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

“I think I’m the only person who has ever done this but the first two CDs I bought, I bought together, and they were the first Barenaked Ladies album and GNR Lies by Guns ‘N’ Roses. I was in grade eight.”

In hindsight, Small says the better purchase was GNR Lies, because he has more of a sentimental attachment to it despite it having racist and homophobic lyrics on it.

“I’m really curious about [Chinese Democracy],” Small says. “I remember a couple demos from it leaked a couple years ago and I was actually pretty into one of them. I was surprised because. . . I was just expecting something that sounded like Nine Inch Nails because that’s what the rumor had always been about it. It sounded pretty cool. My younger brother went to see [GNR] for both of their recent tours and he said that they were amazing. He paid I think about $70 for his tickets and I told him he was crazy and he said, ‘Dude, I would pay double that! Because last time it was the best concert I’ve ever been to!’ The thing about him though is that I think he’s been to four concerts.”

These days, The Meligrove Band is working on their fourth studio album (which like Planets Conspire, is being produced by José Contreras).

“We did all the bed tracks live—or most of them live. That studio was insane. Now we’re working without José at our practice space getting all the back up vocals in and instruments that we would need our friends to come in and play. So not long from now, José’s going to come back in and mix it all. Pretty much what we did with the last album. We do a bunch of other stuff on our own and he comes in and mixes it.”

While Small mentions that several guest musicians will be returning to record horns and strings, he also says the album will have a less orchestrated sound from their previous endeavor.

“Definitely expect Randy Lee again to do all the strings. Andrew [Scott, not to be confused with Sloan’s Andrew Scott] is going to come back and play some guitar and trombone and trumpet for sure. And then beyond that I’m not too sure.”

This time around, Scott will likely be a studio musician only, due to his involvement with several other bands.

“It’ll just be Jay, Darcy, and me,” Small says of their tour line-up. “Which is how we did our last tour in the fall. When the record comes out, we might have a fourth person come out and play with us just for touring and that might be Andrew, or it might be someone else. There are a couple of people who we’ve already spoken to about the possibility. It’s kind of hard to find people like that because as you get to your mid-20s and beyond, it becomes very hard for someone to say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to leave whatever my job is and go be in a band for a while.’ You know, you make very little money and etcetera and etcetera. But circumstantial things are working in our favor.

L – R: Darcy Rego, Mike Small, Jay Nunes
Photo © Mat Dunlap

“[Andrew is] still playing in The Bicycles and he’s been threatening for years and years to make his own record. I don’t know if he’s actually started with that or anything but maybe that’s going on. And other than that he’s just been playing on other peoples’ records. He’s pretty in-demand as a horns player, so he does a bit of that. We hang out a lot but we don’t really talk what we’re up to. I think we just both assume that we’re doing music stuff all the time.

“He’s been talking about [doing his own record] since before he was in our band, too. He plays in other people’s bands but he really wants to do his own thing ’cause he has all these ideas. . . He’ll get around to it I hope. I’ve heard music that he’s written, and everything that I’ve heard has been incredible. The thing is, I want to have that record. I hope he can finish those songs.”

The idea of an Andrew Scott solo project is definitely intriguing. He’s a man of many talents, so there’s no doubt that his album will be absolutely amazing when it’s finally released. Though there’s no telling when exactly that might be, you can expect to see the new Meligrove Band album release some time later this year, and I can definitely guarantee it will also be amazing.

The Meligrove Band hit Brooklyn, New York on April 21 with a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. They will be touring the Northeastern United States with Tokyo Police Club throughout April. Check their MySpace page for upcoming show listings.

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

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5