For their fifth album, Big Thief are going even bigger. In a new interview with Mojo, the indie rock quartet said that their upcoming studio set is 20 songs long and will be presented as a double-disc album.
That’s a lot of music, especially since the band just released two interesting albums in 2019. The majority of the songwriting took place in July 2020, during a blistering two-week quarantine in the Vermont woods. “We accumulated so many songs that we loved, maybe about 50,” vocalist Adrianne Lenker said. “20 could be whittled down to 12, but not 50.”
According to guitarist Buck Meek, they were guided by “focusing on different chunks of songs… that were stylistically, or thematically, connected. Like, we could just play country music for two weeks and not think about the rock songs.”
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From there, refining and recording took place in four separate sessions: at Sam Evian’s Flying Cloud studio in upstate New York, at Jonathan Dixon’s Five Star Studio in California with engineer Shawn Everett, at the Studio in the Clouds in Colorado with engineer Dom Monks, and at Press On in Tucson, Arizona with engineer Scott McMicken. Production was handled in-band by Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia.
Lenker said there were three kinds of sessions: “bombastic and wild, and hi-fi,” “raw and no fat, just songs, and acoustic,” and “more serene, internal and reflective.” She added, “I’ve noticed that a lot of this record is more uplifting and hopeful, which is funny, given the times we’re in. And there’s more acceptance, of the self and of the whole paradigm we’re in. The mysteries of humanity and how it’s all unfolding. I’ll probably be writing about that until I die!”
The double album is expected to feature Big Thief’s three recent singles — “Certainty,” “Little Things,” and “Sparrow,” –– as well as the unreleased live favorites “Spud Infinity,” and “Red Moon.”
Big Thief recently wrapped a US tour, which included a stop at Governors Ball, and early next year they’ll be sweeping through Europe. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
