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BIG SCARY
announce their 5th LP
ME AND YOU
+ Share first cut
‘REAL LOVE’ / ‘DEVOTION’
double single
Watch ‘Real Love’ performed live with string section and choir HERE
Me and You out September 23 on Pieater/Inertia
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Photo – Lilli Waters
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Praise for BIG SCARY:
“Their very versatility has engendered experimentation, flux and transgression… Big Scary have long defied any limitations” – NME
“an Australian music scene without Big Scary would be bereft.” – JUNKEE
“not only stands out with its immaculate beauty, but its ability to convey heartwarming or visceral emotions.” – Happy
“in their introversion Big Scary have discovered a sense of joy” – Canberra Times
“an album that champions their DIY spirit… a sound that captures what Big Scary do best.” – STACK
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Australian duo Big Scary today announce details of their forthcoming 5th LP Me and You, and share the album’s first cut, the double single ‘Real Love’ / ‘Devotion’. Me and You is set for release on September 23, 2022 through Pieater, the label that Big Scary’s Jo Syme & Tom Iansek run with their manager Tom Fraser.
Big Scary are touring nationally this October as part of a recently announced expanded run of shows, and will see them perform as a two piece for the first time since 2013. Full details below, information and tickets are available from bigscary.net
Our first taste of Me and You is a generous two-track. ‘Real Love’ is a classically romantic piano and drum song that builds to a sweeping crescendo, complete with choir, strings and horns. ‘Devotion’ bubbles and expands. Tom and Jo sing the chorus together between verses journeying the arc of a relationship – giddy infatuation, setbacks, and the possibility of longevity. Together, the songs are a beacon for the album to come – tender, nostalgic and reflective on relationships – the ‘me and you’ of any pairing.
Today Big Scary shares a video of ‘Real Love’ performed live from Brunswick Ballroom, complete with string section and a choir. The band shares, “We chose to make a lush, live video of “Real Love” instead of an official music video – it somehow felt more romantic and intimate. We filmed at the Brunswick Ballroom, with a 6-piece string section, and roped in some musical buddies for the choir (Maple Glider, Cool Sounds, Nat Vazer, Partner Look and David M. Western). The audio engineer Isaac Barter did such an amazing job it almost sounds like the album version!”
Whilst 2021’s Daisy saw the band get a little bit silly and a little bit rock opera, Me and You displays the slowed-down version of their creative dynamic. Guitars are back on the menu, with the acoustic returning to the fore (harking back to very early Big Scary days). The hero of Daisy, the synthesiser, takes a back seat to the grand piano. String arrangements are used to create tension, or Bacharach-inspired romance, while Tom and Jo singing in unison peppers a sweetness across the album.
Daisy and now Me and You are releases of a renewed modus operandi for the band. Following the release of Animal (2017) and subsequent tours, Big Scary quietly went into a hibernation that would end up lasting nearly three years. In that time, Tom released three albums as #1 Dads and No Mono, and produced and engineered releases for Maple Glider, The Paper Kites, Lisa Mitchell, Airling, Tom Snowdon and Bec Sykes. Jo created a second label imprint, Hotel Motel Records (the first being Pieater), worked on releases across both labels and toured Australia and Canada with the likes of Quivers and Cool Sounds.
Then came 2019 – years since they had worked together, and with many other creative outlets in their lives they probed upon pairing up again, “What is Big Scary?” And as Tom said to Jo over the phone,
“It is the music made by me and you.”
So that’s what they embraced. In the past, while the band had always written together, most songs and albums would be finished by Tom in the editor’s chair – arrangements, lyrics, and production. But, from the point of Big Scary’s rebirth over the phone that night, Me and You and Daisy have seen a more equal input from both band members lyrically, in singing, and in the editor’s chair, with Tom teaching Jo how to engineer sessions using ProTools.
This renewal sees the band focused on their purpose, confidently at ease with their songwriting and recording craft, unfettered by any expectations other than to enjoy the process.
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The album cover is by US-artist Jeff Bohm, titled “Freeway Casino Lovers” – Tom stumbled across it on Instagram. The image contains little symbols that are significant to the visual world of the songs, and the centrepiece – the elderly couple – share the type of authentic romance sought in the songs, and the enduring 16-year musical partnership of Big Scary.
ME AND YOU
track list:
SIDE A
F.A.
Firefly
Asking Right
All To Pieces
Lonely Age
SIDE B
In My View
Goodbye Earle Street
Devotion
Real Love
You Won’t Always
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BIG SCARY
Australian 2022
Tour Dates:
Tickets on sale now from bigscary.net
Thursday 13 October – The Factory Theatre – Eora / Sydney, NSW
Friday 14 October – Republic Bar – nipaluna / Hobart, TAS
Saturday 15 October – Jive – Kaurna Country / Adelaide, SA
Wednesday 19 October – The Triffid – Meanjin / Brisbane, QLD
Friday 21 October – Theatre Royal – Dja Dja Wurrung Country / Castlemaine, VIC
Saturday 22 October – Corner Hotel – Naarm / Melbourne, VIC
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Follow BIG SCARY
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter
Apple Music – Spotify – YouTube
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AMNPLIFY – DB
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