It’s been three years since prolific band Big Thief released two LPs, Two Hands and U.F.O.F, just months apart from each other. Vocalist Adrianne Lenker has since released a solo project of her own, and guitarist Buck Meek is also recently debuted his sophomore solo LP Two Saviors. But that’s left fans wondering when the next time they’ll hear new Big Thief music is. Fortunately, Buck Meek has revealed that it won’t be too long from now.
Buck Meek sat down for an interview with Guitar where he discussed his unique guitar playing style, while offering insight into the status of Big Thief’s fifth studio album. The musician said the record is “pretty much done” and sounds “certainly different” from their last release. “Lockdown was a well-needed respite, I needed a break,” he said. “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.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Meek praised Lenker’s songwriting abilities:
“I loved her sense of invention. She works in so many alternate tunings, a new tuning almost every time she writes a song. Her sense of rhythm is so strong and fluid, with so many interweaving picking patterns and a complex sense of harmony, but all centered around the song. She’s constantly changing time signatures, but it doesn’t feel contrived, it moves with so much swing. Her rhythm is very straight, like a train. Coming from a ragtime and Western Swing background, my approach is more syncopated, I play behind the beat. That was one of the first moments of excitement for us, combining those two feels.”
Two Saviors is out now via Keeled Scales. Get it here.
