Making music about the struggles of the working class isn’t new, but the way Big Special do it is.
On their kaleidoscopic debut album Postindustrial Hometown Blues, Black Country duo Big Special blend post-punk, spoken word and soul.
The band, in its current formation of singer Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney, almost didn’t happen. Having met 13 years earlier at music college, the two had already built a connection by playing in other projects together.
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“Cal was the only person I wanted to do it with,” recalls Hicklin from his grandfather’s Walsall home, just outside Birmingham. “If he didn’t want to, I was going to do it on my own.”
Moloney was hesitant to give up the stability of his driving job and was finally making money through music playing in wedding bands. “I didn’t want him to think I didn’t respect his decision, but I thought I’d ask him one more time,” he says.
It was a demo version of This Here Ain’t Water – a highlight from their album – that swayed Moloney. With its powerful, gospel-like chorus and biting spoken word commentary, the song perfectly encapsulates what Big Special can do.
Before the band, Hicklin mostly sang folk and blues music. While flourishes can be heard on their debut, he says genres aren’t considered when writing songs. “We just wanted to make something honest. The elements we knew we wanted were live drums and live vocals,” he explains. “If we create this strong, central voice, so that whatever we do is recognisable as Big Special, then we don’t have to think about genre.”
Only having live drums and vocals when performing allows the band to experiment with such varied songs. “You obviously get limited by using the [backing] track,” reasons Hicklin. “But you also have the freedom of not having to have six or seven different bands with different setups to be able to do all the tracks live.”
Midway through the album, Hicklin’s crooning abilities shine on the Black Dog / White Horse, which he wrote before forming the band. “We reworked and messed with the palette of it to see if it could fit in with all the other songs,” he recalls.
“The people we work with got really excited about that one, and I chimed in, ‘It’s the one I don’t do any fucking speaking on.’”
Hicklin’s spoken word delivery puts his Black Country accent at the forefront of their music. “Where we’re from, people take the piss out of your accent everywhere you go… and growing up [you’re] subconsciously taught not to like it,” he languishes. “Especially people who get into the arts, they get rid of their accent.”
It was the work of Black Country poet Liz Berry that changed Hicklin’s perspective. “She writes phonetically, using the accent,” he explains.
“Something just clicked in my head. It made me think that I should embrace the accent and the uniqueness of it, rather than hide from it. Since I’ve done that, I’ve never felt more fulfilled creatively and the stuff I make now is more authentic than ever,” continues Hicklin. “The voice is mine now proper, so I feel good about that.”
Lyrics detailing the often-gloomy minutia of daily life further Big Special’s authenticity. “[They] are always central to what we do. The music is just dressing up the lyrics,” he says. “The most relatable stuff is just honest rather than thought out to be relatable. I don’t think you have to share the experience to relate, so it’s just everyday stuff.”
“You can’t sit there and go… ‘I’m going to write for the people,’ because you put yourself above the people,” he continues. “You’ve got to write as one of the people and then if you’re authentic, it will relate, even if they’ve got a different idea of what the meaning is.”
Since the release of Postindustrial Hometown Blues, Hicklin says he and Moloney’s lives have changed. “We’re seeing what’s possible from life now – the options and opportunities have grown,” he says. “We’re getting to make a living doing our own thing, and we never thought we’d be able to do that.”
However, don’t expect a rosier outlook on the band’s next album. “Nothing changes… the generations of working-class hardship, it’s a different version of the same thing,” decries Hicklin. “I don’t know if that’ll ever change, that’s why people should encourage more working-class art. It’s rare in the public eye nowadays, and the only thing we can do is have a moan about it collectively,” he adds wryly.
With a second album in the works, Hicklin says audiences can expect to hear some new songs on the upcoming Australian tour, where they’ll be joined by Melbourne bands Radio Free Alice and Sex Mask.
“It will be nice to drip feed some of that to see what the reaction is live,” he says. While excited about their first visit to the country, he is less so about the gruelling schedule. “We’re there for three days. Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney – one each day. So, we’ll get a good impression of the Australian airports.”
See Big Special on their debut Australian tour here.
