Creating fantastically ethereal beats designed to transport listeners to a palace of otherworldly bliss, Big Deal are a music project forged by two best friends, and the latest signing of Mute Records.
“Swinging from a rope over a body of water. Building a log house in the woods. Playing basketball with your best friends and badminton with your family in the street under a canopy of trees. Falling in love with everything.” This is what the magically imaginative music of boy-girl band Big Deal sounds like. Playing guitar and sharing vocals, Alice Costelloe and Kacey Underwood are the B.D. duo who have recorded all of their material on basic GarageBand software, working from Kacey’s bedroom in Dalston. Basing their sound around D.I.Y. methods and techniques, the stripped-down simplicity of Big Deal’s music is honest and affecting.
Naming all their songs after the experiences the pair have shared, each lyric and instrumental score is very much a joint effort. And whether recounting melancholic moments of unrequited love or stories of fallen innocence, every chorus and melody comes from an intimate place. But the pals are reluctant to discuss influences or inspirations – Big Deal only want to play their music and leave the rest to our imagination. Occasionally exchanging charged glances onstage, reassuring each other in front of crowds, the quiet relationship between 17-year-old Alice and 32-year-old Kacey represents a mesmeric meeting of two different minds with emotive intent. Written by lovers for lovers, this is music for dreamers: acoustic shoegaze for lost moments and open hearts.
Text: Milly McMahon
Photography: Tatiana Leshkina
