Stefanie Blondal Johnson is a name and voice that music nerds should take note of. 

As one half of the indie rock/pop duo Mise en Scene, Johnson’s chiming rhythmic guitar work and lyrics full of longing brought acclaim to the group’s 2012 LP Desire’s Despair. The group has since toured extensively across North America, Europe and the United Kingdom. 

Johnson and her husband Tomáš Kubalčík’s have called their Crescentwood house home for a little over a year. The house is full of antiques and artwork the two have collected over the years, and they’re thrilled to finally have a house to decorate with them. 

“The amount of things that would come home from Value Village,” Johnson says, laughing in her living room, “and my mom would be like, ‘Why did you buy this?’ ‘Because one day I’m going to have a house where I can put it somewhere and it’ll work.’” 

“Stef and I are similar in the ways we’ve been accumulating shit over the years,” Kubalčík says. “I’m originally from Australia, but even in my travels, I’m like, ‘Fuck it. No matter how much this costs to ship here, I’m getting it.’” 

That ethic has paid off. Both artists and musicians, their house now boasts a home studio and a functioning darkroom.

 

1) MINI 

Kubalčík: “My first car was a ’72 Mini, and I just got the bug. I had this one when I was living in Ireland and had it shipped to Canada when I came here.” 

 

2) SARANOHAIR 

Johnson: “Saranohair is a book my aunt (Gillian Johnson) wrote about me and my sister a long time ago. She’s a wonderful illustrator. She just came out with a book called How to Draw Everything that’s really amazing. I actually become a hat in this book.”

 

3) BASEMENT PAINTING AND FIREPLACE 

Johnson: “When Jodi (Dunlop, drummer for Mise en Scene) and I were at the Banff Centre writing music, this painter lady saw us and loved us. She wanted to paint us. When she found out Tom and I were getting married, she sent me a painting.” 

 

4) RECORD COLLECTION 

Johnson: “We keep our records in this cabinet. We found this little record player out of town for like $40.” 

 

5) CATS (HANK AND SAL) 

Kubalčík: “We just treat them like roommates.” 

 

6) BEDROOM DESK WITH ANTIQUE TELEPHONE 

Johnson: “We had this desk in the studio, but there was no room to jam or do anything, so we moved it to the bedroom. Having it here is my attempt at writing more. I got that phone at a secondhand place when I was 13-years-old. It still works, but it doesn’t hang up.”

Published in Volume 70, Number 7 of The Uniter (October 22, 2015)