Live-tronica duo Big Gigantic, comprised of saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken, are bringing their high energy show to Bogart’s on 2/21. Big Gigantic, who have played primetime sets at festivals from Bonnaroo to Coachella, has a sound that is WAY too big to be contained by Bogart’s which will have the place busting at the seams all night.
Big Gigantic mixes popular songs and originals and adds a funky layer or drums, saxophone, or DJ-style production that is basically designed to throw a hell of a party–and they always deliver. CincyMusic caught up with the guys as they get ready for their upcoming Got the Love tour to talk a little bit about their collaborative philosophy for music, how they muster up high energy night after night, and what we can look forward to at Bogart’s.
Your latest album "Brighter Future" features a guest on almost every song–I've always wondered, how does that come about? Do you think "man this song needs a hip-hop lyricist" or "...a female vocalist" or do you come up with a list of collaborators and let them take the songs in a certain direction?
This happens actually several different ways actually! Sometimes I write a vocal melody hook and have someone who I think is perfect for the part sing it, sometimes we’ll have a person in mind to sing a vocal over it and they write everything etc and send over and sometimes it’s a mixture of both of these things. It’s definitely usually a collaborative effort which is super cool because it certainly always takes the track in a greater direction.
Big Gigantic shows are many things, but one is definitely "high energy." Where does energy come from? Where do you get that motivation if you're tired from the road or bummed out from something that happened during you day?
It’s like our church! Even if you’re tired or bummed out etc it literally gives you more life and energy so it’s something we always look forward to even when we’re beat up out there.
Is it hard to turn off and listen to music solely for personal enjoyment rather than imagining how a song could be adapted and incorporated into a live set? What music is in rotation on the tour bus right now?
It’s hard to explain but these two ideas (listening for personal enjoyment/listening for something in terms of how it could play into your own art) very happily coexist all the time. Listening to something you enjoy can turn into something completely different after time in creative mind. So you just kind of do both at the same time and it eventually just turns into a crazy symphony of different pieces of music collaged throughout. We listen to almost anything you could imagine on the tour bus!
