From Assault Rifles to Guns ‘N’ Roses: A Conversation with Mike Small of The Meligrove Band

“I just put that online this week,” Small says. “I don’t know when we’ll send it to Much Music, though I don’t expect them to play it if we ever do, anyway. That’s been in the works for almost a year. We’re finally done it. It was done as a favor for us by an old friend. Actually, I’m not sure if you’ve ever met this guy. His name is Mike White and he did all the cartoons that used to be on our website. This was done on a budget. He’s done some incredible stuff in the past. You know the MSTRKRFT video ‘Work On You?’ It’s like a Transformers episode. He did all of that. And he did it all old-school. It’s all hand drawn. It’s pretty awesome.

Mike White artwork from
MSTRKRFT’s “Work On You” video

“A lot of the coloring was done on computer,” Small elaborates. “Maybe that’s normal. I don’t know. But I’ve been by his studio and everything is done on computer anyway because they have these [graphics] tablets, so it’s pretty much the same thing as hand drawing.”

The van isn’t the only thing to have recently kicked the proverbial dust. The Canadian record label that released Planets Conspire, V2 Canada, is now defunct. Under V2, the band enjoyed a boost in press coverage, wider album distribution, and an endorsement deal for Converse Chuck Taylor shoes, among many other perks.

When asked about endorsement deals from other companies, Small says, “we’ve been getting free shoes from Converse since before our last record came out, but that’s it. They were hoping their shoes would turn up in our video but it’s all shot from the waist-up. So that didn’t really happen for them.

“I was actually going to email them because that was all done through our label which doesn’t exist anymore. I actually emailed Sid [McCain], who used to run V2 Canada, and she gave me the email address of the guy she had been emailing about it and I’m going to write to him because the tread’s wearing off all my free Cons.”

Considering Chucks are seemingly synonymous with rock music, it sounds like it’s a pretty good deal for The Meligrove Band. After all, wouldn’t they have all already been wearing Cons all these years?

“Actually these have been my first Converse shoes,” clarifies Small. “I’ve never bought them before this. I mean, I like them. But I’m so, so poor. I need free shoes and I like how they look, so whatever. Jay [Nunes] had us [groomsmen] all wear matching Chucks at his wedding. He had this white suit on with all-white Chucks and the rest of us had black suits with all-black Chucks on.”

Mike Small © 2007 Kyle Rose

Also while on V2 Canada, the band opened for the unquestionably popular All-American Rejects in both Montreal and Toronto (though why they’re popular is actually quite questionable). The Toronto show happened at the Kool Haus, a venue that has a somewhat poor reputation for its sound system.

“The sound system, onstage, is just insane,” Small says. “It’s funny because it sounds kinda garbage everywhere else [in the club] but onstage it’s just incredible, you just hear everything.”

Regarding All-American Rejects, Small had the following to say: “We only really briefly talked to them and it was because their singer and one of the other guys in the band wanted to find us and thank us for playing with them, which was pretty nice, I thought.

“We did their Montreal and Toronto shows on that trip. They were doing their rain dates for shows they had to cancel before. I don’t know. I don’t really know anything about that band. I’m not even sure how we ended up on those shows. But at the Toronto show, I think we sold something like 150 CDs or something and then it kind of created this local all-ages draw that was over the top, I guess on top of video plays too. We got a lot of MySpace comments about that show, too.”

Click to read more from Mike Small on. . .

Chuck Taylors and V2 Records
Roundhouse kicks and firing ranges
Mike’s bass sound and “Weird Al” Yankovic
New album update and current tour

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