Every September, I come back to Big Star. A band that have undoubtedly had a huge influence on me – even before I knew it. My first exposure to their music was through my friend Wilber, who used to spontaneously play Thirteen in gaps between songs in rehearsals at uni. I remember thinking at the time, “this is a great song,” not really knowing a great deal about the band.
It wasn’t until a few years later when my friend Rick gave me a full introduction to them, by way of their awesome song September Gurls – which he recommended to me after I’d told him And Your Bird Can Sing was (and still is) my favourite Beatles song. I went home and gave Radio City a full spin and instantly fell in love. Naturally, I did the same with Number 1 Record and it invoked similar feelings of “…how did I not know about this?”
There’s no doubt Big Star are princes of power pop – a genre I didn’t really know existed until I realised literally everything I love listening to loosely falls into it. Whenever I talk about power pop I can hear Chris Collingwood of Fountains of Wayne saying, “A lot of people say what we play is power pop – I don’t think I would call it that, so I would just say rock and roll.” I still maintain that Welcome Interstate Managers is the greatest album of all time – and I believe the best bits of the genre are found in both of these bands.
If I were to pin it down to a few things about Big Star that I love, one is the stripped-back feel of the instrumentation. I was only saying to my friend Andy earlier how I’ve always just loved two guitars, a bass and a drum kit – you really can’t beat it. Couple this up with beautiful, heartbreaking lyrics and throw in the odd unusual harmonic divergence, and I think you’ve got the perfect pop song.
If I look back at GEOFF II (the last album I made) there are a few standout moments where Big Star have massively influenced me. The first being the rhythm guitar sound in Mondays. I was definitely trying to achieve that Radio City ducky Strat sound – slightly broken up with a load of spring reverb, compressed to within an inch of its life. Having that as a starting point made me feel like I was in safe hands playing anything, that’s for sure. I think I even called the preset Big Star Rhythm Guitar in Logic.
Who Got The Girl is yet another song ripe with their influence – even though I wrote it before I knew who they were. When I first recorded the track, it was definitely firmly in the pop-punk genre (a la Green Day, etc.) but reinventing it for GEOFF II definitely pushed it firmly into the Big Star camp. The middle 8 breakdown section in particular was recrafted to pay homage to their Radio City sounds.
Another thing I take from Big Star is how they could be full-on one moment, then strip it all away the next. That push and pull has been on my radar every time I’ve arranged songs since getting to know and appreciate their work better. As two side-by-side pieces, GEOFF and GEOFF II represent those two sides of the coin – GEOFF being rawer, GEOFF II more expansive.
Every September, I come back to Big Star – and every year I end up taking something new away. There’s no doubt they’re influencing what I’m working on right now – but that’s another story for another day…
