Biography
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Founded In
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States
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Members
- A.H.M. Butler-Jones
- Damon Fox
- Thom Sullivan
Damon Fox: vocals, organ, mellotron, synthesizers, piano, guitar
Ace Mark: lead & rhythm guitars, slide guitar
Duffy Snowhill: bass
Froth: drums & gong
Flaunting a style that is unparalleled, Bigelf have forged a sound all their own: heavy pop rife with epic guitars, maniacal keyboards and rich, sophisticated harmonies laid over a foundation of hallucinatory hard rock. Working within their carefully constructed pop framework, they have injected a diabolical sound quality with quasi-psychedelic overtones, where demonic timbres are mingled with explosive experimental passages. Bigelf is a cutting edge, musical experience unlike anything else out there today.
Although they’re based in L.A., the band have already blown open the European market where they’ve developed a fanatic following. Now the band is primed for an assault on America. And with bands like The Darkness, Jet and The Mars Volta striking a nerve with young music fans, the time is right for these black-dressed long-haired prophets of doom.
“Today’s music is too mechanical and homogenized,” says lead singer and songwriter Damon Fox. “Songs are vacant of human feeling and real musicianship, they’re just cut up in the studio with Pro Tools. I think people are drawn to Bigelf because we make real music.” That “real music” emanates from vintage equipment Fox has been collecting since he was a teen growing up in Laurel Canyon.
Live, the band is completely over the top. Once a listener recovers from the initial shock of seeing how much equipment the band hauls onstage for a live performance, it’s easy to understand how this Brit-pop-crazed quartet achieves its gargantuan sound. Fox’s massive keyboard setup is strewn out in Baptist-chorus-sized proportions; his mighty C3 histrionics, majestic Mellotron soundscapes and lashes of fat modular synthesis meld with the heavy down-tuned Gibson guitars and mesmerizing solos supplied by Ace Mark. Froth’s herculean drumming on his classic Hayman kit is underpinned by the propulsive basslines of Duffy Snowhill, thundering out of his princely Acoustic 360 cabinet. Their bludgeoning live performances boast theatrics reminiscent of rock shows from the 70s. Fox sings with so much intensity and conviction that “sometimes I’m so into it, I lose my voice” he says. “I went to a vocal coach and he said, you can’t sing every show like it’s your last. But that’s exactly what I do, I can’t fake it.”
The sonic alchemists of Bigelf are no newcomers to the now-trendy retro rock scene. They have their own identity firmly established through years of developing and modifying their own DNA into a powerful new kind of music in the tradition of the great rock acts from the past. “We’re bringing real rock ‘n’ roll back to the table,” Fox explains, “rock ‘n’ roll the way it used to be made, but with a modern hybrid twist. We’re carrying the torch forward for this genre.” He continues, “I compare us with Morpheus from the movie, “The Matrix”. People today are in a programmed state of listening to music and they are not aware of it. We are trying to wake people up and free them from the Matrix.” Welcome to the revolution.
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