Big Thief on ‘Double Infinity,’ the Band ‘Breakup’ and Rejecting ‘Icky’ Opportunities: ‘What People Want Is the Very Thing They Ask You to Sacrifice’

Big Thief has long been described as a single entity with four distinct parts. During a recent interview at a Brooklyn park, the folk-rock band's members demonstrated this deep connection, their bodies intertwined and their sentences overlapping as they constructed a complex tapestry of shared ideas. At one point, singer Adrianne Lenker simply uttered the name "Alexander," a single-word request for guitarist Buck Meek to remove his blue-tinted sunglasses so she could see his eyes—a request he instantly understood. This intuitive dynamic was tested last year when the group parted ways with bassist Max Oleartchik. Rather than mourn the loss, the band chose to evolve, transforming their very structure for their sixth album, "Double Infinity."

The creation of "Double Infinity" was an act of deliberate expansion. The band invited ten additional musicians into the studio, including percussionists, vocalists, jazz instrumentalists, and the noted New Age artist Laraaji, whose work with ambient pioneer Brian Eno in the late 1970s helped define the genre. While the album retains Big Thief's signature earthy, folk-infused core, it is now layered with intricate rhythmic tapestries and an exotic flair. Drummer James Krivchenia, wearing a tattered blue hoodie and round sunglasses reminiscent of John Lennon, explained the philosophy: "We wanted to push into the change and not hold on to something that isn’t there." The result is a fascinating and often strange record where Lenker's delicate warble drifts over drones, tape loops, and Laraaji's ethereal chants.

The album's sonic experiments are pronounced. On the track "Words," Meek launches into a frantic guitar solo that contorts his instrument into something resembling a sped-up, distorted sitar. The low end is now anchored by touring bassist Joshua Crumbly, whose hypnotic groove drives the song "No Fear." When asked if Oleartchik's departure is permanent, Lenker initially hesitates, covering her eyes with Meek's sunglasses before admitting, "It feels permanent. It’s just weird to say." Her bandmates immediately concur, solidifying the sense of a definitive, though difficult, transition.

The band recorded "Double Infinity" during the winter, embracing daily bike rides from Brooklyn to a studio in Hell's Kitchen through the freezing cold. Recording in New York was deeply significant; it's the city where, over a decade ago, Lenker and Meek met, fell in love, and formed a band that would ultimately outlast their marriage, a journey chronicled in their song "Los Angeles." In those early days, the duo lived on a concrete floor in a "slumlord artist house" in Bushwick. Lenker worked polishing silverware on the Upper West Side while Meek was a bike courier. They saved $3,500 to buy a van named Bonnie and booked tours across the East Coast, often playing dive bars and backyards at a financial loss. "But I always felt so rich," Lenker recalls, emphasizing that no broken equipment or van trouble could stop them from playing. "Connecting with the infinite," she adds, "nobody can take that away."

Now, after years of critical acclaim and relentless touring, Big Thief is experiencing its largest commercial success, having just played the iconic Hollywood Bowl—a 17,500-seat venue that has hosted legends from The Beatles to Beyoncé—with a show at Queens' Forest Hills Stadium on the horizon. With this growth comes the pressure to become a business. Lenker states it is their duty to "protect the heart at the center of our music," a commitment that involves three-hour Monday meetings where they dissect opportunities and reject those that feel "icky." She likens the process to "slicing energies" away with an invisible sword. The band has consistently resisted the commodification of their art, turning down lucrative offers like a Levi's commercial and a proposed Harley Davidson partnership that would have involved a film crew documenting a motorcycle ride to SXSW. As music industry analyst Dr. Anya Sharma notes, "This level of artistic integrity is rare at their stage of success; it requires a unified front and a clear, shared vision." Meek adds, "What people want is the very thing they ask you to sacrifice. We want to be making records and playing shows together for the rest of our lives. We put a lot of thought into protecting that." With that, he playfully retrieved his sunglasses from Lenker, a small, familiar gesture underscoring the bond that protects their music from everything but itself.