On October 24th, WMCN sat down with Twin Cities band One Big Quilt at the Pizza Luce across from Seward Cafe two hours before their performance. About 3 glasses of ice water were consumed by the interviewer in this 30-minute span. Between laments about the downfall of black midi and bites of pepperoni pizza, here are the highlights (edited for length and clarity).
WMCN: Okay, introduce yourselves and what y’all do for the WMCN blog.
Joel: I’m Joel. I don’t know how much you want to hear. I’m from Kansas, I grew up in Kansas City, and I moved to Lawrence, Kansas, for school. I did a mechanical engineering undergrad and it was terrible and I hated it. I’m good at math, but boy, I don’t get along well with engineers. That’s what I learned. Especially Kansas engineers. I was in a band in Lawrence called Lavender Bride, it was a lot more sort of indie rock folk kind of stuff. When I moved here, I was unemployed for a semester and knew I needed to make a band to feel sane. So I, not knowing anyone here, made posters of myself and what I wanted to play and who I wanted to play with, and I put them in the University of Minnesota music building because I was going there for an Urban Planning master’s degree, and that’s where all the bored musicians are going, all the people who are taking lessons and are very technically proficient who play, like, the weird stuff that I would want to play. I got a couple of false starts from people who were like “Oh, yeah, I’d like to do this.” and it’s like “Oh, you’re 18. You can’t get into bars. It’s gonna be a problem.” And then one other person was a sorority girl, and I…don’t really do that sort of thing. I have socioeconomic problems with Greek life. It’s not really important to what we’re talking about right now. But then Winnie was the next person who asked me, and then we jammed once and we’re like “this is actually great and we should do this.” And that was in October or November of 2024. Because Winnie had just moved here, and I’ll let you take it from there, I guess.
Winnie: Cool! Hell yeah! My name is Winnie. And just as Joel said, I was sitting bored in the music building and all of the practice rooms were full, and I really needed to practice music, but I was looking at this corkboard, and I saw this really brightly colored Canva poster…
Joel: Hey!!!
Winnie: …(laughing) that was like “drummer seeking band, I want to jam with people who aren’t afraid to get weird with it.” And I was like, “I’m not afraid to get weird with it.” So I hit up Joel, and we played. And pretty immediately, I was like, “whoa, I’ve never heard somebody play grooves like this.” And yeah, that’s how that happened. But a little bit about my background. I’m from Idaho, and I’m studying at the U[MN] right now, finishing a performance degree in guitar. And it’s mostly fingerstyle stuff, so it’s fun when I get to do One Big Quilt stuff because it’s the other end of the musical spectrum.
WMCN: Yeah, I saw that you guys have a bunch of listed genre influences, it was like jazz and emo and funk and rock and all sorts of stuff. Is there an influence you guys have, like either an artist or a genre, that you think could really surprise people to learn?
Winnie: I was a folk artist for a long time, and I actually still do play folk. When I play solo, I use a lot of my classical training to play nylon strings and vocals and no pedals, and that’s really fun. I think the folk aspect also lends itself to my lyrical writing because when I started writing songs, I got into Nick Drake and Sun Kil Moon and Paul Simon, just these guys who wrote really beautiful and sad music. Down the road I found Haley Hendrix, Adrianne Lenker, and ML Buch, and I’m just like “whoa! Holy shit! Guitar and voice so beautiful!” So that’s probably my most surprising influence.
Joel: Haley Hendrix is probably one of my favorite artists of all time. She’s incredible. But I think probably the most surprising thing that I would say as an influence is that I was super into prog rock in high school. Rush was my favorite band for a long time, and they no longer are, and I don’t listen to them that much anymore. But that is kind of a fundamental drum thing, because when I was starting to get into them and some other sort of classic rock stuff, that’s when I actually started to take the drums seriously. I had taken lessons before and had done marching band, but that was kind of just another thing I did. It wasn’t, like, a passion. And now I’m fucking crazy about it. I mean, I think my current influences are not very surprising to people. When I tell people Yussef Dayes, Morgan Simpson, Louis Cole, everyone’s like, “oh yeah, Louis Cole, I heard that for sure.” And that’s cool. That’s good. That’s what I’m aiming for.
Winnie: But did you hear the other names?
Joel: Exactly, exactly! And, I mean, I could probably talk about drummers for…you’ve heard too much, probably. But yeah, I think that’s probably the most surprising. But, like…you know Porcupine Tree?
WMCN: (ashamed head shake no)
Joel: That’s okay, that’s not that important for you to know, actually. But I really like the drummer for Porcupine Tree. But the lead guy is a Zionist, so…it happens.
WMCN: Many such cases. I did some BandCamp stalking, and I saw that the new album, “Vertical Farming,” was recorded in one weekend. That sounds kind of crazy. What was that experience like?
Winnie: It was cool. Joel and I both knew we wanted to do a live album, so the whole album was recorded live. There are no additional things stitched in. What you hear is just the sound that we are making as two people, and that was really cool. We were working with a really talented engineer named Nat Harvey, who does a lot of stuff on the scene, most notably with the band Low. And Nat is really good at what they do. We recorded it in Northeast Minneapolis at a spot called Soft Cold Studios, and they had a great little room, and it was a lot of fun. Honestly, it was a little stressful because day one, the first two hours were just like getting everything really set up and then getting comfortable in the studio, and then we got four or five tracks deep, and so we’re like, tomorrow we have eight tracks to go. But the next day we went in, Joel brought lunch that they had made, which was curry, it was really yummy, and then we just plugged away, and actually finished with four or five hours to spare. And then we sat in the mixing booth.
Joel: Nat did this cool thing called reamping. Basically, the drums were recorded in a bigger room with the drum set and then all the other stuff and whatever. And Winnie was in an isolation chamber, but there was a glass window between us so we could see, and we had talkback mics and everything so we could talk to each other. So, to get it sounding like we recorded everything in the same room, Nat basically played Winnie’s guitar tracks through an amp into the space that I recorded drums in, and then re-recorded that sound to get the room sound as well. It’s truly stuff that I had never heard of, and is frankly genius. That was a super super cool and a really fun part of the whole process. But it was a crazy time because that was Feburary of this year, and so things were fucking weird. It was a very strange headspace to be in, as I was pretty active and also in school at the time. It was crazy, seeing ICE in Cedar Riverside, and then going to class. And I’m sitting there looking at Signal on my laptop, like, “Oh my god.” And then we go to record…I mean, it was just three people in this place, basically the whole day by ourselves, nothing else bothering us. It was a very specific headspace to be in, and like Winnie said, we knew we wanted to do a live recording ahead of time. Live albums are better than studio recordings like 90% of the time. There’s a certain quality to it. That’s how we play the songs, right? We’ll rehearse stuff, and we’ll fuck something up, and then we’ll do it again, and the songs change that way, which is really fun. But, yeah, anyways, it was very magical.
WMCN: That’s so cool to hear about the process. You guys have played a lot of Twin Cities venues. I feel like every time I look at Instagram or see you guys live, it’s always a different one. Do you guys have a favorite venue to play?
Winnie: Pillar [Forum] is as pretty good as they go…personally, this is kind of weird, but I really enjoy playing White Squirrel because it’s free, so all my friends can go without paying to get in. There’s a nice patio, and there’s food in the summer, and it feels low stakes because it’s a venue that sometimes has two shows a day, but definitely one show every single night. But that’s where Joel and I feel like we’re relaxed. We’ve played there six to eight times, so I feel like we can really experiment on stage, which is where I have the most fun.
WMCN: I also saw that you guys have been to WMCN before, for the show “Mostly Minnesota Music”!
Joel: Yes, I forgot to mention that earlier!
WMCN: Yeah, I think they were right before me one semester, and so I’d always see them leaving and they’d be playing something awesome. I loved them. It was awesome.
Joel: That was a fun time.
WMCN: Do you guys remember any specific wall art or general station memorabilia?
Winnie: My biggest memory from that is being recorded on an iPad and then one of those DJs would turn it on me, and Joel would be closer to the door, and I’d be more into the room, then they’d turn the iPad towards Joel…
WMCN: That’s so fire. It’s kind of a cramped station, not gonna lie.
Joel: I mean, it’s fun. I like that.
WMCN: It’s cozy. I don’t mind it. I’m sure nothing has changed since you guys have been there. It’s home. Are there any underrated Twin Cities bands that you guys want to shout out?
Joel: Big Strong!
Winnie: Yeah, Big Strong. They don’t have a social media presence because they don’t want to do it. They’re really good, and they’re made up of like three to five different people, depends on the night. Most of them got their jazz masters degree in Duluth. They do really cool, weird, repetitive stuff that’s almost minimalist in nature, but then they build on it in really beautiful ways. When I first saw them, I saw them at Eagles 34. it’s kind of super divey, and you’re not expecting to see anything that’s gonna wow you, but I remember sitting down on the floor because I was so moved that I was like, “I just need to sit and experience this.” So when I listen to Big Strong, it feels like I’m swimming. They don’t have mics on stage, and so they’re always yelling, like, “THIS IS OUR LAST SONG!” It’s really fun. It’s cute. I gotta shout out my favorite band in the cities, Folk Field, who are about to release their debut record. It’s made up of some good friends of mine, the drummer who used to drum in Mile High Club, and then the guitarist and songwriter and and vocalist Emily. She’s got all these like really awesome, very playful effects. I love them. Shout out. We’ve got several friends in the band Third Date, and I love them so much. They just write really catchy bangers for sad indie nights, and I get to play clarinet with them sometimes, which is fun. Any other bands that come to mind?
Joel: When someone asks me that, I don’t remember anything about any band ever. Luckily, I’ve got you.
Winnie: I’m friends with some folks in a newer band called Flora Moon, and they do synth pop, but it’s really cool and interesting. I met one of them in jazz theory class, and they ended up graduating with a degree in ethno-diesecology, and they’re just a really, really talented pianist. So recently, they’ve shifted their focus from classical and jazz piano to synthesizers, and they’re creating really cool textures. And then their sibling, the other half of the duo, is a cellist and a bassist and a vocalist, so when they do live sets, it’s like this amalgamation of synth and pop and vocal hooks, and it’s really great.
Joel: I told you about Falcon Arrow earlier. I keep thinking about their set.
WMCN: I guess my last official question is a bit trite but necessary: where did the name come from?
Winnie: I mentioned this earlier, but I’m from Idaho, specifically right on the border of Idaho and Washington. That county is known as Latah County. The wider area is known as the Palouse. There’s a saying around that area: “The rolling hills of the Palouse,” because you have all of these really beautiful farm fields and forested areas, and it just gently rolls. And, being in Idaho, specifically the Palouse area, it just feels like no other place to me. It’s so beautiful, and my family owns a little farm outside of Pullman, Washington, and I remember when I was young, and we were living close to the farm, I remember looking out over this landscape and thinking, “oh, this is this is one big quilt over the body of the earth”, and that kind of stuck with me because even at age, like six or so, I had this image of looking out. I’m picturing it in my head because it’s a special place. It’s, like, on this winding back road towards the farm. It’s so beautiful. And I had this thought, and it’s just stuck with me over the years. So when Joel and I were thinking about a name for the project, I brought up my notes app list of things, and I was saying all these things. And Joel was like, “Hey, that’s a cool one. I like that one.” And I was like, “Cool, yeah, we’ll stick in the back pocket. Let me show you what else I got!” But that one just kind of stuck from the get-go, and now it feels really right. So that’s where one big quilt comes from.
WMCN: Cool. Is there anything else that you guys want to add about yourselves?
Joel: As soon as we have the money, we’ve got another album that’s all ready to go. Part of the reason we wanted to record live is because it’s easier, and because I wanted to make a full length album. We could spend a whole weekend on two songs and make them sound really, really specific. But also, our sound is live anyway, and it’s so much easier. I’ve done this in the past where it’s been two ten-hour days just tracking drums, and that was less than we did. So doing it live…it’s cheaper. Takes less time.
Winnie: So we’ll probably do that again.
Joel: I mean, we’ve kind of toyed around with the idea of adding another member or you know doing some weird stuff on a recorded album version, or playing something different live, but that just doesn’t feel the same, you know. I don’t know if it would feel like One Big Quilt, right? I’m not opposed to that idea in concept, but I think maybe I’d do it for a different project, honestly. Anyway, sometimes people are like, “Oh, you’re just two people. How does that work?” Just like…actually easier.
Winnie: Somebody just emailed us, like a music review collective, and they emailed us some questions because they’re like, “Hey, we’ve been listening to your album, it’s really good,” like, all these things, and one of the questions was, “What are the challenges of being a two piece?” And honestly, it’s really easy. We can take one car to the gig with all of our shit, and we fit an entire drum kit and all my stuff and both of us and still have some room for backpacks and things. Well, because…
Joel: I drive a Prius. Yes, I have to talk about it constantly.
Winnie: I don’t think there’s a challenge in being a two-piece. In Joel’s answer to this question on the email, he’s said that both of our play styles are pretty dense, so it feels like we really allow each other the room to play. I’ve jammed as a duo with other people in the past, and it feels like we’re missing something. But it has never really felt like we’ve been missing anything because of the way that we do this game. I mean, vocals help, and having a big pedal board helps.
Joel: That’s very true.
WMCN: Yay! Thank you guys so much!
One Big Quilt is made up of a guitarist, Winnie (they/she) and a drummer, Joel (he/they). Their newest album, “Vertical Farming,” can be found on streaming (except Spotify). Their next show is Nov. 2 at Memory Lanes.
