motel void

MOTEL VOID: I couldn’t find much information about you on the internet. Where are you from? And how would you describe current music scene there? Do you feel that you’re part of it?

NO BIG: We’re all in NYC. We’re probably on the fringes which is a fun place to be, because you can be really surprising. There are a lot of one off shows that come from bookers throwing artists together a bit randomly to fill slots for their venues, and then there are more curated shows that do feel connected to a larger thing. We’ve played both, and can enjoy both. The cliche is true that carving out your own little scene with people you gravitate towards within the larger scene tends to be the most gratifying.

MOTEL VOID: ‘younger‘ is your debut single. Where did you play before ‘no big’? Or is this your first band?

SELDEN (NO BIG): This is our first band. I mean, all of us have played in multiple bands before this, but this is our first band.

RYAN (NO BIG): I have music released under my name, which forms the basis of a lot of what we do with No Big. Though that stuff is largely lo-fi bedroom pop and we are slowly morphing into the Cowboy Blues band “So Big“.

MOTEL VOID: Your biggest music inspirations right now?

RYAN (NO BIG): Some of the bands in NYC that we’ve been playing with or just seeing have been so inspiring. Lightheaded, Mary Shelley, Two Man Giant Squid, Junebug, Our Lady of Sorrows, Erin Harland, and Foley are some particular favorites. Cheekface, They Might Be Giants, and The Thermals are my perennial influences.

MOTEL VOID: Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process of your songs?

SELDEN (NO BIG): Ryan usually writes a song and then puts it into the No Big oven, and when it comes out it’s been turned into something a lot louder.

RYAN (NO BIG): More or less. Have wrestled with translating our live show into the records, but thanks to Colin McClutchy and the great staff at Figure 8 we managed to get this single sounding where we wanted it. It’s hard to find the right engineers so when you do hold on forever because what they can do for your music is nothing short of magic.

MOTEL VOID: Your plans for 2024?

SELDEN (NO BIG): For us, 2024 is looking a lot like 2023, which looked a lot like 2022, which looked a lot like 1999. We want to tour and release an album, but honestly we’re more concerned with warding off the evil influence of our nemesis band “So Big”.