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Center
of the Universe
An interview with Tim Cronin of
Gallery of Mites
By Bob
Ignizio |
“I love music, I’m a mutant,” says Tim Cronin, vocalist
for Gallery of Mites. In fact Tim seemed just as enthusiastic talking about
Swedish rockers Union Carbide Productions (who Tim refers to as, “one of the
greatest rock bands of the last twenty years.”) and Cleveland’s Death of
Samantha as he was about discussing his own musical projects. In addition
to Gallery of Mites, Tim was also a founding member of Monster Magnet and
currently plays in another group with fellow GoM member (and former Monster
Magnet drummer) Jon Kleinman called The Ribeye Brothers. Regarding his band
mate Jon Tim says, “We knew each other before Monster Magnet. He was in a
bunch of punk rock bands. He’s a lot younger than I am. I saw him at shows
and stuff. He always ran with a different crowd, and then when he joined
Monster Magnet we became friends then.” Tim and Jon originally wrote the
songs that make up Gallery of Mite’s debut CD ‘Bugs on the Bluefish’ for The
Ribeye Brothers but Tim says, “They didn’t really fit in. They were
heavier, more rock oriented. But we liked the songs, and we decided to do
something on the side.”
That “something on the side” eventually wound up
including ten official members. For the record (and I’m only gonna’ do this
once) the band is: Tim Cronin – vocals, Jon Kleinman – Rhtyhm guitar, bass,
and drums, etc., Ed Mundell – lead guitar, Stu Gollin – lead guitar, Tommy
Southard – lead guitar, Mike Schweigert – lead guitar, Phil Caivano – lead
guitar, Joe Calandra – bass, Jim Baglino – bass, and Duane Hutter –
harmonica. John Garcia (ex – Kyuss) also provided vocals on one track, the
song “100 Days”. Tim says, “We had all the songs. Jon and I each knew
different guitarists and we each had different ideas. I felt like Mike
Schwaggert would be great for one, or Tommy Southard and Ed Mundell. Most
of the tracks have Jon as the main rhythm player and then two different
guitars on top of that except for a song called “A Man Called Shit” which
has all the guitarists on it. It’s a pretty small scene around here,
everybody knows each other. We just asked different friends of ours if
they’d be into recording. So that’s how it came about.”
Not surprisingly involving so many people in one band
presented its share of difficulties, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.
“Everybody’s schedule was different because everybody has day jobs besides
their own band. So it took about four to four and a half months to record
everything. It was done piecemeal. We made demo tapes of the songs we
wanted each guy to play on and then gave it to them and said “look we want
you to come up with something for this song for the lead” and then they’d
just put it down,” says Tim. John Garcia’s contribution had to be handled
through the mail. “Jon, Ed, and Joe a couple years ago were going to do a
side band called Heron and they wanted John Garcia to sing on it, but
nothing ever happened. This song (“100 Days (Heron)”) Ed and Joe and Jon
had written. Ed Mundell is in contact with John Garcia more than the rest
of us and he sent the song off to him and he was into it. He recorded his
parts out there. That’s why it sounds different; he didn’t come out here to
record it.”
Despite the unusually large number of musicians
involved, Gallery of Mites is rooted in basic garage rock and proto punk.
Tim says, “You can’t beat the Stooges. They’re gospel and the Ten
Commandments and everything. We’re really influenced by a band called Union
Carbide Productions. They eventually morphed with another band into
Soundtrack of Our Lives. They were around mid eighties to early nineties.
They had four albums out and they were just brilliant. Mudhoney was a big
influence, too. I dig a lot of the new crop of Swedish stuff and think it’s
really good. It’s good to hear people doing rock music again, it’s cool.”
As for his lyrics, Tim just draws on his everyday life. “Being forty in a
dead end job, drinking too much, wondering what you did wrong. Just typical
stuff. A lot of it is just, “I’m fucked up and I fucked up, I’m sorry I’m a
fuck up”.
As a huge Monster Magnet fan, I had to ask Tim exactly
what his role in that band was. On various Magnet albums he’s received
credits like “center of the universe”, “mountain of judgement”, and “atomic
propaganda”. Tim explains, “The first two singles I sang. The first single
I sang and played drums on when it was just a three piece. And the
Glitterhouse ep Dave and I both sang on that. I was an actual musical
participant on the first two singles and the first ep. I also played drums
on the ‘Tab’ ep. I played second drums on the title track. I only had two
writing credits in the band, and that was one of them. It was an old song
from when it was just me, McBain, and Dave. After that I got booted as
singer and started doing lights. We always had psychedelic lights before,
different people had done them. There was an opening, and I still wanted to
do something because I started the band with John and Dave so I started
doing all the liquids and shit and that’s where I’ve been ever since.”
I also had noticed Tim and Jon’s names listed in the
musical credits of the film ‘Vulgar’, a delightful little confection about a
clown who gets the full Ned Beatty in ‘Deliverance’ treatment and eventually
seeks vengeance against his attackers. Tim says that came about because,
“Kevin Smith’s office is in town and we know a couple people who work
there. They saw The Ribeye Brothers and wanted to know if they could use
some of the music from it. We were tickled pink, like, “fuck, do whatever
you want.” And then Jon wrote some incidental music for it by himself.”
Fans of humorous yet disturbing films should check it out.
For the moment, it seems unlikely that Gallery of
Mites will be doing any sort of touring even in a stripped down version.
Tim says, “We have a band kind of put together in theory, we’ve just got to
get everybody together. We’ve got Joe Calandra and Jim Baglino from Ribeye
Brothers on bass. We might try to get Ed Mundell on guitar, and Stu Gollin
from Halfway to Gone on guitar as well. Also the keyboard player from
Ribeye Brothers, Matt, and then Jon playing drums and me singing. Everybody
seems into it, and hopefully we’ll be able to do something. Everybody would
be into taking it out, but we don’t really have any money to do it.
Everybody would have to take off from work, so it would be a logistical
nightmare. We all want to play it out, but with jobs and bills and stuff
it’s a fine line you’re walking. I’m a 41 year old psychedelic fatso,
nothing would make me happier than going out and doing this shit. It would
be great. The fact that someone’s even putting out the record makes me
happy.”
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