Mr. Gnome, the Cleveland-based rock two-piece consisting of vocalist/guitarist Nicole Barille and percussionist Sam Meister, has a lot of ideas. Its 2011 album, Madness in Miniature, tells an epic story that the band wanted to translate into some other form of media, be it graphic novel or film. They eventually scaled their ambitions back to a music video, which we previewed for you earlier this year.
Now that video, for song “House of Circles,” has debuted, and it kicks six kinds of ass. With an aesthetic that is Tim Burton via Princess Mononoke and Zack Snyder‘s filmography, the video has a production quality that belies its modest budget. Over at NPR, Barille says that since the beginning, the band has relied on family and friends for projects like this:
“We decided the only way we could pull off a fantasy world of machines and flying people was to shoot it all in front of a green screen and use miniature sets. Sam’s mom, Barb, has been a huge part of our team since our first music video for ‘Night of the Crickets,’ and she really helped pull together the costumes and sets to create the look we were going for. Many of the roles and characters were played by the same people.”
A solar-powered rebellion against an HR Giger-esque queen, flying archers, and a sunflower god with three stomping pet cats…check out the video for “House of Circles.”