Big History

To say the New Orleans rock scene is a close-knit community would be an understatement. One might suggest that the New Orleans rock scene is downright incestuous. Any given musician, in any given band, has at some point played with any other musician, in any other band.

Big History is no exception. When Matt Glynn and Blandon Helgason set out to form a new project, the two began discussing this characteristic of New Orleans independent music. They came to the conclusion that the intertwining nature of the New Orleans scene works like a puzzle, each player being a piece shuffled about until said player finds his or her proper place.
The two set out to find the perfect pieces for their puzzle, and found them quite easily. They enlisted Bret Bohnet, who aside from playing with Glynn in Silent Cinema, was known for blending digital and acoustic percussion seamlessly in One Man Machine, and the popular White Bitch. There was no question about who would be playing bass, and Cory Schultz of the skyrocketing Mynameisjohnmichael was on board. Glynn and Helgason had worked with Schultz in the massive psychedelic orchestra known as Antenna Inn, and knew the multi-instrumentalist would be a
perfect fit for the new project. Helgason enlisted his friend Amanda Wuerstlin, having heard her violin and piano work with The City Life and Kristen & the Mania. Her organic sound would provide the perfect contrast against the band’s digital
hooks.

The puzzle was complete except for one key piece: a vocalist. The band sifted through its contacts, looking for the perfect component for their sound (which had recently been described by a critic as dreampop), and found the perfect voice in a very unlikely place. Meg Roussel, a young folk musician playing small gigs around town accompanied by no more than an acoustic guitar, would ironically be the perfect fit for the bands glitchy, hip-shaking, amalgamation of electronica, dance, and pop.

Her voice, a blend of 60’s soul, 70’s British folk, and other parts indiscernible but entirely unique, would prove itself on the bands first single Every Bone. With no more than a few burned copies in the hands of key New Orleans DJ’s, a buzz began to build around the newly formed band, which began to write and record feverishly for their upcoming full-length titled Distant Future.

If the response to the band’s first single is any indication, Big History will be around for the long haul. It’s safe to say that these musicians have more than a few tricks up their sleeves, and the New Orleans music scene has granted its listeners yet another completed puzzle.