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

“It was so fun. As soon as everyone got over their nervous fear of being around guns, it was pretty good. The first ten minutes or so everybody would jump when a gun went off. Even with the headphones they make you wear, it is so loud it’s like lightning hit the ground beside you. It’s crazy. It’s not like on TV. After that, I remember seeing shows like 24 or whatever where people were just randomly shooting all the time and thinking, ‘if this was real, their ears would be fucked in ten seconds from all this gunfire.'”

While they probably won’t be shooting guns at a firing range anytime soon, The Meligrove Band will be touring through the United States towards the end of April. Small has played the US not only with The Meligrove Band, but also as a touring member of By Divine Right: the band of friend José Contreras, who produced Planets Conspire and is on board to produce the next Meligrove album.

“We had a pretty amazing night in Arlington, Virginia,” Small says of his tour of duty with By Divine Right. “But the first story that really comes to mind, though, about my own experience on the tour was when we played at Penn State University. Right after we finished playing, this guy grabbed my hand and pulled me down from the stage and hugged me. I still had my guitar on and it was still plugged in any everything and then he went, ‘I love you guys!’ and I was like, ‘Thanks!’

“And then he said, ‘and I love you!’ and I said, ‘okay, cool!’

“But then he went, ‘Yeah man, You Forgot It In People is my favourite album right now.’

“He thought I was Brendan Canning from Broken Social Scene, who was in By Divine Right two bass players before I was. So I was trying to be like, ‘Aw, nuts. I’m not him. But I like that album, too!’

Despite being confused with Canning, Small still admires that kind of enthusiasm from fans. But speaking of confusing Small with another bass player, until very recently, I hadn’t made the connection that on occasion his bass playing is reminiscent of Robert Sledge’s style. Sledge is best known for his work in Ben Folds Five. When asked about whether this was a conscious effort on Small’s part, he had the following to say:

“For a while, actually, I used to have my sound test for distorted bass be the chorus part for ‘One Angry Dwarf’ and I’d see if it sounded right. Because I think that’s kind of the ultimate Big Muff bass sound. And in terms of gear, I’m using the same pedal as him and the same—my bass has the same pickups. He was playing a Les Paul bass and I have a Thunderbird and both of those have Thunderbird pickups in them, so yeah. Pretty much the same thing. That was years ago, though. I got all that gear together in 2001. Actually I haven’t listened to Ben Folds Five in probably that long. But yeah. [That’s the] ultimate bass sound.”

“I was really into that first single [from Rockin’ The Suburbs], though. A video directed by “Weird Al” Yankovic, by the way. It’s amazing the little things you remember without thinking of them for a million years. There are cells in my brain that are holding that information for me.”

On the topic of the little things one can remember without thinking of them for a million years, this isn’t the first time I’ve made the connection between Mike Small and Weird Al: years ago, either Jay Nunes or Darcy Rego mentioned to me that Small used to absolutely love Yankovic’s music.

“Well at a pretty young age I had seen the ‘Eat It’ video and I was so in love with it. But it wasn’t until grade three when ‘Fat’ came out on the album Even Worse, that I had my parents buy that for me,” Small says. “And then I ended up getting them to get me everything he had done up until that point all on cassette. I still have them at my parents’ house somewhere. For a few years, Weird Al was my favorite and all I would listen to. Like in elementary school. I don’t really know what else to say about him but he definitely had a pretty major phase [in my life]. I don’t really know if that shaped me or if that just appealed to something in me already.

“I think ‘White & Nerdy’ is awesome,” Small continues. “The most recent thing of his that I bought was the UHF soundtrack, so late 80s. Oh! Actually I had Off the Deep End. After that was Alapalooza. And then I don’t even remember what else. My Weird Al fandom died with the era of the cassette, when CDs took over.”

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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