Copyright The Austin Chronicle
“Double Infinity was one confident brushstroke, very intuitive, and very little thought,” says Buck Meek, Big Thief’s Texan lead guitarist, of the alternative rock group’s 2025 LP. The now-trio has been playing together for a decade, yet each new release strikes a different cohesive tone, their sound seeming to grow alongside its creators. “It was a very quick, intuitive process, and an effort to trust our intuition, both improvisationally and also [in the] recording production process,” Meek says of their September record. Previously noted for their seclusionary recording practices – holing up in often-remote locales and recording primarily with the four founding band members, as they did for their 2022 album – the band’s latest release, recorded at the Power Station in the bustling heart of Manhattan, takes a new turn. “We were playing with a big band in a room, and everyone was hearing the songs for the first time in front of microphones and responding to that together.” Their sixth studio album also marks a dramatic change in the band’s makeup: Founding bassist Max Oleartchik departed the group last year. On the album, and on the road, Meek, lead vocalist Adrianne Lenker, and drummer James Krivchenia are now joined on bass by Joshua Crumbly, a jazz-trained musician who records improvised ambient tracks under his own name. “We’ve been learning a lot playing with him,” Meek says. The change inspired new musical approaches for the close-knit triad even before the tracks made it to the studio. “We actually wrote a handful of songs together from scratch for the first time as a band,” Meek says. Penning lyrics as a group for “Grandmother” and parts of “Los Angeles” was a diversion from their typical Lenker-led compositional path and, Meek says, a way of deepening their creative relationship. “It felt like this new sense of discovery that we were making together, getting to know each other, and a new sense of trust,” Meek says. Even about 10 years in, the band still finds ways to surprise each other. For example, despite Krivchenia’s solo work eschewing structure and conventional melody for experimental production and unconventional percussion, he’s now expressed a knack for refrains. “He has a really poppy compass,” Meek says. “He often was really helpful in coming up with the chorus hook.” Taking the songs out of the studio and onto the stage, improvisation remains at the forefront of the group’s playing. “We change the arrangements on the fly quite a bit,” Meek says. “We write a new set list every night, everything we can do to keep ourselves present and really listening with open ears to each other.” For the Houston-born, Wimberley-raised guitarist, that impulse for freewheeling playing paired attentive listening and cogent songwriting was cultivated by jazz-influenced Texas musicians and folk songwriters: “Slim Richey was a big teacher of mine, and Django Porter and Brandon Gist.” Meek credits them and many other Austin-area musicians with establishing his sonic sensibilities. Beyond his stylistic underpinnings, Meek sees the Hill Country’s hard limestone bedrock and the sun-warmed hospitality of the people living on it as a foundation for his creative expression. Following the band’s stop in Austin, Big Thief will play at 7A Ranch Opera House, along the Blanco River where Meek spent many childhood afternoons, to support the Watershed Association. “I definitely feel the most myself in Texas, elementally,” Meek says. “There’s this sense of resiliency in that harsh environment that is very humbling and creates this sense of openness and softness in the people that I’ve always really loved. I feel that definitely influences the music.” This article appears in October 31 • 2025.
