An interview with Timmi Meskers of Garden Gate.

We talk about her life in rural New York, buying a Lowery organ from a local witch and her favorite soundtracks.

Firstly thanks to everyone who has subscribed to Substack over the last few weeks. I’m hoping this will be a place where I can share more about the label and the artists on it. Please subscribe, I intend to always keep it free. First up is a chat I had with Timmi Meskers of Garden Gate. Her new LP Magic Lantern can be preordered from Clay Pipe Music’s Bandcamp and Greedbag stores.

You were born in a small farming town called Lancaster, then moved to Philadelphia in your late teens and have recently moved to an old farmhouse in rural New York. I've probably got an overactive imagination, but last summer I read a book called Harvest Home by Thomas Tyron - and though it is set in Connecticut - I'd love to think you live somewhere like the village of Cornwall Coombe in the book. I'm sure I've got it completely wrong, but could you tell us a little bit about the area where you live?

While I haven't gotten involved with any regional harvest cults (yet!), I went to the estate sale of an elderly woman who recently passed hoping to find a side table, and was surprised to learn that she was the high priestess of an area coven, so there is some unexpected magic afoot here! She had an incredible archive of occult literature and I ended up leaving with a few shopping bags full of books and her old Lowrey Tempest electric organ, which I've cleaned up for use in the studio.

We live outside a harbour community on Lake Ontario, and it’s a lovely mix of different landscapes that have been really enriching to learn about. A large part of regional business relies on environmental tourism, so it tends to be pretty quiet off-season and there are some wonderful stories about haunted lighthouses and lake monsters. Our old farmhouse was built in 1830 and has some character; we are surrounded by corn on all four sides and on full moons, the coyotes sound like ghosts — your imagination might not be so far off! I do find it inspiring and am excited and fortunate to be able to sink deeper into a creative practice here, we planted a pumpkin patch and I can’t wait to see if they grow.

That sounds like quite a haul, I know David Boulter whose records I put out uses a Lowery organ to great effect, and I'm sure you'll be able to do something very atmospheric with it. We grow pumpkins on our allotment here in London, but they don't grow very big - our plot is shaded by a large oak tree. It's funny you should mention being surrounded by corn, as corn plays a big part in Harvest Home. It sounds like a wonderful place to live and be creative in!

How cool to know about David Boulter and the Lowrey connection, I'll listen to those recordings with fresh ears now knowing that! I love that you have a pumpkin patch in London as well, it sounds so nice — I used to spend a lot of time there with my old job, it's such a magical place and I will say that I really miss it there! I tried growing pumpkins on my old roof in Philadelphia, but I'm afraid the sun was a bit much for them there.

When you were in Philadelphia I know you played in various bands including Brown Recluse and White Candles, was there a supportive music scene in Philadelphia at that time?

Philadelphia has an amazingly supportive music scene and I’m so lucky to have spent the time there that I did. DIY house shows galleries and even the cemeteries have incredible programming there…There’s a determination and resilience in Philadelphia that definitely shines through its arts and artists.

As well as being a musician you also make some great collage images most notably for your album covers, could you tell me a little about these?

Thank you for your very kind words! I love the tactile nature of collage and the way you can decontextualize images from different periods to create something sort of new and unfamiliar. I grew up reading tarot and I think that has given me an appreciation of symbolism and a semantic foundation to build from in my visual art practice. There is often a specific theme or message that I want to convey in a collage, and it's a special kind of puzzle to figure out how I can represent that using the images I have available.

They are great, it's a long time since I experimented with college in my own work, it may be something I need to try again.

I love the way you tell stories with your album covers and would be so curious to see how that translated to collage!

A lot of people who follow the label are musicians themselves and are interested in the production methods used in the releases. Do you have any rare instruments or synths you could tell us about?

I love that about the community, I do have a bit of a gear collection! I am really fond of the Yamaha CS-15 and CS-15D and they've been featured the most heavily in my work from a synth standpoint, I think they handle both ferocious and delicate with equal panache. The Roland TR77 drum machine is on a lot of the recordings as well, and I love the tones you can get out of it. Most recently I got a Moog Matriarch, and am thrillingly out of my depth.

A lot of your music has been soundtrack-based, what are some of your favourite movies? and are there any in particular, that have inspired your music?

This is a wonderful question and I love talking about movies. Here are a few all-time favourites from the top of my mind:

• Day for Night (1973, François Truffaut)

• Fanny & Alexander (1982, Ingmar Bergman)

• Desert Hearts (1985, Donna Deitch)

• Hellraiser (1988, Clive Barker)

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, Céline Sciamma)

I don't know what was in Bruno Nicolai's water in 1972, but his scores for 'Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key' and 'The Red Queen Kills Seven Times' both came out that year and have some gold standard themes.

I really love Bernard Herrmann's work for Alfred Hitchcock and his ability to move between the sentimental and chilling is frankly aspirational. From a contemporary standpoint I'm always inspired by the way Peter Strickland uses music and sound in his films, and was deeply moved by the baroque sensuality of The Duke of Burgundy (I'm a big fan of Rachel Zeffira’s work and loved the Cat's Eyes score).

I would be curious to hear what some of your favourite movies are as well, and whether there are any soundtracks that have really resonated with you?

What a great answer. I know you talked about Fanny and Alexander at the listening party, I've never seen it, so it is one for me to check out.

I totally agree with you about Peter Strickland, the Cat's Eyes score is probably one of my favourite pieces of music ever, I never get tired of it. We've also recently been listening to the Cavern of Anti-Mater soundtrack to In Fabric - which is also great. I've always liked the British Kitchen Sink dramas of the 1960s, so things like Up The Junction, and Taste of Honey have been favourites for a very long time. I suppose it is probably an obvious one but the Wickerman and its soundtrack, more recently, I thought The Witch was amazing - it conjured up the bleakness and fear of what it must have been like being an early settler and going into the unknown and all the terrors that surround it.

Thanks for sharing these, I agree about Cat's Eyes and Wickerman! I hope you like Fanny & Alexander if you get a chance to check it out, it's lengthy but in my opinion worth the investment. Up The Junction and Taste of Honey are off my radar and I'll have to add them to my list, right under Harvest Home.