After an eight-year hiatus from the touring circuit, Cleveland’s indie, art-rock duo Mr. Gnome once again packed clubs across the U.S. this fall.
In between touring nonstop from 2006 to 2017, the husband-and-wife team has released five full-length albums, two EPs and several singles on their boutique label, El Marko Records.
Singer-guitarist Nicole Barille and drummer Sam Meister said they’ve grown a loyal fanbase “the old-fashioned way” over the last two decades.
“For a while we were playing in front of no one, and that's just the way you do it,” Barille said. “But you pick up people here and there, and they start telling people, and it's just like a word-of-mouth thing.”
They were named a “band to watch” by Rolling Stone in 2011 and also received a wave of critical acclaim from Spin, Esquire, Pitchfork and more.
But in 2017, they hit pause when Barille found out she was pregnant. Meister said a baby at home meant taking a new approach to writing and recording.
"Without the option to tour, we're just like, ‘Let's do what we've always done when life is so hard — let's start writing.’"Nicole Barille
“We would like make a riff, [then] it's your turn to work, I'll go watch the baby,” Meister said. “That’s led to us kind of experimenting a lot more with electronic elements in the last two records where we are making fully electronic songs.”
The duo’s time away from the stage wasn’t without its challenges.
“I lost my Dad unexpectedly,” Barille said. “And then two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. So, it was like these insane life moments all within two weeks.”
The COVID-19 pandemic also brought life-altering grief, change and loss into their lives.
In 2020, Barille’s cousin and Meister’s brother both passed away, tragedies that would deeply influence the direction of their next album.
“We really did lose our minds,” Barille said. “And without the option to tour, we're just like, ‘Let's do what we've always done when life is so hard — let's start writing.’ And these are our therapy sessions.”
The Return: ‘A Sliver of Space’
This period of reflection and growth led to the release of their latest album, “A Sliver of Space,” a record that channels their personal grief into something beautiful and haunting.
The duo describes the album’s thematic material as, “the liminal spaces between life and death, happiness and sadness, the real and the make-believe.”
On the album, which was released in September, Mr. Gnome ventures into lush soundscapes, blending punk, desert rock, electronica and indie with their signature soaring melodies.
“I think lyrically and conceptually it is a sad record, but it doesn't sound sad,” Meister said. “I think there's a lot more upbeat aspects to it, and I feel like it's the most pop we've ever done.”
The duo recently wrapped up a month-long national tour that took them from San Francisco to Florida, capped with a sold-out show at the iconic Beachland Ballroom back home in Cleveland.
After almost a decade of silence, Barille and Meister were overwhelmed by the turnout and the warmth of their community of loyal fans.
“There's such a strong work ethic here in Cleveland, and I think that we're like that too,” Barille said. “You just want to keep going till you drop. You just want to make where you're from proud.”
Barille and Meister’s journey began long before the first notes of ‘A Sliver of Space’ took form.
Building a fanbase through a DIY ethos
The pair first met as teenagers, both driven by their shared love of music. Meister was already playing drums and Barille had been strumming guitar when they connected at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin School.
They started dating and both attended Kent State University where they formed their first band, Gnome.
Their first show together was at the Outpost in Kent in 2004. By 2005, they were already hitting the road regionally as Mr. Gnome, gaining attention for their electrifying live shows.
In 2006, they played a pivotal gig in Cincinnati, which led to a record deal offer.
“It was very grassroots, very DIY. We definitely have had offers to work with people, and we've always just kept it DIY. Because it just never seemed good enough to stray from having control over what we were doing,” Barille said.
Even as their sound evolved, the core of what they do remains the same: creating a space where listeners can lose themselves and find something new.
Mr. Gnome’s electrifying live shows and cinematic visuals have attracted loyal listeners and led to a rigorous touring schedule.
“We built something from the ground up, and in our fans, we've made them all by interacting with them in a real physical sense,” Meister said.
They create all of their own album art, music videos and band photography while embracing experimentation and learning as they go.
“When we first started, we didn't have money to hire people or any interest from anyone to work with us. So, we're like, ‘OK, we'll just do it ourselves,’” Meister said.
The road ahead
As they continue to write new music, Mr. Gnome is poised to build on their recent successful return to the stage.
“The more that we're touring, every time we would come back home it would get bigger and bigger. We thank Cleveland so much for that,” Barille said.
Barille said now that their son is 6 years old and in school, they can shift their focus to their music again.
“When we started practicing again, it was just really like awesome to reconnect with all the old songs,” she said.
For now the duo is focused playing their hearts out and reflecting on the journey that led them to this moment.
“I feel like we're such different people than our last tour," Barille said. “It's been an exciting year.”
Barille said their son, whose birth also shaped their most recent record, has been supportive of his parents’ return to touring.
“The day of our first show … he jumps in the bed, like rolls over on me, and is like, ‘You're going to do so great today,’” she said.
