Pair have Big Gigantic sound
Big Gigantic might have a big, gigantic sound, but not a big, gigantic lineup of musicians.
It consists of only two members: saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken. The pair have been successful at combining jazz, electronic, hip-hop, jam band elements and DJ sounds with live instruments.
Founded in Boulder, Colo., the duo have been creating their large sound for four years, according to Salken, who says he and Lalli have been friends for six years, since both began hanging out in the Boulder music scene. Both have played in jazz and funk bands while nourishing their love of electronic music.
“He’s from [Las] Vegas and I was originally from Richmond, Va.,” Salken says. “Dominic came up with the name even before there was a group, or band, or duo, whatever we are. He wrote it down for later use, and when he got a computer he started making music on it, and put it on Myspace under the name Big Gigantic.”
Lalli has all the requisite education for the task: a master’s degree in jazz from the Manhattan School of Music, while Salken’s degree was in graphic and Web design. He has been involved with music since he was a child, however.
“Seeing Radiohead inspired us with what they were doing with electronics, but yet they’re still a live band,” he says.
Big Gigantic doesn’t rely on any vocals, he says, but yet they sometimes hear them, of a sort, as the Big Gigantic audiences tend to “sing” along with the melodies.
“We are mostly creating original sounds, but some of our remixes have vocals in them, so there’s a strong sense of melody,” he says. “In Fayetteville, recently for instance, people were singing along with the melody when Dominic was playing the saxophone.”
Besides clubs, Big Gigantic has been a hit on the festival circuit, with appearances at Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, the Austin City Limits Festival, the Hangout festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., and a host of others, probably 15 or 20, he reckons.
“We were busy every weekend,” Salken says. “Sometimes we were playing multiple festivals on the same weekend. That one in the Arkansas hills, Wakarusa, we’ve played there three years running. We had a lot of lights, pod-like things, which we used there and will bring to Little Rock. We want to make our show more of a dance thing.”
Big Gigantic has released two albums so far, A Place Behind the Moon, released in 2010, and Nocturnal, released earlier this year. The duo have been to Little Rock before.
“We opened a show for Pretty Lights last year on Halloween and that was a blast, we had a ton of people out,” Salken says. “And now we’re going to be back there on the night before Halloween, so maybe we’ll be doing a costume thing. People should not be shy about dressing up.”