Black Country duo BIG SPECIAL talk on debut album 'Post Industrial Hometown Blues'

Black Country duo Big Special sit down with Archie Jackson to discuss their debut album ‘Post Industrial Hometown Blues’ ahead of its release on 10^thof May. Vocalist, Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney, talk on the vulnerability and rawness shared throughout the album as they open up on the recording, producing and the effort that went into crafting their post-punk, poetry driven debut.

So, what can we expect from your first album release?

Joe Hicklin [JH] – It’s been a long time coming! We started writing it in lockdown, and pretty much been at it since then, so we’re happy to be getting it out finally. It’s grown with us and the band over the last few years and it was kind of the reason to start the band. We’ve just focused on making this an honest album on ourselves, and the time were living in and we’re just looking forward to getting it out as we’ve put a lot of time and effort into it and we’re super proud of it. If this is the only one we get to do, we’re happy with it and all the details we’ve got on it. We’ve made the album we wanted to make.

Callum Moloney [CM] – It’s taken four years to make the album but it’s a reflection of the 16 years both of us have spent trying to be musicians and artists whilst working jobs and being normal geezers on the side and its sort of the life around us and is a very self-reflective album, but hopefully a lot of people see a lot of themselves in it as well.

With the current state of the country, how important do you feel it is that you bring to light some of the topics you cover within your music?

JH – It’s hard to say. I don’t see us bringing it to light as important. You know, I think there’s a lot of people talking about it and artists making art about it. I just think it’s good that people keep doing it. It was never an intention to do that really, it’s just our life and time, you know. I get a lot of comfort from hearing that sort of political stuff and mental health stuff from other artists that I love and if it does do that for anyone, then that’s a victory, I suppose. We’re going to keep shouting about the shit and realise that we’re in the struggle together. If it hurts doing it, it’s connecting you to something.

There’s a lot of emotion and rawness to the album, has that been something that driven you to creating it?

JH – It’s the love of music and the love of art in general, I think. Having been inspired by so many different musicians and writers, filmmakers and everything over the years, it’s a big part of our life, a big part of my life, and the love of my life. If people look back on these times, our album’s representative of it. We just wanted to make something raw and honest and throw egos away and just want to make something that was us coming out the speakers. We’re proud of it and it’s vulnerable. I think that was the intention of it, it’s because that’s the art we love, it’s that raw, truthful stuff and we just wanted to add to that, that was the big motivation.

CM – I think the other side of it is, you know, it’s an album of experimentation and firsts for us. Joe’s never been a poet in a band before, never read poetry out in front of people. I’ve never worked with electronics and triggering drum kits and synth-based stuff in the background and having backing tracks. Our producer never produced anything like this, so all three of us have been having to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, which I think adds to that sense of vulnerability because we’re trying something completely new. Joe’s lyrics are bearing his soul on his sleeve, so I think there’s a combination of a lot of factors that make it so there’s still a big part of that in there for us, we’re not trying to make anything in particular, it’s just making music for the sake of making music and sticking with it.

What is the song writing process like for your songs? Do you write the lyrics and then the music or the other way around?

JH – I’m a big note-maker, always making notes all the time for lyrics, but I’ve never found a method. I’ve always tried to avoid finding a method because I think the best way to do stuff is to just have it happen, you know, happen when it happens and how it happens. I think if I was to say, ‘oh, I’ll do lyrics first and music after’, I’d stick too much to that then and that could end up holding you back, so I always just try and let it happen as it happens.

With it being like an album that has come from lockdown and that has been a big project, is it a good feeling to have it all done or is it a sense of relief?

CM – It’s quite weird, finally reaching that point where we had to draw a line under it because by the time we finished it, it was coming up on four years of writing. All the way up to the very end we were finishing it, and we were putting new drum tracks down. The last hour, of the last day of the last session, Joe was putting new guitar ideas down onto it, so it carried on changing and changing. I think there’s that old phrase, you never really complete a piece of art you just abandon it, you know? We wanted to get it out and creatively we could move on then, and it was just the right timing, it’s a good thing, you know, because now you get to live it, don’t you?

How do you feel the Black Country shaped this album?

JH – I think if you’re from around here you’ll see it in the music and stuff, but I think other than that it’s just a place where something was made. Wherever you’re from, if you’re writing honestly about your life, where you’re from will be reflected in the music. We called it the ‘Post-Industrial Hometown Blues’ rather than something more specific to Birmingham because we’re saying, look, this is broad, but when you pick it apart, that’s fucking like 99% people or something really. It’s just people going to work in towns after the end of industry. There’s less stuff there, there’s less options, a lot of discontentment, a lot of political disenchantment, but the whole thing really was to dig as deep as I can personally for that to reflect universally.

‘MY SHAPE (BLOCKING THE LIGHT)’ was an interesting, different part of the album, how did that come about?

JH – We wanted a bit of that light and shade. We wanted the album to feel like a piece of its own so it’s wanting that flow and then different feeling moments. I was talking about being personal on it and stuff but we nearly didn’t put that one on because of how vulnerable it felt. I felt like, is that too vulnerable? Cal was saying, ‘the whole point of the project is to be open and vulnerable so if you feel scared by how vulnerable it is then that probably should be why you should put it on the album’. I’m glad, I really do like that song, it was just a bit scary putting that one out.

Track listing are something that can sometimes be overlooked, how did you finally decide what order to put the songs in?

CM – We’re fucking obsessed with track listing. Why do you think people have like the sweet thing after the savoury thing at the meal? It’s how it tastes better! You gotta put things in the right way otherwise it is just a fucking Spotify playlist of a bunch of random songs. It’s not a concept album, it was just thought about and worked on for four years that’s been chopped and changed. ‘BLACK COUNTRY GOTHIC’ was written as an opener, ‘DiG!’ was always meant to be the closer and ‘BROADCAST: TIME AWAY’ was always meant to be like the start of act two to be the turning middle point. ‘I MOCK JOGGERS’ was always second because we always say like the Black Country Gothic sets the scene and ‘I MOCK JOGGERS’ introduces the character.

How do you feel the songs have been translating live from the studio to the stage?

JH- It’s more cathartic I feel like. When you’re listening to the album we want you to listen to the words more and the meaning. With that initial listen we’d like people to listen to the words and stuff like that. Whereas live you know people are never going to clock every single word, so live is way more about the catharsis and just having that fun and not wallowing in the themes of the album not living in the depression of it. We always say these songs are emotional reactions, they’re not answers to anything, so live we just embody that really I think we just react emotionally to the tunes and connect a lot with the audience.

What’s it like just having you two on stage?

CM – It’s the easiest thing because we’ve been best mates for so long. The ethos that’s just always worked is we just play to each other; we’re trying to impress each other. I’m trying to hit the drums as hard as possible to make his shoes shake, and he’s trying to scream in my face as loud as possible to make me cry! It’s the fact that it’s our friendship that’s been so long in the making we’ve been mates forever getting to do these songs that mean so much to us about wanting to break free and wanting to break through and we’re doing it in front of a crowd of people who’ve paid to see us it’s quite a cathartic thing and quite a mad thing to be witnessing each other do

JH – I haven’t said this before, but it reminds me of John Martin. He always used to play with a double bass player called Danny Thompson and I swear I heard somewhere before he just said there was like a psychic connection there was. Just something about when they played music together, they just knew where each other were going with it and I felt like that just happened I don’t know but it just fucking lined up for me and Cal.