We released Madness in Miniature, which is our full-length, at the end of October. And the process of writing that was just a beast in itself. It was written over the winter, spring and summer of the year previous to it. And we totally put a lot of time into it. We put our heart and souls into it and really tweaked it as much as we could. The records that we really love are the ones that flow from start to finish. You just put it on and just get lost in a world. So that's definitely what we were always trying to build. But with this one we had more time to work on some interludes and really connect the songs and really have it be more of a piece than just a bunch of songs thrown on a record.
And then the EP that we did was just two softer songs that didn't end up making the record. We couldn't really fit them in when we were piecing the album together. So we kind of left them off and decided it would be pretty cool to put out a softer side of everything just because we tend to [use] the distortion pedal a lot.
So yeah man - we are extremely flattered by the reception that we've gotten. It's been a really good year for us. And every time you release an album, you're always wondering whether people are going to get what you've just spent a really large chunk of your life doing. So it's definitely a little scary, but at the same time I guess that's not really the point worrying about what people are going to think. That's not why we're making music. But we just feel lucky that people dig what we're doing.
The other striking aspect of your band is the intricate artwork. Not only is that apparent on your album covers, but also in your videos. What sort of work goes into making that art and has that been a way that you've been able to draw more people to your music?
When I went to school, I went for art education. I did a little graphic design and Sam actually went to school for making videos. He was making documentaries at this company before we became Mr. Gnome. So we're both very immersed in the art world and just huge art fans in general. So when it came to just starting to make our album covers, it was another opportunity to keep creating. Which was really awesome for us - we didn't have to hire anybody else to do all that stuff. And we knew exactly what we were getting from the record, so we were just trying to create some sort of concept that really tied that altogether.
So that's pretty much how everything started. And Sam's really taken over the covers in general - and we'll come up with a concept together. And we'll put on some costumes and just totally be silly and see what we can come up with to make a totally different world that you can escape into just within the art itself. It's kind of like what we're doing with music.
Then Sam does all the videos for us too. We built sets and we spent a lot of time on it. But it's really fun and we're always trying to go for the most striking result that we can. And hopefully it's successful. We probably spend way too much time doing it, but it's just really fun.
I would guess that your videos are probably one of the reasons you get compared to Tool. "Vampires" features a lot of jarring imagery, but it's actually pretty funny at times.
[Laughs] I'm glad you got the black humor out of it.
At least in your videos, there's like a plot - and lots of bunnies. Is there anything behind that motif?
Oh no, not really. I think people are like 'you did that off of Donnie Darko.' But I felt the Donnie Darko bunny was way creepier than what we put up there.
I was going to say - the Donnie Darko bunny was a pretty damned creepy. It seems like your bunny is a little more accessible.
I mean, his face is bleeding. (laughs)
But yeah, when we were doing our first video for a song called "Night of the Crickets," we found a bunny costume in the corner of this costume shop. And we just thought it looked very bizarre and surreal. So we bought it. And we ended up kind of leaning back on it with other things. We'd be like "oh we have this bunny costume -- we could just throw that in there."
People have really seem to be digging the link between Mr. Gnome and a rabbit when we started incorporating it into our artwork. So we started drawing it onto t-shirts and stuff like that. And we also drew Day of the Dead makeup on it and just started having fun with it, you know?