down their sound, which is what makes them so earcatching. If I had to describe Guy Walks Into A Bar..., I’d place it somewhere in the middle of an imaginary venn diagram reading: ‘glam rock, Indie Pop, and Dark 80’s alt-dance’. So far two singles from the upcoming album ‘Gummy Bear’ and the tempestuous ‘Hey Lover’ depict a new, innovative direction for the band, and I am thoroughly looking forward to the album’s June release.  

Formed in 2009, Mini Mansion is made up of trio Michael Shuman, Zach Dawes, and Tyler Parkford. Michael is the bassist of Queens of The Stone Age, and Zach plays bass in The Last Shadow Puppets. Last but not at all least is Tyler Parkford, who recorded the keys for Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. They have released two albums together: the smokey self titled debut (2010) and The Great Pretenders (2015). With their hands in so many musical pies, Mini Mansions certainly have something that’s hard to put your finger on. 

When Xpress (big up Cardiff Uni) put forward this opportunity, I pestered the Station Manager for the job. How could I miss out on a talk with this  musician of such incredible calibre, myself a fan since my teenage years, and all the more so since Mini Mansions? Chatting on the dog’n’bone was at first nerve wracking but overall wicked.

It was a full circle moment for me, from first watching the Queens of the Stone Age set at Reading Festival 2015 at when I was sixteen to now, twenty one years of age, living in Wales and actually getting to talk to a musician about music. And not just any musician, Michael f*cking Shuman. He called my phone at the Xpress station from California and it was a cloudy Friday afternoon that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. 

S: Before we start, Michael, I want to thank you for taking the time for this today. Your latest record, Guy Walks into A Bar, is fantastic. Was the making of it a communal experience, or did you each have a specific part to play in the creative process? 

Michael: On this record in particular, I think our roles kind of got split up a little more than usual. The other records have been a pretty communal experience, even though Tyler and I have different songs, song writing techniques, different ideas. We would usually go in a room together and hash it out, but for this record we were in different parts of the world. We were touring with other bands, so for this one we would demo out the songs by ourselves and then show it to the other. I personally had a very specific idea for what I wanted this record to be – it was based on what I was going through at the time and the relationship I was going through at the time. Everything that was going out was very specific. So, I wasn’t going to collaborate, at least lyrically. The songs were just pouring out of me, and then they became very personal for us. 

S: Going by that, would you say making this record has been cathartic for you at all? 

M: It was cathartic. I think that’s how song writing should be. Whatever is in you with spit itself naturally anyway. For this record, it was flowing out of me, it was a bunch easier so it did end up being a very cathartic experience. I finally got my feelings out on paper then on the record a lot of time I kept it in and used other words to replace how I was really feeling. This time I wrote my innermost thoughts and not replacing them with other words and things for songs, like i usally do. 

S: I see, so this time around, the record is a stream of consciousness, lyrically speaking? 

M: Yes, definitely. A lot of the time it reads like dialogue, like Hey Lover reads like a conversation. 

S: I completely agree. Did you employ any new sounds or instruments that you hadn’t used before? 

M: A lot of time you learn stuff from other musical experiences and records you’ve made in the past. You then take those into the future. I took more of a producer role on this record, and I wanted it to be a very vacuous sounding, tight record for the first time. 

S: The opening to Gummy Bear is fantastic! Is there a story behind that?

M: There is actually. When we were making the song, Death From Above were recording in the next room, and one day they had the day off, so we went in there and stole one of the keyboards they were using. And I put these four chords, and it's a rhythm like typing. one person had to tweak one nob, the other had to thump, the chords, it was a two person job for sure. 

S: Thanks for telling that awesome story! Moving onwards, when I was taking down notes for ‘Works Every Time’, I got a very specific vibe. The synth loops and melodramatic lyrics to me sounded exactly like a 1980s coming-of-age movie, a John Hughes perhaps, where the leading couple have had their first fall out. If you had to attribute ‘Works Every Time’ or any other Mini Mansions song to a film soundtrack, do any spring to mind? 

M: Number one you are very perceptive, because Tyler wrote that song with an eighties film in mind. He doesn’t like to talk about that, but it’s true. He won’t like me saying which film, but he did. I used to think our first album would be good for films, they were a lot more cinematic and a little more orchestral in the way we were writing. 

S: You’re the bassist for Queens of the Stone Age also. How far would you agree with the idea that Mini Mansions are musical cousins? 

M: Well it is one big family, so I definitely see us being cousins. There’s two sets of really different sets of people. But the really great thing about both those bands, is everyone is individual and everyone is different. I wouldn’t want to be in a band with a bunch of cardboard cutouts, it works for some, but not for me. I like how everyone brings their own individual characters and idiosyncrasies, and hopefully you guys get something you don’t hear everyday. I really do feel that way about Mini Mansions, there’s something you can’t put your finger on. Sometimes I get caught up in silly things like is this good enough, but ultimately I realise I just want us to sound like Mini Mansions, and that we do. 

S: Goal achieved! Your new album, GWIAB, what does it mean for you? 

M: Although we made the record as a band,  this record was much more focused on the individual’s experience and it is ultimately about one person and their experience and their journey through a relationship. The reason it’s ‘Guy’ not ‘I’ is because it’s about an experience that everyone has had, or will have: falling in love, or going through heartbreak. So although it’s about a single person, it’s supposed to be for anyone to take and properly relate to.

S: If you could have anyone alive or dead perform on stage with you, who would it be and why? 

M: Let’s say John Lennon

S: If you had to pick an animal to represent ‘GWIAB’, which would it be? 

M: Oh definitely my dog, who’s sitting next to me right now. You know the term Bowsers, where dogs look like their owners? She’s a Miniature Pinscher, but we’re basically the same person. She also sat in everyday on the recordings,  so she can definitely represent the album!