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Big Scary
Big Scary: Tom Iansek and Joanna Syme Photograph: Ben McPherson
Big Scary: Tom Iansek and Joanna Syme Photograph: Ben McPherson

Big Scary: 'We're not thinking about whether it's artful or not' – interview

This article is more than 10 years old
The two piece's admired, sonically lush album Not Art was the result of thinking more – and less – about the songwriting process

Tom Iansek and Joanna Syme don't make things easy for themselves. You'd think that, as a lo-fi indie-rock two piece, touring would be a breeze. However for their second album – this year's excellent Not Art – they created a sonically lush and diverse work that's already a shoo-in for being one of the best Australian albums of 2013, filled with guitars, keys, percussion, electronics and more. Which is creatively exciting, of course, but there's a downside…

"Unfortunately we do have to bring a lot of gear on tour now," Isansek sighs. "We're always going over our generous musician's luggage allowance on the plane. We've got a tonne of gear – I was just thinking the other week that for a two piece, it's pretty outrageous that we need a twelve-seater van for our stuff."

Should they add extra members to Big Scary just for their luggage allowance? "Well, at a certain point that would probably become cost effective." It's worth the kit, however. No Art is a huge leap forward for the Melbourne duo. While they'd been scratching around the local scene since 2006, they first really came to notice via their four seasonal EPs in 2010 – Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, later compiled into the The Big Scary Four Seasons CD.

The pair's debut album Vacation followed in 2011, but Not Art continues the story while also drawing something of a line under the past. It's still loose and charming in places, but it also is clearly a developed piece rather than whatever songs the couple had lying around. "Yeah, in a way there was more thought – but in a way there was less thought," Tom says. "I think we got better about thinking about the right things and knowing what kind of thinking to exclude from the process."

In what way? "Well, th­e title was based on this idea that it's not art – we're not thinking about whether it's artful or not, what [the songs] might represent to this person or that person."

The result is a record with "more of an overall design than we've had previously", with plenty of the duo's trademark vocals, drums and piano – but with a lot of new sonic colours added to the palate.

"I knew that I wanted to play around with samples, because that's what was exciting me and I realised I could implement that in an interesting way. And we really wanted to work in the idea of having a mood for the album: so there was this big over-arching idea, and then we just had to wait for the actual songs to fall under that. Previously we'd get the songs and then go 'well, what's the idea around this?'"

The result, despite the attempt to avoid specifics, is a strangely melancholic affair. In fact, the song with the jokiest title – Why Hip Hop Sucks in '13 – is possibly the album's most moving and beautiful track, with unison vocals breathing over tumbling piano arpeggios: "Are my eyes open, or am I still dreaming of you? / Has my heart spoken? / Why am I still afraid to love you?"

"We often just started with a piano riff or a melody idea – we didn't write any more songs than we used for this album," Ben explains. "We knew pretty quickly if an idea was going to fit."
This tour may be your last chance to see the band for a while, since the rest of the world is calling: they've just signed to US indie Barsuk Records, original home of Death Cab for Cutie. "It hasn't changed anything yet – we're just working on getting the album released over there. So it's business as usual for the moment, but once we're over there I guess things will be happening," Tom shrugs. "We'll know about it when we need to know about it – and hey, I'm good with that!"

Big Scary play the Spiegeltent, 11.45pm on Saturday 21 September

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