Big Thief

Masterpiece to Double Infinity

Big Thief formed in Brooklyn in 2015. Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek met at a Boston show and reconnected in Brooklyn as undergraduates, beginning as a duo, and all four original members attended Berklee College of Music. Lenker was born on July 9, 1991 in Indianapolis and mostly raised in Minnesota. They toured as a duo in 2013 and released the EPs a-sides and b-sides in 2014, then formed as a band with Max Oleartchik and the drummer Jason Burger, with James Krivchenia joining first as a sound engineer and then replacing Burger. Masterpiece was recorded from July 1 to 12, 2015 on Lake Champlain in Essex, New York, produced by Andrew Sarlo, and released on May 27, 2016 by Saddle Creek; Pitchfork gave it 7.7.

Capacity (June 9, 2017, Saddle Creek, 41:40) was recorded on analog equipment at a farmhouse the band was house-sitting, a month uninterrupted; Lenker told Stereogum they were upstate for a month without leaving and really got in the zone. It reached 9 on the Heatseekers chart, with Metacritic 81, Pitchfork 8.3, and was on many year-end lists: NPR 3, Spin 2, Flood 1 and Pitchfork 23. They signed to 4AD in 2019 for U.F.O.F. (May 3, 2019, recorded live in a large room at Bear Creek in Woodinville, Washington, Pitchfork 9.2 and a Grammy nomination) and Two Hands (October 11, 2019, Sonic Ranch). Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (February 11, 2022, 80:13, 20 tracks) was the first album not produced by Sarlo, produced by Krivchenia and cut from 45 songs; Paste named it its album of the year and it earned Grammy nominations. Lenker released the solo albums Abysskiss (2018), Songs and Instrumentals (2020) and Bright Future (March 22, 2024).

Oleartchik's departure was announced on July 11, 2024, and the first five-piece show came on July 28 in Portland, after nearly a year without a show. Double Infinity (September 5, 2025, produced and mixed by Dom Monks over about three weeks at Power Station in New York, 42:49) was their first album as a trio, reaching 21 in the UK; Joshua Crumbly joined as touring bassist. A triple album, Horsepower, debuted live on August 22, 2026 at the Ryman in Nashville, and on October 14, 2026 the band launched the free Big Thief Live Archive with ten full concert recordings. Pitchfork ranked "Mary" 44th among the 200 best songs of the 2010s. Setlist.fm shows 780 setlists.