{"id":120637,"date":"2025-08-05T10:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120637\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:35:10","slug":"how-big-thief-found-a-new-flow-and-entered-double-infinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120637\/","title":{"rendered":"How Big Thief found a new flow and entered \u2018Double Infinity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cM<\/strong>usic and songs, for me, have always been a balm and a really healing thing to make,\u201d explains Adrianne Lenker<\/a>. She\u2019s setting out the central goal of Big Thief<\/a>\u2019s new album, \u2018Double Infinity\u2019, while sprawled almost horizontally across the sofa in a North London hotel room.<\/p>\n

Extremely jet-lagged, she apologises several times for going off topic over the course of our conversation today \u2013 often returning to the concept of high and low frequencies, and how the former has the power to lift her out of the shadowy depths. \u201cThere\u2019s clouds out there right now,\u201d she says at one point, gesturing out of the window. \u201cWhoa, high vibes right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those high vibes are evident in the band\u2019s sixth album, due out September 5,\u00a0 which has been two years in the making. Along the way, they parted ways with their original bassist Max Oleartchik<\/a> and had to adapt as they continued to play live, write and record. It makes sense, then, that transformation \u2013 and approaching change as something to be embraced rather than feared \u2013 is a recurring theme in \u2018Double Infinity\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s unfolding, we\u2019re all insane,\u201d Lenker sings on \u2018Grandmother\u2019, dancing in a bar she claims is destined to disappear in a slightly apocalyptic fashion. \u201cWe are made of love, we are also made of pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing people with you through the darkness and drawing on love as a salve to all of the world\u2019s destruction also crop up often. \u201cLove is just a name\/It\u2019s a thing we say for what pulls through,\u201d Lenker sings on standout \u2018All Night, All Day\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone we love will die, everything we know will die, everything will be gone,\u201d she says. \u201cWe also have to let go of our own bodies. There\u2019s not a single thing we can hold on to, and yet we\u2019re given these incredible mechanisms for loving. I often wonder, why are we given these mechanisms for feeling and perceiving the way we do, and for asking questions the way we do? It seems like an incredible waste of energy if it were just random.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe in a higher, grander thing that is beyond my comprehension,\u201d she ponders. \u201cAnd I do think that stillness and change are strange and interesting subjects\u2026 because it seems that change is the only constant, and yet there might be a constant even beneath the change that\u2019s actually still. But even my perception of what that stillness is is changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up until it was recorded last winter at the Power Station in New York, \u2018Double Infinity\u2019 was still in flux. Though the band had tried out a number of different approaches and arrangements, very little was coming together easily or intuitively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we often have a pretty focused intention leading up to when we actually arrive to record,\u201d says drummer James Krivchenia. But this one, he explains, \u201cwent through some conceptual rigmarole\u201d first.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a single thing we can hold on to, and yet we\u2019re given these incredible mechanisms for loving\u201d \u2013\u00a0Adrianne Lenker<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOriginally, we all kind of agreed we wanted to make a heavy rock album. That was the first concept,\u201d says bandmate Buck Meek. \u201cIn the process [of making the album], we had let go of Max, our bass player of 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Big Thief were building themselves a \u201clittle ramshackle studio\u201d out in the middle of the woods, in a location they\u2019ll only cryptically describe as in the northeast US.\u00a0 They always imagined they would record \u2018Double Infinity\u2019 there \u2013 utilising the seclusion that helped them to make their 2019 album \u2018U.F.O.F\u2019 (recorded in a cabin in rural Washington) or 2022\u2019s \u2018Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You\u2019<\/a>, with its four remote locations. But when they returned to tried-and-tested methods, hunkering down in nature and working in a bubble, something was off. Meek sums it up: \u201cBasically, we were in isolation, out in the woods, feeling stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

T<\/strong>hough this band first started with Meek and Lenker \u2013 who hit it off at a show in Boston, and first began performing as a duo \u2013 Oleartchik had been on the scene since the beginning of Big Thief, and appears on every single studio album aside from \u2018Double Infinity\u2019. Originally a jazz bassist, with a free-flowing, improvisational style, he was a core part of the Big Thief sound. He also weathered the band\u2019s previous ups and downs, including Meek and Lenker\u2019s divorce in 2018 (though the pair seem beyond-amicable these days, they understandably took some time away from touring together when the split was fresh) as well as the cancellation of their planned show in his hometown of Tel Aviv<\/a> back in 2022, amid mounting criticism of Israel\u2019s conflict with Palestine.<\/p>\n

Fans have speculated that the bassist may have left the band due to differing political views towards the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, but \u2018Double Infinity\u2019 sheds very little light on the situation. Since Oleartchik\u2019s departure last year, the band have also not elaborated further on why they parted ways, simply citing \u201cinterpersonal reasons\u201d in a statement. A year on, are Big Thief willing to discuss the reasons for the split in more depth?<\/p>\n

\"BigBig Thief credit Genesis B\u00e1ez<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t go into it because they are just very personal, and I don\u2019t think it would serve anyone to publicise those personal reasons,\u201d says Lenker, choosing her words carefully. Still, the band are happy to discuss how they\u2019ve found readjusting to their new dynamic as a trio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard, and there\u2019s a lot of grief in it, because it was a partnership, in a real, very deep way,\u201d Lenker continues, unprompted. \u201cIt was 10 years of living together and doing everything together, and then it was a really difficult breakup. It was really hard to go through that transition, but ultimately, I think it\u2019s better for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFiguring out what the triangle was, after we broke up with Max, I feel, is such a big part of the \u2018Double Infinity\u2019 sound,\u201d says Krivchenia. \u201cAnd it\u2019s also why we duffed it a couple times, too \u2013 I think just because we were learning. When we did a session as a trio, still pretty far after the breakup, we were like, \u2018This will be great, right?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The trio soon realised they needed to \u201cchart a new course\u201d. Krivchenia outlines their thinking: \u201cLet\u2019s open the doors a little bit, get these people in and the air flowing through, and not tighten down into this little ball making our way through the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c\u2018Double Infinity\u2019 is like shouting from the mountain, these deepest things, all the way into the sky, and all the way into the core of the earth\u201d \u2013\u00a0Adrianne Lenker<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is more or less how Big Thief ended up in Manhattan instead, recording \u2018Double Infinity\u2019 in the bustling city with a revolving door of close friends. Ginla\u2019s Jon Nellen, Natural Information Society\u2019s Mikel Patrick Avery, and new-age multi-instrumentalist Laraaji all feature on the album.<\/p>\n

\u2018Double Infinity\u2019 ultimately feels like a Big Thief and Friends album, the band rejuvenated by new creative voices following more sparing collaborations in the past. Lenker personally enjoyed working with singers Alena Spanger, Hannah Cohen and June McDoom. After years of mostly performing solo or alongside Big Thief, unlocking new harmonies and having her voice \u201ccushioned by these angels\u201d brought an interesting dimension. Throughout the process, the three vocalists made a habit of getting \u201ca little witchy\u201d, lighting incense and recording under many layers of cosy blankets in their own separate room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like, super fluid, [but]\u2026 we had our ladies\u2019 vibe!\u201d she recalls. \u201cHannah was calling us \u2018the goyles\u2019 and it kind of brought that out of me! I feel masculine a lot, and I feel very fluid. I change, and I\u2019m always different. Some days I\u2019m this, and some days I\u2019m that, but I was leaning into this feeling. I was being brought out. It was powerful, and it felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the three-week recording of \u2018Double Infinity\u2019, the band biked to the studio and played music together with their collaborators for nine hours straight every day, tracking as they went. As a result, there\u2019s a communal, free-flowing feel to the record, which stays on the brighter, more uplifting end of the Big Thief palette.\u00a0\u201c\u2018Double Infinity\u2019 is like shouting from the mountain, these deepest things, all the way into the sky, and all the way into the core of the earth,\u201d Lenker says.<\/p>\n

Gazing back out at the clouds, she offers up a meandering metaphor for \u2018Double Infinity\u2019 as a kind of musical mantra that can help her to \u201cdissolve the lines and the illusion of separateness\u201d between people; a record that can arm her with the courage to state exactly what she needs.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Let\u2019s say the things that we want to create,\u2019\u201d she concludes. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of record we wanted to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big Thief\u2019s \u2018Double Infinity\u2019 is out September 5 via 4AD.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMusic and songs, for me, have always been a balm and a really healing thing to make,\u201d explains…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,22469,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-120637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-indie","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114975717838613970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}