Big River Talk Origins, Favourite Instruments And More

Formed in 2016 and influenced by the classic Blues rock sounds of bands such as Bad Company and Free, UK four-piece Big River have gone from strength to strength in recent years. They kindly chatted to JLTT about their origins, favourite instruments and more:         

Who is in Big River and what do they play?

Big River is:

Adam Barron (vocals and ukulele)

Damo Fawsett (guitar)

Simon Gardiner (bass)

Joe Martin (drums/backing vocals)

When and how did you all meet?

Damo formed Big River in 2016 but since then the remaining line up has completely changed. Joe had been deputising on the bass and rhythm guitar for quite a few gigs before eventually auditioning for drums and becoming a permanent band member in 2019. Having previously played with Mick Ralph’s Blues Band, Adam who was an acquaintance of Damo’s joined Big River in 2021 and he in turn introduced his bandmates to Simon who made his debut in 2022.

You will release your new EP later this year. How did you want to approach the making of the EP and who produced it?

We want the songs on the songs on the EP to be organic, not forced. There is no intention to write in a particular style but clearly, we all have various but similar influences.

Each song is brought to the band who will usually shape it up together. Each song is different sometimes the writer composes the whole song, sometimes it just begins as a riff, a melody, or a lyric. The band then takes the idea and sees what might develop. Some become songs, some don’t. We then take these songs out and play them live before deciding to record them or not.

The EP is being produced by Jim Riley at Ranscombe Studios. Jim really gets the vibe of Big River. He runs a predominantly analogue studio and track takes are usually done as a band so that the take captures the live feel which is what we are all about.

 Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

Damo is a big fan of the 70’s inspired rock sounds that come out of Les Pauls and Marshall Amps which is part of the signature sound of our influences such as Bad Company. He can often be seen toting a Les Paul Standard into a Blackstar Valve amp that can easily reproduce the Marshall vibe. Damo is fortunate to have endorsement deals with Blackstar Amps and Fret King Guitars, so you’ll often see him wheeling out one of their latest offerings on stage. As for effects pedals, he likes his tone to come from the amp sound, no processors, or modellers, and he uses pedals to add some colour, mainly classic effect sounds such as Wah, Rotovibe and Delay (for solos).

Simon has an eclectic bass taste and tends to use the right bass for the right gig. For Big River this has been a Fender Jazz, then a Gibson SG and more recently a good old Fender Precision (although with a Precision Jazz pick up configuration). Simon had been using a Mesa Boogie M-Pulse head into Barefaced cabs, (the Boogie has a valve pre stage with lots of warmth), but he has just changed to a Fender Rumble bass head that pairs really well with the Fender Precision and produces a great edgy and slightly over driven sound.

Joe is a fan of Yamaha drum kits. Having previously gigged with a classic 9000 Recording kit this was replaced with an Oak Custom kit which has low fundamentals and a big sound which suits the straight-ahead pound of Big River. Snare is usually a 12 x 5.5 Mapex Black Panther Maple Deluxe. Metalwork is a set of Zildjian A Customs and a Paiste 2002. His kick pedal is a Mapex P750 that Joe won on eBay for 99p in a rush before a gig after the last pedal broke!

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Big River is from across Kent with our spiritual in home in Gravesend which is situated by the River Thames. It has a rootsy, industrial, working class feel that Big River feel is in their make-up.

Do you have any interesting, funny, or memorable stories from the EP recording sessions?

The thing with Big River is that trying to think of just one funny occasion is difficult, this is because when we get together it’s a whole day / night of constant banter, most of us are at the mercy of Adam’s razor-sharp wit and our road trips often descend into hysterical laughter and quite often we don’t know what we’re even laughing about. But anyone that comes to see us knows that we love to laugh. One occasion that comes to mind is when we arrived to play a festival in Cornwall in Dec 22, it had a very sleepy and calm vibe, let’s just say they certainly knew we’d arrived by the end of the weekend, we brought the party!

Do you have any plans for live shows in Europe/UK in 2024?

We are making our Maid of Stone Festival debut in July which we are really excited about as it’s in our home county. We also get to play alongside Larkin Poe who we are big fans of.  We’re still finalising dates for the rest of the year and in to 2025 so keep an eye on BigRiverOfficial.com and our socials as we announce those.

How do you look after your voices?

It’s boring but hydration and sleep are the most important things to look after my voice (Adam). On the day of a gig, I drink at least 2-3 litres of water and if we’re on a run of gigs I must (try to) fight my natural urge to stay up drinking and chatting after the gig!

Which tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

a) Happiest – Don’t Hold Out. This track is full of hope and love for our family and friends.

b) Angriest – We’re not really an angry band, it’s too much fun getting to make and perform music (and taking the mick out of each other relentlessly). But one of the tracks that has the most energy is The Long Way from our last EP. It’s high tempo, high energy, balls out foot stomping goodness from start to finish!

c) Reflective – Wings. The song considers our existence to a certain extent, it considers our part in the world and our interconnectedness. It’s easy to think that every man is an island, but I think we all see through that these days. We need each other and life is better with each other (mostly!) and so living without separation is the healthy option! The song leans into that notion.

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

Adam was brought up on sixties music and Queen, he discovered Free and Bad Company in his teens.

Damo is influenced by Gary Rossington, Paul Kossoff, Mick Ralphs, Zakk Wylde, Eddie Van Halen, and Steve Lukather.

Joe cites influences including Foreigner, Journey, Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, and Scorpions.

Simon’s personal bass influences are John Entwistle, Pino Palladino and James Jamerson.

The band’s current recommendations include the last two Rival Sons albums – LIGHTBRINGER and DARKFIGHTER are great, but all their stuff is epic. We’re also big fans of Chris Stapleton and his latest album Higher is brilliant. Larkin Poe feature in the bands much loved playlist as well the stuff you may expect from the ‘70s.

What makes Big River happy and what makes you unhappy?

Making good music and playing it to a good crowd makes Big River VERY happy. Meeting people after the show to chat, sign merch and take photos too. We’ll happily do a long journey to do a good gig for good people. It’s what it’s all about, the fans. It sounds cliche but it’s true, and we love to write and record new songs.

What makes us unhappy, apart from the normal stuff such as day to grindy things, taxes, and politicians, it can be a grind to write and play meaningful music and get it out to an audience. It takes commitment and strategy as well as time and money and all those things are being challenged all the time in all our busy lives. Ultimately, we want to make good music for ourselves and people who want to hear it and anything that gets in the way of that makes us unhappy! But that’s life I guess!!