Name: BIG|BRAVE
Members: Mathieu Bernard Ball, Robin Wattie, Tasy Hudson
Interviewee: Robin Wattie
Nationality: Canadian
Current release: BIG|BRAVE's nature morte is out via Thrill Jockey. The trio will also embark on a tour of the EU, to be followed by an appearance at Supersonic Festival with Jessica Moss this Summer. Details are here (EU tour) and here (Supersonic Festival).
Recommendations: Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King (book); Forothermore by Nick Cave (not the musician!!!) (exhibition)

If you enjoyed this BIG | BRAVE interview and would like to know more about the band and their music, visit their official homepage. They are also on Instagram, and Facebook.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

The first has to be when I heard Gillian Welch's record Time (The Revelator) back in the late 2000s. It was around then when I started to write and play music. I wrote a piece for Echos and Dust a few years ago: Time (The Revelator) by Gillian Welch (and David Rawlings) 2001. The following is a quote from that piece.



"It is an unhurried, heavy hearted, raw, elegant album. Upon the first listen of the first song of the first guitar phrase I was struck. Then Gillian Welch came in with her thick, raw, undervalued vocals and with the first line she sang, I was brought to a place only very few pieces of music has ever shifted me to. I was in pieces and it hurt. I was engrossed. I was captivated and in love.

The album in its entirety is journey in of itself. Though every song can stand alone, it is better appreciated nestled in its resting place within the album. You’re brought in and out of something private, of something eternal, transcendent and honest. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings' musical sensitivity is astonishing. Welch’s stories and word play are brilliant. Rawlings’ harmonies and instrument work are careful and thoughtful. Together they write stunning work.

I’ve been listening to this album over the last sixteen years and with every genuine listen, it still hits hard, it still remains timeless. I still fall to pieces. It still strikes my core. This album has me.

A true piece of art."

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I mostly enter music through emotion - unless the production value or hook pulls me into the song! love differing production styles and hooks!

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

Like any visual artist, performer or musician, there is always a trajectory. It starts with a curisoty, can develop into a concept which then can morph as the artist's interest increase and or as they age.

For some it can come quickly. For others like me, it is a long process, as I take my time and carefully approach with (perhaps too much) thought.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

My sense of identity, like most, is based on family, ethnicity, gender, class, the spectrum of experiences etc etc etc - all encompassing i.e. intersectional. It is impossible to have one without the other. Therefore like every one person, all of this influences preferences, creativity, choices as a producer of art and / or receiver of art in all it's forms.

Because we are primarily a visual species, I have to navigate the world through being racialized and agender. Everything I do and every space I enter / create, is a political act whether I intend it to be or not.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Concerning music, intellectually, there have always been concepts of minimalism, tension and space using very little.

Concerning the umbrella of what I create, it is usually based on a genuine interest in what I am focusing on, whether it be a technical aspect of how to use a specific medium of paint, or how to produce controlled feedback in the right key under variables such as venue and gear for example.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I am interested in neither specifically as I respect both including the spectrum in between.

I definitely can get behind a technical approach to writing music. However, I tend to spend much more time with music that has sounds as if it has soul and heart. And wherever that falls between music of the future or continuing a tradition, is interesting for sure. But it has no huge bearing on my opinion about the music.

In my view, there is something of worth to both the creator and listener that likes or loves it. For me that in of itself is worth even a small amount of consideration, even if it not something I love per se.

I always take the time to try and understand what it is I am hearing.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

I am an extremely private and shy person - I'd like to keep this to myself :)

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Oh geeze lol! Every single thing? hahaha! I think because it all relates to my processes, one informs the other, the other will inform the future without me even knowing.

But I suppose if I were to think about it more deeply, the most important tools and instruments would be intuition and patience and time. And to trust them!!!

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

It's with a lot of trial and error. We will write, rewrite, scrap, restart, write, rewrite. Almost every song and album, was developed with this process.

We also don't say no to an idea as we never know where it can lead; it mostly inspires new ideas (even better ideas) and happy accidents ... the worst that happens is that we end up scrapping it.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I don't have a preference for listening with people or alone as they come about for different reasons. I do however much prefer listening to music live!

I also haven't really thought about how listening can influence creative results. but it would, wouldn't it? Like with that question about identity and how that relates to the creative process etc.

There is not one thing that won't influence a person's trajectory in whatever they choose to pursue.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I really have no idea how my work and creativity relates to the world lol!

If you're speaking in macro terms, perhaps it can be viewed as a reflection - a reflection or marker of this specific band in this specific time. However it would be quite small considering the vastness of the entire history and future of music.

The role of music in society is that of great importance. A society defines a culture; a culture helps us understand the group of humans it represents. And, depending on the group and what music is used for, the significance, role, meaning and purpose varies greatly.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

For myself, perhaps with regards to processing the emotions pertaining what you listed.

It allows me to sit with, feel, and eventually move through whatever it is I am feeling.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Holy moly. this question in of itself is a whole other bowl of potatoes that probably needs to be cooked at another time!

But really, most living animals and insects create sound for the purpose of communicating; scientifically, music is a form of communication. One could say that as humans, (other than pride and ego) what sets us apart is the intellectualization of emotion: i.e. using reason and logic as a defence mechanism against confrontation, anxiety inducing emotions.

It can therefore lead to discussion and dissection of emotions thus being able to learn from and navigate with more fluidity (provided, of course, IF the person is self aware and wanting to learn and grow until death).

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Oh perhaps emotion, politics, expression of thought etc.