In the span of just a few years, Big Gigantic went from opening up for Sound Tribe Sector 9 side projects at the Fox Theatre in Boulder to touring with electronic heavyweights Pretty Lights and Bassnectar. Saxophone player Dominic Lalli got his start in the Boulder, Colorado based jazz band The Motet, where he spent roughly six years before joining together with his roommate and former Motet merchandise vendor Jeremy Salken to start Big Gigantic in 2008. Recently the band entered the studio for the first time in over a year to record Nocturnal. Big Gigantic sits down with Jambands.com to discuss their experiences in the studio, their sudden rise to fame, and the state of the electronic music scene today.
Justin: Dom, you started off as a member of the Colorado based jazz band The Motet. What inspired you to pick up a laptop and start experimenting with DJing?
DL: Well, I actually started getting into the laptop thing with The Motet when we started doing a little bit of more housey electronic stuff, and that’s when I first started picking it up. When me and Jeremy were roommates living together, that’s when I started working on making beats and all that kind of stuff. That was probably five years ago.
Justin: And what about you Jeremy, how did you get your start?
JS: I’ve been playing music since I was a little kid and I moved out to Boulder to try and get involved in the scene. I heard there was a real big music scene around there. It was actually kind of because of The Motet, I met those guys and I was a big fan, and Dave [Watts] is a badass drummer, so I thought coming out here I could get tied in with some good dudes and I actually ended up doing merch with The Motet, just selling merch and stuff like that back in the day, and then Dom and I lived together like he said and we started playing together a little bit locally, doing funk and jazz gigs and stuff like that. Then once he got the computer and started making beats we started coordinating and he asked me to be a part of the project, and it went from there.
You both talked about the connection between jazz music and electronic music, and how Dom started doing house influenced music with The Motet. Do you feel that there’s a stronger connection right now after you guys have done both projects?
DL: Well I mean, certainly. Everything we’ve done, where we’ve been coming from musically, our backgrounds and what kind of music we sort of grew up on definitely has a factor in it. But I think we’ve just been playing together a lot and gigging together a lot, and playing together really starts to bring that connection between the two musicians together and everyone starts phrasing together better and it just lifts the live show to a whole new level.
Justin: What are some of your musical influences? It seems each of your songs shifts genres rapidly, and it’s hard to classify one of your albums under a single category of music.
*DL:& So many different styles of music. Everything from funky jazzy Herbie Hancock kind of stuff, to even all the beatmakers who are doing stuff right now. Anywhere from Flying Lotus to Bassnectar to Pretty Lights to a lot of the dubstep producers and the drum and bass producers. Obviously tons of saxophone players for me are a huge influence and I know for Jeremy a ton of different drummers as well. I think we’re pretty influenced by everything, everything that’s going on musically today and a lot of the stuff that’s happened in the past, we’re drawing from everything and trying to come up with our own version of what we’re hearing today.
Justin: And what about you Jeremy? Are there any influences for you that stand out?
JS: Dom and I actually share a lot of the same influences, ranging from Herbie Hancock to Radiohead, and it’s all kind of blended together to make up what we are as a band. We share a lot of the same musical interests, from hip-hop to electronic music, and I think that one of the reasons why we get along so well musically is because we share the same common ground.
Justin: Absolutely. So it’s been a little over a year since you last entered the studio to record A Place Behind The Moon. Now you’re in the studio recording Nocturnal. I’ve listened to “Rise And Shine,” it’s got a big jazz and break-beat hip-hop influence with some samples thrown in, “The World Is Yours” has a big dubstep influence, with an emphasis on the drop. Can you guys describe the songwriting process, how do you decide who writes what?
DL: Well I do most of the writing, and in terms of Nocturnal, “Rise And Shine” is going to be the single, we get into some drum and bass stuff, a little bit of sampled stuff and some sax solos. I think we’re definitely trying to come up with a Big Gigantic sound, one sound that is our own that isn’t necessarily confined to one style within the electronic genre. I think we’re trying to get a little dubstep in there or at least some dubstep influence, nothing on the new album is going to be like “that’s just a dubstep banger right there” or something like that. I think all the stuff on the new album is really a step different from the past, but with some newer sounds. I think it’s very bass-heavy but very melodic and a lot of different chords, harmonies, all that sort of stuff. It’s another new, updated Big Gigantic sound that we’re growing and developing and that kind of thing.
Justin: At what point in the recording process does Jeremy come on board?
JS: It’s mainly done through Dom’s laptop so I’m technically more there in the live setting, we just kind of found it a lot easier to make the tracks on the computer rather than spending a ton of money and a ton of time to make the drums sound as good as they do on a laptop, just because sonically you can just make drops sound way better than we could in the studio I think.
DL: It just makes more sense. Jeremy definitely influences all the grooves in terms of his drumming and our communication in terms of drums and sax and that whole thing. It’s much easier for me to go in and sort of make the drums from samples, like from Jeremy’s kick sample or from Jeremy’ snare sample and then add some claps to it, as opposed to him playing over everything in the studio. So it sort of works best to do that sort of style and then when we play live he’s playing over the tracks and stuff.
Justin: With The Motet you had a lot of people coming up with ideas and lyrics for songs and all that. Now with Big Gigantic, it’s just you two. Do you feel that has impacted the pressure in the studio or the pressure in the live setting?
DL: I think it is what it is. You’ve got seven or eight people as opposed to two, it’s a lot easier to come to conclusions in terms of what you want to happen musically. I think in any band, even a band that maybe has five guys or four guys, I think that either track to track or in terms of the whole album, someone has a vision for that track or for that album, or even the music in general. It’s kind of that sort of thing where I got to have this vision and I’m trying to write some music that is sort of leading down that road. Like Jeremy said earlier, we listen to a lot of the same music, we’re into a lot of the same things and we talk about music or the type of music we’re trying to make all the time. It’s definitely a group effort. It’s definitely a lot easier to come together with two people on the same vision in terms of an album or a song.
Justin: How do you guys choose what samples you use or what remixes you’ll do. I was at Gathering of The Vibes and The Big Up and you did a remix of Aloe Blacc’s “I Need A Dolla” and “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa. How do you decide what you’ll use?
DL: I think we just try to pick stuff that we like, that we think is hot and that we think would be a dope remix or whatever. Jeremy throws ideas out, our manager does as well. We all sort of collab on new stuff to do or new stuff to remix. It’s definitely a group effort on that. We take tracks, stuff that’s on the radio and then we kind put our own spin on it. We’ll take older tracks we love or new pop tracks that we dig.
Justin: I’ve seen you guys at a bunch of different festival lineups, ranging from Summer Camp and All Good to Global Dance Festival and Gathering Of The Vibes. What festival moments in particular were milestones for your career?
JS: Hangout was really cool this year, we had a really big crowd. All Good was awesome. Dom can you think of any others?
DL: Any festivals?
Justin: Any festivals or shows that stood out to you guys?
DL: Oh yeah, this summer Hangout was great, Wakarusa was awesome. We had a ton of really, really good festivals this summer that we had a great time playing at. The Big Up was awesome too, we got to bring our boxes and all that stuff, that was really dope. We got to do that at Gathering of The Vibes, All Good was really crazy, we played directly after Furthur and there were fireworks going off everywhere. The last couple of weeks we’ve been out with Bassnectar and Pretty Lights, and every show has been almost like a festival with thousands of people, that’s been super fun. Since the summer all the way through to today we’ve been having an awesome time. Big shows, lots of good friends and good people, it’s been great.
Justin: sticking with that, how’s it been touring with Pretty Lights and Bassnectar? They’re two of the biggest names in electronic music right now. Has that impacted your shows, has it inspired you to do something different that you haven’t done before?
DL: Yeah I mean, it’s been a lot of fun, it’s been a great experience. Those guys are good friends of ours and it’s cool to see how the scene is growing, it doesn’t seem that it’s topped off by any means because more and more people keep coming out to every show. It’s influenced us in that it’s definitely got us a lot of new fans and helped us kind of figure out different things we want to do production wise. We’re always looking for new influences in terms of how our sets look, and we try to approach it how any band would approach a set and have it flow over the night, bringing it up and down and giving people a second to chill out then just go full force for a while. The biggest thing from those guys right now is that the scene has just blown up. It hasn’t slowed down at all. A lot of kids are excited about it and it’s kind of a new wave to what’s going on, and it’s really cool to be a part of that.
Justin: Absolutely, it’s definitely interesting to see Skrillex on the cover of SPIN Magazine and Burning Man selling out. Where do you think electronic music is heading right now?
JS: Man, it’s just growing and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. It’s evolving so fast, each of the genres and subgenres and styles and everything is evolving really quick and kids are just eating it all up. Luckily right now you can get away with playing all these different styles in one show, where when we in bands before if you were a funk band but you played too much bluegrass, you were almost like pigeonholed a little bit five or ten years ago with bands that you were in. If you mixed styles too much people would get distracted and they wouldn’t be as into the band. Now you can kind of do a little bit of everything and people are excited about it, it’s fresh. Dom, what do you think?
DL: Yeah absolutely. I think we’re really stoked to be a part of it and be able to be on the inside of it and be able to watch everything grow. Like Jeremy said, it’s like a really, really fast moving train. It’s not slowing down at all. [laughter] We only say that because it’s like we just watched it for a month and all summer. Like you said, Skrillex on the cover of SPIN and Jay-Z and Kanye sampling Flux Pavilion, it’s cool watching it get infused with everything and it’s just pretty amazing.
Justin: Is there any modern electronic music or any music in general you guys are listening to and getting inspired by?
DL: I’m listening to much different stuff right now that I can’t really say what one particular thing. All the hottest new stuff right now, from the Kanye/Jay-Z stuff to any of the electronic stuff to all these new singers and bands, I love it. Love it!
Justin: How did you guys get involved and become friends with Sound Tribe Sector 9? I know Dom sat in on the countdown on New Years Eve last year at The Fillmore, he’s also on the acoustic album Axe The Cables .
DL: That’s kind of how our first gig started. David Murphy of STS9 moved to town and we started getting to know him a little bit. He had started a side project with our buddy DJ Rootz, and they had this whole project called Murph vs. Rootz and they were doing the whole DJ thing and we opened up for them which was kind of our first show. Shortly after that he started getting us on STS9 gigs and pretty much we started meeting all the guys and we joined on their record label and then from there on we were homies, I saw them at a bunch of dates the past couple of years. They’re just an awesome band and we’re stoked to be a part of their scene.
Justin: Tell me a little bit about your show on New Years Eve at the Vic Theatre in Chicago. How did you guys choose that venue? I was reading your website and it says there’s going to be new production and new music, can you tell me a little bit about that?
JS: The Vic just came up kind of naturally, we’d been looking at different venues in Chicago and it seemed like a good spot, it’s a great size and a lot of people enjoy going there. It seemed like a good spot to debut our new production which we’re working on, we’re getting it built and it’s going to be big. I don’t want to give away any secrets so it’s a surprise to everyone, but it’s going to be pretty big and gigantic I think. [laughter] We’re trying to play off our band name as much as we can and bring in some new technology, and I think people are going to be really psyched. Musically it’s going to be a lot of stuff off the new album, there’s tons of stuff that we’ve kept under wraps that’s going to be new to everybody as well as all sorts of other new stuff. It’s just going to be a fresh way to kind of end the new year and start the next one off.
Justin: What are your goals for the future? You guys went from opening up for certain bands to selling out some of the biggest venues in the state. Any venues you guys want to play or remixes you want to do?
JS: We’re going to keep moving forward. We’re going to be on tour a lot next year and all of the winter and spring and doing festivals.
DL: We’ve got the new album coming out pretty soon and then we have a few shows, and then New Years where we’re going to be debuting a bunch of new stuff off the new album. Plus I’m always writing new stuff so we’ll have more original stuff and I’m working on some remixes now that I’m holding off until New Years. So we’ll just in general end up remixing some of our old stuff, just like Jeremy said like end the year super fresh and kick it in to the next year. We want to be fresh with our live show, fresh with our old remixes and new remixes. We’re really excited about it.
