Ahead of their return to the city, supporting Pixies on their tour as they hit O2 Academy Leeds, Yorkshire Coast Gigs had a chat with Joe Hicklin and Callum Moloney from Big Special, talking about their recent festival dates, from Stockton Calling to South by Southwest; their philosophy, and what the learning curve has been like for the past year, touring and releasing their debut album.
Big Special are refreshingly down to earth about the strangeness of doing interviews; “Now people actually want to talk to you about your music instead of trying to beg people to listen,” says Cal. And it’s no wonder; Big Special offer a refreshing voice and distinct sound that is needed in our world today. Two artists from the Midlands, Cal and Joe, they have had a string of hits including Desperate Breakfast, This Here Ain’t Water, and Shithouse, with their debut album, Postindustrial Hometown Blues, recently being released in a deluxe edition with remixes by Sleaford Mods, Andy Bell, Public Service Broadcasting, Robbie Major, and Three Quarter Skies.
They write about “desperation and struggle, about a Britain in decline, about finding pride in your darkest moments, about how the real class war in the UK is always punching downwards. Theirs are songs of hope, and despair, and more hope, because, ultimately, good people win. Songs that channel that voice you hear when you look in the mirror and see your true self – fight songs for a world gone wrong.” Listening to their songs for yourself, you’ll likely be drawn in by the energy and intensity and stay for the lyrical brilliance and captivating rhythms.
Supporting Pixies on tour, they visit O2 Academy, Leeds, on 19th May; the tour has been steadily selling out, with the Leeds gig sold out for some time now. They were in the city earlier this year for their own headliner at The Brudenell, and Cal reveals that Leeds is probably their second most-gigged city outside of home turf around Birmingham. In fact, they both contend to this day that one of their early Leeds venues, Oporto Bar, has the best Guinness they’ve found. “It’s a great gaff, that”.
The duo have had a consistent touring schedule for several months, feeling like they’ve been somewhere every weekend since January; and when we speak they’ve just come off a run to Stockton Calling, where a string of Yorkshire Coast acts like Sunbeam and Avalanche Party were also on the line up. “We met the Avalanche Party lot, they were on just before us, actually; I’d heard the name but not listened to them before – they were proper epic! The whole room was going off for that, they were a great warm up band!” enthuses Cal. They were also convinced that everyone would be at the Maximo Park gig which was on at around the same time as theirs, so they were humbled by the great crowd that turned out. One gets a sense that Big Special don’t quite realise how big and how special they’re becoming – but they are certainly happy to enjoy the ride.
The month of May, touring with Pixies, will be a step up again on their busy schedules, and they are relishing the prospect whilst acknowledging that there is also lots of ‘boring admin that no one tells you about!’. When I ask them how they are preparing for the change of pace, Joe smiles and jokes, “Should we be preparing?!” but the truth is that they have been rehearsing, alongside making some time to be in the studio.
Cal explains that they realised that “support gigs are probably the easiest job that’s ever existed in a way; everyone’s excited already because they’re seeing Pixies; and we’re the last ones to sound check so we don’t have to turn up until later in the afternoon, and the first ones to finish!” They’re excited to tour with the band again, having done a stint around Europe last year with them. “We’re two big fans of theirs; this one feels exciting.”
Their biggest headline gig to date was the O2 Forum, Kentish Town, back in March. Joe admits it was nerve-wracking, whilst Cal terms it terrifying, noting that it had to be postponed because they got offered a tour supporting John Grant back in November. The anticipation was immense because it was the longest lead up to a gig they’d experienced. “We had a whole year with it just sitting there on the horizon, slowly getting closer!”
Their take on regional versus London gigs is refreshing. With capital gigs you seem to get more pressure, tour managers suddenly popping up to say, “just so you know, the labels bringing everybody down today; whereas somewhere like Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, everyone just wants to have some fun!” laughs Cal.
They have also recently returned from Austin, Texas, where they made their second visit to South by Southwest Festival. Having first attended two years ago, they grin at that being fun but ‘slightly pointless at the time’ because they didn’t even have a record out then; so it definitely felt different this time, Joe warmly stating how they caught up with loads of different bands while they were there; “You’re together in the same spot for nearly a week so you get to hang around and go out drinking… sometimes you are hanging around for ten hours, so what are you going to do when you’re surrounded by frozen margaritas!?”
Questioning what the learning curve has felt like since the album was launched and plans for the future, Joe says, “It’s gone massively quick. Those first few years of making the album were also us figuring out the sound of the band, figuring out how to play it live; it was literally getting everything together. Whereas this year, since that’s been out, we’ve basically not stopped. I can’t believe it’s actually been out for nearly a year…” before Cal interjects that it “feels like a week!” Joe continues, saying that yes, they’ve been busy, but “in a good headspace; we didn’t rest on our laurels, we just carried straight on. We’ve been recording a lot already, everywhere we can. I think the learning curve for us is that we like doing this, and if we can carry on making good albums and doing a good show, then maybe we can keep doing that for as long as we can.”
Cal says for him the learning curve also means that they don’t feel like they’re new at this any more; they played in 23 different countries last year with around 100 gigs, but they have also had to create the world of Big Special, and he says they “don’t want to sound cocky but we have a bit of confidence now”. Joe uses the metaphor, “We’ve put our boots on now and they fit” and it rings true; when he talks about feeling like they belong here now – “We’ve cut our teeth, we’ve earned our chops” – it exemplifies how this pair are so down to earth, not cocky at all; more a humble sense of wonder at finding their space.
They have talked in the past about their philosophy, exploring the universal through the personal, and their work stems from the British Working-Class viewfinder, but touring around the world has borne that philosophy into truth. Joe agrees: “It definitely backed up our philosophy, even language barriers, class barriers, cultural barriers, people still got it and enjoyed it. It just shows more and more that if you’re honest about being a human, people get that. People get it.”
Cal reminds Joe that he said ‘something beautiful’ about it – explaining that their job, what they’re used to now, is being ‘professional vibe-bringers’; but while they were in India, he recalls Joe saying that “the more places we go, the more we do this in different places, the more you notice the similarities instead of any differences. Everywhere we go is the same universal feeling of empathy, watching a whole group of people in front of you come together, we are all the same across the planet, there is a common humanity there, which has been nice to watch and nice to notice.”
Cal continues: “I got proven wrong as well, I have to say it every time to be humble in my incorrectness. When we first started this band I said to Joe: Who is going to want to listen to two Brummies? This is a Midlands sound… I thought everyone hated the Midlanders as much as we hated ourselves!” With their sound now finding favour with gig-goers across the globe, I think we can all be glad that Cal was wrong on that score, at least.
LINKS
Postindustrial Hometown Blues (Deluxe) is out now. Stream it here.
Follow Big Special: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Youtube
Big Special will support Pixies at O2 Academy Leeds, 19th May.
Upcoming dates for Big Special: (**supporting Pixies)
9-10 May – Are You Listening? Festival, Reading, UK
13 May – P&J Arena, Aberdeen, UK **
14 May – O2 Academy, Edinburgh, UK **
16 May – O2 Academy, Brixton, London, UK **
17 May – O2 Academy, Brixton, London, UK **
19 May – O2 Academy, Leeds, UK **
20 May – O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK **
21 May – Utilita Arena, Cardiff, UK **
23 May – O2 City Hall, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK **
24 May – O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK **
25 May – Dot To Dot Festival, Bristol, UK
30 May – Maifield Derby, Maimarkt Mannheim, Mannheim, DE
25-28 Jul – Deer Shed Festival, Thirsk, UK
