Eighteen months on from their J Award-nominated debut LP, Vacation, Melbourne’s Big Scary are back with a brand new single and a brand new sound.
And brand new methods. When lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Tom Iansek made mention last year of creating music built around hip hop, most local fans hardly took him seriously. There’d be a bit of experimentation, sure, but once the session musicians and producers and mixers had been through, it would be another Big Scary record.
But as it turns out, ‘Luck Now’ is indeed a striking departure. Big Scary’s new single shifts to shuddering drums, fuzzy synths and wandering piano samples. Part Radiohead and perhaps part Four Tet, it’s a multi-dimensional rabbit hole of a song.
“We wanted to let the songs be what they wanted to be,” Iansek explains over the phone from his Melbourne home. “There were moments where we wondered if this is us, and how we were going to recreate it live. There were so many of those questions that popped up. But I just think why sacrifice a good song just because you can’t recreate it live? Or whether it relates to what we’ve done previously. Just let the songs define who we are, in a way.
“Hip hop has been a recent discovery for me, and it wasn’t so much the sound – it was more the philosophy and the production behind it that was the main driver for me. I got into hip hop through the production-before-the-songs approach. That’s what sparked my interest initially. And that’s what sparked the initial idea for the LP.”
Iansek likes the idea of hearing a hip hop song and not knowing exactly what he’s listening to: is it a live drum kit? Or something somebody played live 40 years ago? Getting lost in the question is a turn on for Big Scary.
“I wanted this hybrid of live and sampled beats,” Iansek continues, “and making this weird mix of old and new, which I think hip hop does so well – it’s all about samples of different origins … so there were all those things that got me excited, and helped develop what I wanted the whole album to sound like overall.”
The album he talks about is Not Art, due for release via Pieater and Inertia in late June. And anyone looking for the more conventional rock of Vacation may need to alter their expectations.
“[Luck Now]’s very much in line with the rest of the album. It was just that same approach. That’s what that song wanted to be. I started off with that riff and drumbeat at the start – that’s what I had first, and a few of the piano chords. We tried doing live acoustic drum versions of it, and it was just a different song. So we preferred the way it was and kinda rolled with that.”
Iansek and bandmate Jo Syme didn’t even want live considerations to stand in the way of delivering a song in the studio. Which raises the question: how does a two-piece tackle such complex music in a live setting?
“Actually, today we’re having a rehearsal for the tour and we’re trying to figure out how to play ‘Luck Now’, because it’s baffling us, really,” he laughs. “But we just didn’t worry about that stuff or about how different it was. It was that mindset that carried right through the album this time around.”
Iansek and Syme are about to set off on a clutch of tour dates in support of ‘Luck Now’ and earlier teaser track, ‘Phil Collins’. It will be their first live performances since May last year, and Iansek becomes animated when talking about how the duo have evolved in that time.
“I think our live show is always trying to keep up with what we record,” Iansek says. “It will be completely different and as scary as it is, I think it’s fun to push ourselves live and do things that we’re not completely comfortable with. We’ve got samplers onstage now, and that’s new to us. There’s bound to be some hairy moments during the show where we hit things and sounds don’t come out. But I think that nervous energy will make it fun and keep people on their toes.
“I’m curious to see how they go. We haven’t played ‘Luck Now’ live once. So we’re literally in the studio today, scratching our heads and figuring out how we’re going to do it. It’ll be interesting, and I think we’ll get there. But the good thing is that we’ve got the help of one more person – [multi-instrumentalist] Angus Rigby – who’s helping out on bass and keys and other bits and pieces. We’re looking forward to it.”
Big Scary Tour Dates
Thu Apr 18 — Mojo's Bar (Fremantle) (w/ Caitlin Park)Fri Apr 19 — Amplifier Bar (Perth) (w/ Caitlin Park)
Sat Apr 20 — Jive Bar (Adelaide) (w/ Caitlin Park)
Wed Apr 24 — GoodGod (Sydney) (w/ Caitlin Park)
Fri Apr 26 — Alhambra Lounge (Brisbane) (w/ Caitlin Park)
Sat Apr 27 — The Corner Hotel (Melbourne) (w/ Caitlin Park)
