Big Thief Returns to Its Roots On a Boston tour stop, the indie superstars riffed on sustainable success, artistic integrity, and more during an interview on campus.
By
John Mirisola
April 25, 2022
Big Thief (left to right): Buck Meek B.M. '10, Adrianne Lenker B.M. '12, James Krivchenia B.M. '14, and Max Oleartchik
Image by Kelly Davidson
This room used to feel bigger, Adrianne Lenker B.M. '12 said as she and her Big Thief bandmates took their seats for a live interview in a Berklee recital hall earlier this spring. Everything did.
This new sense of scale checks out. That same evening, Lenker, guitarist Buck Meek B.M. '10, drummer James Krivchenia B.M. '14, and bassist Max Oleartchik, would step onto another stage at Boston's Roadrunner concert venue, where they would play to a sold-out crowd of 3,500. Over seven years and five albums-most recently this year's sprawling success, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You-the band has amassed the sort of influence and acclaim thats fast approaching indie landmark status: Think of a band like their label-mates, the National. Think Arcade Fire. Think, if youre bold: Radiohead. If they haven't quite reached that level of clout yet, give it a few years.
Theres always someone who shreds better. Always. You cannot be the best. But what you can be is you.
- Max Oleartchik, bassist, Big Thief
The conversation that afternoon, which was presented for a group of high school musicians and moderated by Berklees dean of admissions, Damien Bracken, began at the very beginning, reflecting on the members earliest musical influences-Meek, for example, would play the broomstick along with Raffi VHSs-and following their paths through Berklee. Lenker recounted the story, now legend, of tracking down Bracken and playing him her original songs to convince him that, despite the fact that she couldnt read music and didnt know any theory, she deserved a spot at the college. (Bracken, to his great credit, knew how to spot a generational talent even if she couldnt yet sight read.)
Throughout the interview, it was easy to see that these were musicians attuned to the mystical, tough-to-explain side of their craft, and accustomed to the art of jamming. They drew energy from each others ideas, pulling out themes, and bridging the spaces between their individual experiences. What emerged over the course of that hour was a set of glorious, Big Thief-flavored riffs on many topics: origins, friendship, self-criticism, authenticity, sustainable success, vulnerability, and much more. What follows are some of the highlights from that conversation, edited for length and clarity.
On Berklees Greatest Lessons Before they ascended into the Pitchfork pantheon, most of the band members were right here, taking classes, jamming with new friends, and coping with the impostor syndrome that can take hold when you realize just how many good musicians a school like Berklee can gather in one place. Krivchenia remembered the experience of a good, solid ego death during his first year. Coming here, you really realize youre not the most special musician ever, he said to the room of potential future Berklee students-not to be a downer, but to offer a different way of seeing things. Theres a lot of really special musicians, he said, adding that it took him a while to shed that system of competition.
Theres always someone who shreds better. Always, said Oleartchik. You cannot be the best. But what you can be is you.
These were insights the whole band cosigned, encouraging the audience to find the instructors and friends who recognize you for who you are and understand the sort of artist you want to become.
Meek: It all starts with friendship...building an honest trusting friendship with someone and playing music from that place . When I really look back at all the things that you could call achievements, they all started with just a friendship.... Friendship is the most reliable way to build a career.
Listen to Buck Meek discuss his solo work, making the Big Thief album U.F.O.F., and meeting Joni Mitchell:
Lenker also spoke of learning self-validation through her time at Berklee:
Lenker: There were so many opportunities to think that I was not good at music, or failing, or not shredding hard enough.... It gave me an opportunity to reaffirm my own sense and compass for what I think is cool and good.... Its music, so if it feels good in your guts, youre doing it fine, youre doing it right.
These things [practice techniques, class content, etc...] are supposed to be mechanisms to get me closer to myself, and to expressing myself in a more fluid way. But if theres something that doesnt feel like its resonating, or a way of learning that doesnt feel right, thats okay, because its not about getting that thing right, its about connecting to...your inner pulse.... The real gold that we have is those sparks of awareness and feeling and little curiosities that we get. Thats the treasure.
On Big Thief's Beginnings After meeting as teenagers during a summer program at Berklee, Meek and Oleartchik fell out of touch. But when Meek, Lenker, and Oleartchik wound up in New York City, a chance encounter brought them back together. I just decided to smoke a cigarette next to this tree, Oleartchik recalls, and randomly-or maybe not randomly-I look to my left and Buck and Adrianne are walking towards me.... It had been 10 years. No text, no nothing...so it felt, like, from the stars. The band began in that moment, and it wouldnt take long before the current-day lineup solidified with the addition of Krivchenia on drums, who passed his audition without ever picking up a pair of sticks.
Want to Build a Career as a Performer?
Learn more about majoring in performance and how Berklee can help prepare you for achieving your career vision.
Lenker: James came
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
Big Thief Returns to Its Roots On a Boston tour stop, the indie superstars riffed on sustainable success, artistic integrity, and more during an interview on campus.
