In early 2014, duo Big Gigantic set themselves apart from other electronic acts with the release of their full length album, “The Night is Young,” illustrating their experimental open-mindedness to different music styles. By playing completely live sets, it eliminates the “press play” (unfortunate) stereotype that is common in electronic music performances. Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken of Big Gigantic fully embrace being an electronic duo with Dom on sax/turntables and Jeremy on drums. By finding a medium between groovy, funky, hip-hop, and bass, Big Gigantic’s groundbreaking music has resulted in a sound that keeps the crowds jamming out to their legendary live performances and has earned them top spots at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, and Lollapalooza. I had the pleasure of sitting down with the guys before their dope set at Moonrise Festival in Baltimore, Maryland.

SR: Where or when did you guys learn to play sax/drums?

Dom: I basically just started in school pretty much. My mom asked if I wanted to be in band and I said yeah sure. It kinda just happened, but we did a lot of music in my family. I did piano lessons and my mom is a singer. I just decided to stick with it. Got my Master’s Degree at Manhattan School of Music in New York.

Jeremy: I started playing drums when I was really young and kinda ended up playing in middle school which is where I really started. It’s just been something I’ve done most of my life.

SR: Did you guys stick to instruments by choice? Or were you pressured by your parents to stick with it?

Dom and Jeremy: Not so much.

SR: That’s good!

Jeremy: Yeah it’s not like when you’re little and you do piano lessons and your parents are like “you gotta keep playing!”

Dom: YEAH CLASSICAL MUSIC!

Jeremy: Ha but no, I think we both really loved it.

Dom: Piano was one of those things though…

Jeremy: Oh yeah, I sucked at piano.

Dom: My mom wanted me to keep playing piano. And now I’m like “fuck, I wish I would have stayed with it.” Cause now every morning when I wake up and I start listening to music, I can hear the piano in the song.

Jeremy: It gets it going.

Dom: It’s literally the main component in music. It has everything: the rhythm, the harmony, the melody, the percussion, the bass…it’s very well rounded.

SR: I did guitar and back then I was kinda pushed a little bit with my parents saying “you should stick with it!” So after a while, I was like “ehhhh I’m really over this.” I wish I stuck with it because I want to master an instrument. I mean, I did recorder in 3rd grade but…everyone has to…do that. It’s soooo lame.

Jeremy: *chucks* It’s funny that recorder is what they make kids do. I think everybody had to do that in elementary school. Oh GOD…just the tone of that is so high. Can you image a bunch of kids who don’t know how to play anything and they’re squealing on these little things?

Dom: And as the teacher you’re like ‘whoa whoa whoa everybody stop. Please. Just stop.’

SR: Then there’s always that one kid in your class who is just so loud and obnoxious on purpose.

Jeremy: They’re like “I just wanna fuck with everybody.”

Jeremy: ……..I like that guy.

SR: What was your first sold out gig?

Dom: Ha, our first sold out gig was really our first gig!

SR: Really!?

Dom: I mean, it was a 250 capacity room.

SR: Psh, still! Sold out = sold out

Dom: We were lucky that that was the case. We have a good run. A really good run of going up to it. Our first tour and our first bus tour. We still sell out most of our shows, not everything, but yet again sometimes we play really huge rooms.

Jeremy: We did our best.

SR: “WE TRIED.”

Jeremy: I mean 4,000 capacity room….we did our best!

SR: You guys just had a remix contest for “Get On Up.” What really made the winner stick out? What about their remix did you like?

Dom: There was a lot of things. We obviously want someone who is really creative and does something unique and special. We also take production value…you know cause that’s a big piece in the pie.  You know what I mean? We all kinda had a few favorites and it was definitely hard to pick because there was a lot of really cool, unique remixes. It was a tough choice, but we also wanted to pick a remix that we could play during our sets. So all those things combined. But now-a-days there’s so many talked producers in their bedroom.

 

SR: Yeah there are some really young kids.

Dom: Yeah and they’re making really dope shit and it’s awesome. We love that.

SR: Alright so MadFam. Holla. I was on Mad Decent Boat Party with yall.

Dom: Nice, we were just talking about that!

SR: So you guys had two completely different sets for that. You played a jammy set and a bassy set. What do you guys normally prefer if you had to choose?

Dom: Right in the middle. I think that’s still us trying to work on our sound and get it where we want it. I like both. It depends on what I’m doing, but as Big Gigantic, I like to do both.

Jeremy: It’s definitely nice to have a touch on both sides. In a situation like that, it’s good to split it up when you have two nights of playing at the same event. There’s only so many people around so it’s really fun to go right in the middle.

SR: ……so why aren’t you guys going this year?

Dom: We didn’t get the…yeah.

SR: What!?

Jeremy: Cause we aren’t on the label or anything obviously, so you have all of those guys that are gunna be there every year cause they’re on the label. We were, and always have been, super tight with those guys. They kinda took us in and we’ve done a lot of the Mad Decent Block Party dates and hopefully we will be back next year.

Dom: I just saw all those guys the other day because we played the block party in LA. But something didn’t work out for whatever reason.

Jeremy: If we have time off I would just love to fucking go again. Will you be going again?

SR: Oh yeah, I’m definitely going again!

Jeremy: Nice. That was one of my favorite experiences. Plus they hooked us up with a dope room. There was like 4 suites on that thing. Wes [Diplo] had one of the more one bedroomy type rooms. And Skrillex had this other smaller one and then there were two huge suites where it was like piano, we had our own hot tub, we had a deck.

Dom: Everyone came over every night.

Jeremy: Yeah it was insane. Like Dillon..Kygo playing piano, I would play sax, everyone was getting wasted and everyone was in there all night. We had the room that was overlooking the pool deck. So if you’re looking at that stage, you can see that window. We’d just stand there and be like ‘yoooooooo!’

SR: Basically just pointing and laughing saying “ha you can’t see us!” Cause I mean, I would look up there and I couldn’t see shit.

Jeremy: You can kinda see it from the right angle. We tried to check.

Dom: We were like ‘how did they get us….this…room?’ So then this year they were like ‘ha, now you can’t back!’ *laughs* No just kidding.

SR: You guys just went too hard! Pianoed too hard, saxed too hard.

Jeremy: Since everyone would always come in the room, I don’t think anyone wanted that room for themselves. If the Zed guys got it, it would be the rager room. And you know, someone else might be like ‘well why’d you give it to them [Zeds Dead]!’ Like if Dillon got it, what if the Zeds Dead guys or Floss were like ‘I wanted that room.’ So I think it was easy to give it to us cause we’re on the outside.

SR: Yeah you’re not gunna put it on blast and be like “HEY GUYS, MY ROOM IS AWESOME, IS YOURS!?”

Jeremy: We were also like homies with everyone so we just wanted everyone to come over and hang out. It turned out to be a pretty damn good time.

SR: Yeah it was a lot of fun.

Jeremy: I mean, I would want that room again. We’d be like “we’ll play…BUT….we need that same room.”

SR: Just knock on the door and be like “oh sorry, you gotta get out.”

Jeremy: “Yeah you don’t wanna stay in here, it’s boring. Too many people.”

Dom: That’s why the Floss guys wanted it this year. You think I don’t know! *laughs*

SR: You guys just did Electric Forest. My friend Carlos, you played on his RV, he’s a MadFam too. How was that experience?

Jeremy: It was epic.

Dom: Oh man it was so fucking awesome.

SR: How many people were there?

Dom: I heard a couple thousand.

Jeremy: There were people everywhere. Down in the RV area…it spread around…so there were people everywhere.

Dom: It was so cool looking around.

SR: People are just attracted to music. You hear loud music, you’re tempted to see who is behind the loud music. What time was that at?

Jeremy: About 5am or something.

Dom: Yeah it was definitely sunrise. I think we finished around 6. Well, I think we were there for a couple good hours. Maybe from 4:30am to 6am? It just went by so fast! I had the mic on the table we were DJing on and I’d grab my sax and just play sax like this *leans downward pretending to play sax*

Jeremy: He usually has a wired mic attached and clipped on or whatever.

Dom: So I’d grab mic, be like “YEAH YEAH YEAH,” put the mic down, grab the sax. Play.

SR: Hold on guys lemme put my mic down *leans downward pretending to play sax*

Dom: *laughs* Yeah and I’d look over there and you’re [Jeremy] just sitting on the RV smiling.

Jeremy: Yeah I mean it was great cause I knew all the tunes.

Dom: I was just like: *makes really great saxophone impression sounds*

Jeremy: He played the weirdest, wonkiest tune. It was something.

SR: Would you guys do it again?

Jeremy: Fuck yeah!

Dom: Oh yeah!

Jeremy: We’re gunna do something really cool that will top that.

SR: OOOOO during your tour?

Dom: Maybe. We’re gunna be like jumping out of a plane…like a Tom Cruise thing and dive in.

Jeremy: Did you go to the new Mission Impossible?

Dom: No no, I didn’t see it. I just read something about it.

SR: It was snapchat geofilter thing. Pretty random. And speaking of festivals, what has been your favorite festival you’ve played at so far?

Jeremy: Ever?

SR: Ever.

Dom: Electric Forest was pretty epic this year.

Jeremy: Hangout Festival is always pretty fun. It’s in Alabama on the beach. It’s beautiful. It’s just cool playing on the beach.

SR: True, like Electric Adventure last weekend on the beach.

Jeremy: It’s like that but further south and way bigger.

Dom: It’s like a Coachella or Lollapalooza or something like that, but on the beach.

Jeremy: They have VIP viewing decks with these two pools set up at the viewing deck so you can be in the pool while watching the show. Man that festival is one of my favorites. Coachella is awesome. Bonnaroo too…been there a bunch of times. There’s a lot of cool and different experiences. Like being on the beach, being at Bonnaroo, being in a forest. Lollapalooza is downtown in a park in Chicago.

SR: I’ve seen pictures of Lollapalooza and the view looks awesome.

Dom: Yeah that’s a cool festival. Coachella is on beautiful grounds with palm trees. It’s cool bouncing around. Even things like Mysteryland being at Woodstock. But yeah, it’s hard to pick a favorite.

 

 

If you’re on the West Coast, don’t forget to snag tickets for their Get On Up tour here.