Big Thief don’t really plan the beautiful chaos — they just let it spill out. Backstage at Forecastle 2017, they’re as calm and intense as their records: all bare-bone takes, tender lyrics, and a heartbeat of noise that could cave your chest in one minute and mend it the next.
“It’s not a discussion, it just presents itself,” says Buck Meek, trying to explain how a band can sound so pretty and so feral at the same time. “Adrienne’s writing… there’s always melody. But no subject is untouchable. The beauty and the ugly stuff — they overlap.”
They like their songs half-alive, half-forming — catch them before they even know what they are. “We value the moment of birth,” Buck says. “A lot of songs, Adrienne taught us the morning of recording. Masterpiece? We learned it three minutes before. We try to catch that first take. Some get revisions, but it’s all about that moment.”
It helps that they’ve barely had a moment off the road to second-guess themselves anyway. “No downtime,” they laugh. “We realized we’re more like astronauts than musicians at this point. It’s an insane way of living — you have to learn the craft of surviving it.”
Surviving it, apparently, has everything to do with that album title too. Capacity isn’t just a word; it’s a daily test. “Love is used in so many ways,” they say, looking like a band that’s been orbiting the same van for months on end. “Being in this band expands my capacity as a human. For patience. For tenderness. For love. Nothing tests you like being in a van with four people you’re dedicated to.”
That’s Big Thief — demo takes that sound like they’re bleeding, intensity that feels human, and songs that catch you right as they’re born. Capacity indeed.
Listen to the interview above and then check out "Shark Smile" below!
