Adrianne Lenker on Big Thief's evolution and the making of Double Infinity
After losing a founding member, the new chapter of Big Thief is all about open-hearted collaboration. (Supplied: Big Thief/Daniel Arnold)
Greek philosopher Heraclitus told us 2,500 years ago that change was a constant. Yet humans still tend to find flux deeply uncomfortable.
Revered Brooklyn indie rock band Big Thief understand change — its challenges and its benefits — intimately.
Their ever-evolving take on folk-inflected indie rock demands comfort with shifting sounds and moods. Each member's restless creative nature means they are always eager to make art beyond the band they share.
Big Thief wanted an "ecstatic feeling" to run through their sixth album, Double Infinity. (Supplied: 4AD/Remote Control)
While change is constant in their lives and their creative work, Big Thief remains a kind of grounding force that drives everything they do.
"Every time we go off and do our own solo things and do other projects, it feeds back into our band," frontwoman Adrianne Lenker tells Double J's Karen Leng.
"We take all the things that we learn, and we inevitably just grow and get better as musicians from each project. I think that always ends up coming back and filling up the Big Thief cup."
Even by their standards, the past couple of years have been especially disruptive. Founding bassist Max Oleartchik left the band last year for interpersonal reasons.
"Our love for each other is infinite, and we are so grateful for all we have shared these many years together since the beginning of our journey as a band," the group wrote on social media.
"We wouldn't be who we are without Max. This separation marks the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one for Big Thief."
That new era meant the core trio — Lenker, drummer James Krivchenia, guitarist Buck Meek — had to reimagine what their next statement would sound like without Oleartchik's significant musical contributions.
"It was a big emotional split for the band, and we needed a lot of time to regroup as the three of us and sort of ground down," Krivchenia tells Double J.
"We did a lot of writing and a lot of talking, and just kept growing this pile [of songs], trying to find what the centre of gravity for the next record was going to be.
"Slowly there started to be this conglomeration of songs, where it's like, 'This feels kind of like the core.'"
Key elements: collaboration, drones, laughter
That core became Double Infinity, a lean collection of nine songs that contrasts the sprawling ambition of 2022's Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You.
Though the band has formally shrunk to three members, the album thrives on collaboration.
Double Infinity is Big Thief's first album as a trio. (Supplied: Genesis Baez)
A large cast of musicians joined the trio at New York's legendary Power Station studios, working over three weeks to bring their songs to life.
The ensemble gathered each afternoon and played late into the night, chasing a kind of transcendent jubilance they felt was embedded in the material.
"I feel like all these songs really lend themselves to the arrangements that we were envisioning, in terms of having this bigger band," Lenker says.
"We wanted this ecstatic feeling and this high frequency, like some momentum on the album."
They also wanted a drone element to subtly thread through the record — a sonic undercurrent that supported the arrangements without drawing attention.
"I think the through line and what connects a lot of these songs is either an element of trance or drone," Lenker says.
"Maybe it's happening underneath it all, and you don't even notice it, but that is happening on the whole album. If a song didn't lend itself to that, it didn't make the cut.
"So many of the songs that we had to cut, we loved just as much, but they just didn't fit this vibe, with all these musicians and what we were going for."
Some of that drone comes courtesy of ambient and new age pioneer Laraaji, who entered the band's orbit in a fittingly mystical way.
"Adrianne got his business card when they were jamming together during a lunar eclipse on a mountain at a music festival," Krivchenia says.
"We had all been fans of his work for a while. We've been to some of his laughter workshops at festivals and been fans of his records and seen him play a lot."
Big Thief invited a lot of friends to play with them on Double Infinity. (Supplied: Genesis Báez)
When the idea of building a larger band emerged, Laraaji's name came up — and it made sense.
"When we were thinking about it, building this big band, we were like, 'We need a droner.' Once Laraaji's name got thrown into this circle, we're just like, 'Of course.'"
His musicality matched the band's vision, and his presence brought something deeper.
"I've only really heard him play alone, so I was curious what he would be like with other people," Krivchenia says.
"But also, knowing him a little bit through being in his laughter workshops and seeing him play live, he seems like a really interesting presence that we could probably learn a lot from in the studio for three weeks. Sign me up for that."
Laughter meditation is one of Laraaji's trademarks. While he did not lead any sessions during recording, Big Thief had already felt their power.
"I did take one of his laughter workshops in Kerrville, at the Kerrville Folk Festival, and it was awesome," Lenker says.
"He teaches you to laugh from all the different parts of your body," Krivchenia says. "You're learning these techniques, sort of a schematic experience of laughter. Also, people are just bursting out into real laughter because it's also contagious. It's a very beautiful thing, you're learning about your body, but you're also just cracking up."
Loading...Big Thief's music runs the emotional gamut — any fan who has not shed a tear or stifled a chuckle is probably not paying attention. That "ecstatic feeling" they were chasing notably found its way into the third single, Los Angeles, which opens with a patchwork of laughter, preserving the joy of the session.
"That was a real moment of us bursting out laughing," Lenker recalls.
"It was kind of like a domino effect where everyone just started laughing and then we were like kicking into the song. We all lost our headphones during that take, and it didn't even matter."
It was emblematic of the spirit that ran through the Double Infinity sessions: fun, open-hearted and deeply present.
"There was just this spirit," Lenker says. "I feel like everyone left their stuff at the door and everyone just was there to be very present and put their best foot forward. To open their hearts to the music.
"It made for quite a joyous experience. I just felt like everyone was right there, like we were having a musical conversation, and no one was really analysing it."
Change — like the sky, like the leaves, like a butterfly
Big Thief made some big changes on the road to Double Infinity, but change has always been part of their story.
"It's kind of hard to have any perspective," Krivchenia says. "It all feels like this churning, changing thing.
"I feel like everything we've ever done, every tour, every year that goes by, you're always like, 'Whoa, we're different', or, 'We're levelling up', or there's some emotional breakthrough in a talk we had.
"There's all these little points along the way where, like, 'that was actually really big', but was kind of hard to feel in the moment.
"I hope every record sort of feels like a new chapter in some way. I don't want to be retreading unless that's the goal."
Double Infinity is out now.
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