Big Special – TREES
2023
1.9K Likes
Best comments
1.“In these trying times, it does my soul good to know that even the likes of Brutus and Popeye can be brought together by music.”
More comments
- 2.“You guys deserve to be bigger than Asia (the continent, not the progressive band)!”
- 3.“Ooo... Dad's smoking buddy sent me this. Glad he did.”
The story
Big Special are two lads from the Black Country, the old industrial patch of England's West Midlands. Joe Hicklin sings, or preaches, or just talks at you. Callum Moloney plays drums. They met at 17, and the band only happened more than a decade later, after Hicklin wrote songs during the COVID lockdowns and sent a demo to Moloney, who talked him into doing it for real.
TREES came out in December 2023, the last new music of a busy year for them. Hicklin says it's about ritual: the habits and little crutches we lean on to get through life, and the tug-of-war between doing the responsible thing and treating yourself. His verdict, roughly, is that life is hard, so have the slice of cake and skip the guilt.
The video keeps it simple. The two of them perform it and stare straight down the lens like they're daring you to look away. The song starts as a slow rumble, boils over into a racket and then cuts off dead. Five months later their debut album, Postindustrial Hometown Blues, went top 40 in the UK.
