Big Thief hit the road for a month-long US tour today, and in conjunction with the tour launch, the indie favorites have released a lovely new single, “Certainty,” which features harmonies from Hannah Cohen and was written during a three-day power outage while recording at Sam Evian’s Flying Cloud Studios in the Catskills. The track follows “Sparrow” and “Little Things,” which dropped earlier in August.
“On the third day of the outage, I found Adrianne on the porch writing a new song, so I sat with her and we finished it together, with the rain falling from the gutters splashing over our guitars,” band member Buck Meek said. “James and Sam saw us writing, and quickly set up a four-track tape machine in the kitchen, powered by the F250 cigarette lighter out in the yard. They set up the drums by the sink, and Max plugged his bass into a bluetooth speaker set on top of the stove. Take two had a great bark from Sam and Hannah’s pup Jan during the solo, but we ended up going with take three because it took us about that long to learn the chords. Then we made pancakes and sausages and ate breakfast for dinner.”
In 2019, Big Thief released two critically acclaimed albums, Two Hands and U.F.O.F. They’ve been working on their fifth album over the past year. Meek, who is also working on a solo album to follow 2021’s Two Saviors, told Guitar.com, “Lockdown was a well-needed respite, I needed a break. And then Big Thief ended up making new music for nearly six months, which was really nice because we’ve been touring so hard we’ve had little chance to record in the last couple of years.”
Listen to “Certainty” above.
