In this interview, Big Scaries, formed by Gavin and Dean, reflect on how a loose creative partnership gradually turned into something more defined. What began as a low-pressure collaboration, built on friendship and experimentation, slowly revealed its own direction as songs started to take shape and resonate beyond their initial expectations.
At the center of their current work is Lucy, a character that acts less as a fixed figure and more as a shared lens through which themes of youth, escape, and uncertainty unfold. As the duo discuss the origins of their sound and storytelling, they also hint at what’s next, with a new chapter already forming around another character and a deeper emotional scope.
– Big Scaries started as a collaboration that “wasn’t supposed to be folk”. At what point did you realize you’d accidentally created something that actually worked?
Dean and I always had a great connection as friends and there was an obvious creative spark. We felt it even when goofing around together, improvising songs using random Tinder bios for lyrics. However the birth of Big Scaries was truly when Dean approached me with lyrics and the rough song structure for what would become our single “Lucy is Sentimental”. At first I was a bit hesitant with it being folk-based. I had strictly said I was not interested in another folk band since that was what my own solo project catered to and I was feeling the itch to branch out. Be that as it may, as we fleshed out the song further I conceded when I saw the final product was promising. It wasn’t until we submitted the song in a competition called New Moon that we realized we had something we could elaborate on and wanted to pursue it. – Gavin
– What’s the story behind the name Big Scaries?
We became obsessed with coming up with the band name. We were texting about it every day, discussing it over drinks, and constantly changing our mind. We had briefly settled on the name King Milling which drew inspiration from my hometown. Then in passing, a close friend of ours talked about some casual change in her life that she referred to as being “big scaries” for her. That’s when I said, “That’s the name”. Gavin was sold as well. It suited the uncertainty that comes with youthful exploration and taking chances. We could immediately see the imagery that accompanied it. – Dean
– You met through a songwriting competition you didn’t win. Do you think not winning actually gave you more freedom to explore your sound?
Lucy is not anyone in particular but rather a projection of sorts. We’re all Lucy at some point. She’s this adventurous side of you, wanting to be free of your problems and getting lost in the moment. She is also a reflection of the people we know with us collecting slices of friends’ stories to mesh together into a musical hodge podge. Perhaps also with pieces of our own childhood sprinkled intermittently throughout the storytelling. However, we implore listeners to come to their own conclusions without our input.
– Each track captures a different side of youth; sentimentality, rebellion, escape. Did you always envision the EP as a narrative arc, or did that emerge over time?
We let the story develop over time, but it wasn’t always initially planned to be a full narrative. When we first wrote “Lucy is Sentimental”, it was a raw form of musical exploration to see what it would be like if we merged forces. Lucy was simply the focal point for that experimentation. Over time, the songs revealed themselves as we kept working together and the story grew, so I don’t think we even knew we would be developing this concept until we were already deep in Lucy’s world.
– You’re already working on a new character, Margot. How will her story differ from Lucy’s and what part of yourselves are you exploring next?
