No one was questioning it, but we have confirmation that T Bone Burnett’s musical taste remains impeccable. Granted his own Electromagnetic imprint by Capitol, the respected custodian of great American music got his first signing spot on. “Yeah, good job T-Bone!” chuckles Michael Shuman, bassist for Queens Of The Stone Age and more pertinently one-third of the signing in question, Mini Mansions. “He made the right choice I guess. But he really was a great liaison and mentor to bring us to Capitol. He’s been our shepherd throughout the major label process.”
I’ve never met the fella, but I imagine him as a Zen- like elder, guiding musicians gently and wisely à la Rick Rubin.
“That’s exactly right, he’s super zen. If we wanted his help and his advice, he was there for us. He really was just like: ‘make the record you want to make.’ A big uncle-type figure.”
The aforementioned confirmation comes in the form of The Great Pretenders, an irresistible collection of well-crafted psych-pop songs unafraid to try on glam and AOR for size. The second album from Mini Mansions, it ducks the haziness of much psychedelia for something a touch shinier. “Maybe it’s the quirkier side of psychedelia rather than the acid-induced side of it... We might just be taking different drugs than the other dudes!”
They’ve also trumped the other dudes in terms of guest appearances. For a West Coast act, it doesn’t get much bigger than getting Brian Wilson to sing on your song. He appears on beautiful highlight ‘Any Emotions’, having previously employed bassist Zach Dawes in his own band.
“It’s super surreal,” Shuman says. “When Zack was asked to play bass on his record, that was the first step where it was like ‘holy shit, that’s amazing that he got to do that!’ We were all super excited for him. Then to turn it into asking him to be on our record was just insane. There’s really no one better. We grew up listening to his music, being from California and [Wilson] being a huge influence. The way we write a lot of our stuff and build our harmonies are based off things we learnt from listening to The Beach Boys and Brian. I don’t know him well but I know whatever Zach has to say about him. How kind and how brilliant he is too... He’s gone through a lot.”
Another notable name on the album – which is strong enough to not have to rely on such things – is Alex Turner. Close pals through his Queens association, Shuman figured the track ‘Vertigo’ needed a gritty, British, Mark E. Smith-style spiel and enlisted the chief Arctic Monkey. Funny, considering plenty of people over this side of the Atlantic think Turner has adopted a distinctly American drawl since moving to the States.
Shuman cackles. “I don’t know man, I wouldn’t say that! It’s still hard for me to understand him. He lives in LA now so we’re often together and go out together – it’s a smaller world than you’d think. He was coming by, hanging out, trying to get us to finish early so we could go have a drink.”
So Turner was the bad influence that took The Great Pretenders such a long time to arrive?
“Totally! Anyway, it wasn’t intentional to get him on the record; to try and make that play. For the most part we’re pretty private when it comes to anyone contributing on our record.”
Mini Mansions might only have two records and six years under their belts, but their roots go way back. Shuman, Dawes and singer Tyler Parkford are old friends, with the former two having grown up together in The Valley.
That said, this is no chummy side-project for Shuman. Nor does he consider his gig with Queens to be the “day-job”, though creating The Great Pretenders sounds like a picnic compared to the protracted making of QOTSA’s latest.
Shuman joined the Queens almost nine years ago, as the band toured Era Vulgaris. During the long gestation of 2013’s ... Like Clockwork, drummer Joey Castillo left and, following botched knee surgery, Queens leader Josh Homme fell into a black depression. Did he ever feel like ‘feck, I got this incredible gig but it might be over before I even get to make an album’?
“Yeah. It really was a crazy time, for everybody. Everybody meaning Queens and Mansions and the whole thing. I thought I was going to have time to do Mansions and then we’d start on the Queens record and we ended up having to stop for a while and regroup. I wasn’t sure if we were going to even finish ... Like Clockwork or make it through. It was the longest, hardest record I’ve ever made. I don’t think anyone would want to make a record like that again. We vowed to not make a record like that again.
“Like you said, it’s no secret,” he continues. “There was some emotional and physical health problems. It was real life shit that tested the band and the friendships within it. Being there for each other and trusting each other. Losing a band member in the middle of the record, all that stuff, was really tough.”
Unsure what kind of record they had on their hands, Shuman felt vindicated when ... Like Clockwork emerged.
“It was totally surreal because it came out quite quickly after we finished it and obviously the process was kind of a nightmare. We made the best record we could. To be a little unsure and then to be well-received was awesome and to have such a great year together and be able to celebrate was the best.”
As early as January 2014, Homme was saying they had enough songs for a much quicker follow-up. For 2015, however, Shuman’s plans centre around Mini Mansions.
“We’ll be on the road all year. It’s true we’ve talked about stuff, but there’s no immediate plans to do anything quite yet.”