' The Art of the Jam' - Big Sky Orchestra by Michelle Nevill

The jam band scene culture was born in the USA during the sixties. The founding fathers of this social experiment turned movement were none other than The Grateful Dead. A one-of-a-kind band, formed of an incredibly musically diverse group of individuals, who believed in constant experimentation of both music and mind.

The Grateful Dead and their open approach to music helped forge the path of a new counterculture within the US. Also heavily influenced and inspired by authors at the time such as Jack Kerouac who managed to inspire a whole generation and one Jerry Garcia with books such as ‘On the road’ and ‘The Dharma Bums.’ A sense of adventure instilled into teens at the time, as they breathed in the new dawn of possibilities and realised, they were in fact, endless.

When the Dead formed, they solidified their relationship with each other, and musically, through playing at The Acid Tests which were a series of parties in San Francisco hosted by Ken Kesey. It was a safe space for artistic and creative freedom. Where people could express themselves... and this is where The Grateful Dead started playing together. Expanding their minds and consciousness, this approach is what gave the Dead the insight and ability to not just play together, but to form a musical bond so strong that their ability reached new cosmic levels they weren't just playing music they were rewriting the rules, and anything was possible. Playing together in a way that had never been seen before. The art of the jam was born.
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Here in the UK, the scene isn't anywhere near as prevalent as in the US, but if you're in the know and you listen hard enough, you can hear the cries of crowds gleefully enjoying the waves of unpredictable musical connotations falling upon their ears, winding vividly through soundscapes of their minds and taking them on unexpected adventures. 

Big Sky is the limit! 

It is summertime 2023, I am in a field, under a big top on a radiant day dancing with wild abandonment, twirling in joy as the music carries me away, surrounded by the most beautiful of hippie folks. I close my eyes and enjoy the melodic jams emanating from the stage as I absorb them like a sponge. As I glance around me, all I see are the happiest faces, joyful and all present in that moment as we are all connected by the music.
The band on stage were Big Sky Orchestra, a five-piece UK based jam band originating from Birmingham. Playing their very own vision of Americana, entwined with elements of rock, funk, and twists of Jazz with talent far beyond their years. Completely independent and on a mission to share their music, in turn bringing the spirit and art of the jam to younger audiences anew.
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Summer 2025, I had arranged to meet James, Hannah, and Ben for an interview during an acoustic set in Dalston, London. Over the course of the summer, one interview turned into three. The final interview, gladly also including Luke and Sam, the jazz-driven rhythm section at their penultimate London gig on their first, AND remarkably close to, if not sold-out tour around the country. “What we do is we play the music that we want to hear” Hannah tells me. “We want there to be a scene, ideally as we grow, you know other bands will grow and the scene will form, and it can really be a thing. Now we just keep playing what we wish was everywhere.”

Over the course of these interviews and getting to know the band, it is glaringly evident to me, just how important the music is to them, and just how much passion and love they are pouring into every element from creating, making and playing the music, to behind the scenes, realising the importance of also retaining independence and control over their music and catalogue.

What do you love most about the art of the jam? I gleefully ask the band, delighted by my own question, as if I can’t believe I had the thought to ask it. Their faces all lit up as Hannah took a gasp “That’s such a good question!” “Who wants to go first?” James asks, “I have my answer” he says as Hannah enthusiastically encourages him, “go! Go!”

James proceeds to share with a smile as I can feel the pure joy as he answers “My favourite thing about jamming and the art of the jam, is the freedom of it, and the freedom of expression. In, like, our lives, especially, I found this as certainly the last five years and becoming an adult, having to do shit for myself, (we all laugh) you lose that childlike element of play.”

I interject; You’ve gotta keep it! You’ve gotta fucking keep it and don’t ever let that go! James, smiles “I’m trying not to” Ben replies “Being in this band is exercising that, isn’t it” James replies, “and that’s what I like! Being in this band is great, that’s what it is to me, just that absolute blank canvas of, I don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do, I don’t know what’s going to come out, if I’m having a bad day it might reflect that in how I play, or if I’m having a good day. Sometimes that will flip on its head and if I'm having a shit day, I'd be like that's the best thing I've ever played, but that's what that is to me. That's why it’s so important that we do that in our music and not stray from that path and follow the improvised thing, because that is the most important thing about music to me. The expression, the freedom, and the fact that we can do that is incredibly important and I don't think people do it enough.”

Hannah continues “I think for me, my favourite thing about the art of the jam, is that it's a real equaliser, it brings everybody into the same plain. Audience, musicians, cross musician, it's like, I don’t really know how to explain it, other than it makes it much easier to connect with other human beings in that state completely regardless of any hierarchy. You surrender yourself to the same thing, and the people that are listening, they surrender themselves to the same thing. When you're playing an instrument or contributing melodically in some way – you're no different to the person watching who is also contributing to the jam. I honestly feel when you're really jamming and it's actually happening and you're truly open to the improvisation that anything can happen and you leave your anxiety at the door, there is no gap, between you, the people on stage with you, and the people in the crowd, it's a total universal connection and it's one of the only places you can easily access that kind of human experience for not much money. You don’t have to take a hell of a lot out of yourself to get there.”

It's really fucking authentic! I add excitedly… and Hannah continues “It's amazing, and I'm fucking starved of it, I’m like a junkie for that shit, a real junkie for that!! My day job when I'm not doing music, is I'm an actor and that is why I'm doing it. I'm doing it to connect with people, I'm doing it to speak to people’s fucking gut, and I feel like that's really when you are jamming, you're ripe for that. It just happens.”

Ben adds “My favourite thing about the art of the jam, is presence, both internally and temporarily present. If you have a piece of music that you composed, and you always play it exactly the way you always play it and you don't have an improvised section, it can be a wonderful thing, and it's a little stamp or a statement. It's like you have an exhibition, as if you have a painting in an exhibition that can say something about the moment it was painted, it can also say something about your current moment through your lens of reflecting upon that, but it's static. When you're playing a jam it's as if a painting is on a wall, but it can fucking look at you, and that some way through looking at you it's an impossible thing to get in most forms of communication. The other thing that comes with the presence is when it's going well you can communicate with people in a nonverbal way; language is one of the most convenient tools we have for communication, but it is not the most effective for all types of communication. When you have musicians and audience members who are open to it and receptive, you can understand one another, even for slight moments, and you can't even remember it sometimes afterwards, exactly what it is in a nice way, in a fresh way, in a very present way. It can be a therapeutic experience to step outside of yourself and not be caught up in your own nonsense like we all are so often.”

Listening to the way they all talk about music, fills my arms with goosebumps. They are as eloquent with their words as they are their music. I am captivated by their story, I was surprised to learn of the deep connection formed between James, Ben, and Hannah, but thinking about it, I do feel like a deep connection is ever present on stage and in their music. I was delighted to hear the tale of how they met and how this fabulous musical connection was born.

James begins to tell me “Well, I guess the story starts with me and Ben. We met in school. It was through music; I had just moved to that school. Ben, I think, had been there a year before me. I had only recently picked up a guitar, and I’d heard that Ben played guitar. Ben was also into Metal and Slipknot, and I was big into Slipknot when I was ten. So, I went up to Ben and was like ‘I heard you were into Slipknot, heard you play guitar’ and we started a band?” (as he looks to Ben for confirmation) Ben replies enthusiastically “That was it, yeah, yeah, yeah, the first conversation when you asked me was did I, like, play? and I said, yeah, and you said, ‘Do you wanna start a band’ and that was that! We had a revolving cast of different characters with us, and now fourteen years after that, we’ve found this line up. Apart from slight changes, we’ve played together in the same band as our primary musical output since then.”

James continues: “Pretty much, there was a brief stint before where I was getting more into modern Indie music and drifting away and (directing to Ben) and you didn’t dig that so much, so we didn’t play together for about a year.”

“How old were you then?” Hannah asks, James replies “We were probably fifteen, and then I discovered The Grateful Dead and I think you’d heard like a few…” as he speaks to Ben and he replies “We both tripped over it independently of each other initially, and then once you got it, (Ben says to James) you turned me onto the live stuff. That was what changed my view of it, and I thought it was cool.”
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“…and that was kind of it” they say in unison. Ben adds “We understood what we wanted to do from there.” – “You came back together!” Hannah comments.

James tells me “That was the spark! It was listening to the dead, discovering the dead and being like, this is the best thing I’ve ever heard, I wanna do that!”

“Yeah” says Ben “We ended up coming together, well, (as he turns to James) it was your idea with another friend of ours to do a seventies rock thing initially.” James adds “We love, like, Steely Dan, and Zappa and Little Feat, so we made a record in my garage at my parents’ house when we were seventeen, eighteen.” Ben adds, “It was Gibney, Jeys, Dobson and Mann, like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as the band name.” James adds with a hint of humour “We were doing a rip off.,” “There was truly little in the way of harmony singing” Ben says and we all laugh. 

Was it like originals or covers? I ask, and both answer excitedly “All originals! It was twelve tracks.” Hannah informs me “It’s an amazing record, it’s on iTunes, it’s called ‘Hint of Lemon’ it’s really good. It’s quite tongue in cheek, it’s got a bit of story to the record, I would say.” Ben responds “We were listening to things like Frank Zappa at the time and Steely Dan, so there's some humour running throughout it. James played all the instruments on that record, apart from my guitar parts really.” James proudly adds “I even played drums on that record!” as Ben elaborates “It was also your first time as lead singer.” James nods in agreement “Yes! Yeah, I only played guitar and that was a bit of a daunting experience, eighteen was the first time I started singing.”

As you can imagine at eighteen there are so many moving pieces, so that formation of the band wasn’t to be, they tell me, and after some time James and Ben merged with another local band.

“They didn't have the same surnames as the people, as the last band.” Ben tells me “So we couldn't stick in the same family, so we renamed the band Big Sky Orchestra. Big Sky after ‘Montana,’ one of our favourite Frank Zappa tunes, and Montana being the Big Sky state so that's where we got to, that's the start of Big Sky Orchestra.” 

The deep-rooted connection doesn’t just apply to James and Ben, Hannah tells me. “Benedict and I knew each other as children; we used to do Ju jitsu together when we were kids.” Ben adds “From the age of seven to maybe ten or eleven…” Hannah continues, “I loved him when I was a kid. We even went on holidays together as our families were mates, and we went our separate ways at around age 12. I'd been in London for a few years, but I was back in Birmingham. So, my brother who was also a musician was like “Do you remember Benedict Mann?” and I was like “Yeah, I think about him quite a lot” - She giggles and continues “and he said ‘he’s playing in a band at the Dark Horse. Do you want to go?’ So, I saw them and immediately, when I saw Benedict play, I didn't know James at the time, and the previous line up of the band. I just immediately fell in love with Benedict, I knew 100% that's the person I wanted to be with forever.”
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“The music was really surprising to me.” Hannah continues “We’d been to a bunch of gigs in Birmingham, and you know, you go to a gig and you take a punt, you're not expecting for it to always be amazing, especially if you don't know the band. The quality was just so high, and I was like WOAH! We're like in a random pub in Brum and this is like amazing music, then we got together extremely quickly.” Ben swiftly adds “Well, we fell in love that night, and then we didn’t see each other for two weeks.” He continues. “Hannah’s brother was playing a show, obviously I was going to see him anyway, of course, but I thought Hannah would be there. So, I go and we met and then we just...” Ben pauses… “Talked until 6am” Hannah adds and I can feel the love between them as they continue to share their epic love story. She continues “…and then in a few days we went to Paris together, got together there and when we got home, I moved in!” Ben adds “Which is crucial, obviously for both of our lives, because we're now married, but also crucial for the development of the band.”

Speaking of the development of the band, I asked curiously. “Have you found any challenges in terms of how you all play and how you jam together, especially as Sam and Luke joined at a later point after your already established musical relationship?”

James answers, “What helped with Luke when he first joined is that he’s from a Jazz background, and when we met him, he would play once a week at this pub in Birmingham. It would just be a Jazz jam, and they would play standards, but also, would be free and improvise, and that ability to improvise really lent itself to the jam band thing. I don't think Luke knew about The Grateful Dead, he might have heard them but didn't know about the jam band thing.

Ben adds “Sam was my teacher when I was kid, he didn't teach me guitar or anything. He taught me about music theory, like how to write music, and stuff, that's his, well, one of the many things he can do in the world, and he can do everything, but how he came in, we asked him to play with us, almost as a favour because we didn't have a bass player. I hadn't seen him play bass before, I also hadn't seen him for, like, ten years at this point. He came in and played, and we were like “Holy Shit!” James and Hannah, both tell me “He’s REALLY good!” Ben continues to tell the story expressing his level of admiration for Sam’s mad bass skills “He’s fuckin’… I can’t believe!!!! And he just came back again the next month, and again the next month, and eventually we just asked him, “Do you want to join the band?” Luckily, he said yes! Yes, we spotted him well, man, a rising star!!”

“He can lend himself to that improvisation and jam element of it because he’s a really seasoned musician and a really great musician, he just knows his instruments really well.” James declares as Hannah adds “He can play anything…”

Ben continues “The thing is, the difficult part was not when we found Luke or when we found Sam or when they found us, or playing with them. The difficult part was the fifteen years James, and I spent playing with musicians and it not working out. You know it's kind of always been a philosophy of ours, not trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, if it's not the right fit, we always kind of knew that it wouldn’t be the right set up and so it has been over a decade long process of finding the band. When it’s been right, basically by design, when it's been the right people, they just slotted right in.”

One thing I love about Big Sky is their desire to remain authentic to the vibe of the jam, which is less through recorded and released music, but more through playing live and honing their skills in a way that only playing live can really bring. After watching these folks for so long, I can verify that you’ll never hear the same song played in the same way twice, and there will always be a new element to any live show that they perform. Hannah tells me “I think the challenge with the jam band stuff is time that we're allotted at the venue, it depends where we're playing, when we had the residency, we could play for four hours.”

The residency was at The Dark Horse in Birmingham, I can feel the affection with which the band speaks of these days, James says “Yeah, so, that was us very much like us cutting our teeth in that venue.”

Hannah elaborates “It's quite funny, we were just sort of experimenting and trying things. You look back at some of the videos from that time and some of its way more exciting and interesting than I remembered and how I paint those shows in my head. Sometimes, it was, like, slightly, not down on them, but that was a thing we did. Then occasionally I see these videos and see an amazing jam happening and just think, it's pretty good, it’s better than I give it credit for. I think we learned a lot in that time. We were just playing this random pub in Birmingham and trying to turn it into Fillmore East upstairs.” We all laugh and James adds “We got close a couple of times. The majority of shows in that venue were...” He pauses “dubious.” He says with a jovial tone.
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“There wasn't much of a scene there at that time.” Hannah comments “We aren't really in Brum, so it's hard to know what the vibe is there now, but there were times where there were more people on stage than in the room.” She laughs and Ben adds “Especially because sometimes we would have two full drum kits on stage, and all sorts of crazy things...” “Congas!” Hannah recalls, “GONGS!” Ben adds and James continues “Yeah, we were experimenting....”

I think we can all agree that experimenting, especially in the realms of a jam band is crucial, but if you’re not recording every single show, are you even a jam band? I ask the band about their plans for future releases and if in the true spirit of the jam they have any plans for a live album. “YES!” they all answer collectively and with pure enthusiasm. “We have a few things, that year we did a residency, we kind of have a best of record, of choice cuts.” Hannah shares “We generally record every show, and we get all the stamps, give it to Sam and he does the Mix.”

“So yeah for 2024, we have everything.” James tells me “We do have a vault. The tough thing with us, is that as we are relatively new or at least figuring ourselves out especially now, more than ever, and we kind of know where we are going, we are getting out there and evolving. It's hard to look back sometimes at the shows, especially now I play an acoustic on stage, I run it through peddles, it can still get crazy effects, but back then it was a full electric band, so the sound is a little bit different to the shows we play now. When we listen back to the older stuff. It's great, but we don't know where we stand, like, do we put it out as a representation of where we are now, or is it always going to be the cat and mouse game of when you record something, when are you going to release it.” Hannah adds “You're always improving. If you're always better than you were a year ago, then you're never going to be happy releasing last year’s stuff.” James ponders “Maybe that's something that we're meant to figure out, as being a jam band.” Ben reassures “I think so, I think there’s an element of if that’s what it was at the time, we enjoyed it at the time. People enjoyed it at the time.” James agrees “It captures the moment in time.”

“We're dropping a single from the spring run, which I think you were at, Chelle.” James tells me “The gig at Paper Dress, Mr Charlie is going to come out” Fucking wicked! I reply, that was SO good, I danced SO fucking hard!” Hannah responds “: It was a great show; it was a great moment for us. It's the last day of tour, we had three days in a row, and it was the end of that Spring run, not tour, but every weekend we did and it's grown and grown and grown, more fresh faces coming to the shows. You'll remember that show was full, which for a completely independent band, it really means something that people have shown up and paid for a ticket to be there.” 

Detecting the importance of independence to Big Sky and their desire to remain authentic to their art and the music, I ask them if they would have any interest if they were approached by the industry. “We’re super reluctant” Hannah tells me and James agrees “We are.”

Hannah continues “: The main thing that is the pull from the industry is this idea of money, because you can then put money into the studio, into advertising to reach audiences like these festival spots that people pay for.” Features people pay for, I add! “Exactly” Hanna replies “the truth is, that's not real money, that's a debt and we are not particularly interested in getting into debt, (laughs) we have full confidence that we can do it ourselves. We know we can do it; we all share a kind of global ambition, an endless ambition. I don't think any of us see a limit to what the band can do, it can grow and find its people forever.” James shares “I think we are all very much of the idea that we want to take it as far as we can take it. You know.” The BIG SKY is the limit! I say excitedly and James replies “Absolutely, we need to find where our limit is.”

“If you have a label or a manager trying to rein you in and sell you, it's sort of a compromise that we'd be unwilling to make overall.” Hannah tells me, and Ben adds “There is no point. There's no point, it doesn't make you loads of money, it doesn't make you popular in ways, it doesn't do anything productive, apart from you get to do something that you really want to do and love, that you have a relationship with. If you sacrifice that relationship, you've lost, there's no logical reason to do it anymore if you lose that.”

Hannah shares “A lot of people who make art in the business, or I don't know, friends of parents and they see you, and they ask ‘how's the music going, tough industry’ you can say that if you want, but you can also say we are getting to play the music, and do the things that we want to do because we have empowered ourselves to just fucking do it. It helps that (she suggests to James) that you've quit your job.” Ben interjects “James does all the graphics, there's this whole artistic side that James contributes too, that’s not musical to the whole thing. We have Sam doing the mixing and both Sam and Luke are full time musicians, Luke's a jazz drummer.” James adds “We do understand that we are in a lucky position.” Hannah agrees “Really lucky.” Ben also comments “Everything is in house” I smile as I respond “That's good, you can manage everything so much better, it gives you complete autonomy over your music and time, yay! I am SO happy for you all.”

Being on the road, and the adventure that brings is one of the biggest and most magical parts of being in a band, taking and delivering the music out to the world, especially if you’re in a jam band, connection and community are such a big thing. As we sit around the table, in the outdoor area at the pub where they’re playing, this being from the first interview I conducted with them. I ask them about their up-and-coming tour, is this the longest run of dates that you’ve done?

“Consecutively” James tells me, and Hannah adds, “It’s our biggest run of consecutive days, and we’ve never shared a van together” they’re all smiling and laughing, James says “No, this could be a real treat!” Hannah replies “It will put all our relationships to the test.” You’ll be surprised, I say, this will be a real trip! “We’re hoping that people can come along for the ride,” Hannah responds. “Yeah” James says, “tickets are doing better than what we anticipated which is really cool to see” He seems surprised, but I’m not.

One of my favourite aspects of this piece is the range of time that it covers, and I feel truly honoured that I have been present and here to witness and discuss the first tour of BSO and to capture their before and after. What an absolute pleasure. As I stand with the full band, on the street, outside the venue, at their penultimate show on this tour, with one show remaining in Brighton. Luke and Sam are also here, which is my first proper time meeting them and I’m really pleased that we managed this last chat, which wasn’t planned, but I feel that it would be a wonderful way to conclude the story.

When we last spoke, you were all really looking forward to tour, can you tell me how the experience has been? James replies “It’s been a lot of fun, playing every night has been a dream, and keeps the adrenaline going. I think we have learnt a lot on the road. This is the first time that we’ve done it, and we have done it all ourselves, we didn’t have a driver, Ben drove the whole way, we didn’t have roadies, so we’ve loaded into venues, hotels. Logistics are tough and me, Ben and Hannah are romantic idealists when it comes to being in Big Sky Orchestra. We like to go balls to the wall on what we’re going to do, and maybe sometimes overlook certain logistical elements of it, but I think what we’ve learnt is, next time, we will have someone who can take the van away…. Chelle you’ll be more than welcome.” I’ll be your tour manager. I joke “We need it” James admits. I wonder if he knows I can’t drive.

I tell them the tale of how aghast I was at their tour schedule when I saw five consecutive dates in a row and knowing what an undertaking that really is. Ben addresses the group “it was mad, wasn’t it. It was completely nonstop.” I asked if they could have put a gap in there in good humour, James replies laughing “Should have. We were going to do Bristol on the Wednesday but thankfully we couldn’t book a venue” Ben elaborates “Yeah, I mentioned to Sam that we couldn’t book a venue in Bristol and Sam was like, just take the fucking day off.” Sam replies “If they’re like romantic idealists, I’m going to be the brutal realist. I’ve been there and it’s tiring but it can be done, it can be done.” Luke adds “We’ve got by, we need a roadie desperately though, that would take the load off so much, I feel like we could go for weeks if someone just took the gear in and out.” He laughs.

Aside from logistics, have there been any standout memories, favourite moments from the road? Luke shares openly “I feel like in Leeds it was a bit of a slow start, but then after Leeds each show has gotten progressively better, and we’ve just played in London to how many people?” Sam replies “It’s mad isn’t it” Luke continues “I don’t know how many people.” The venue was rammed, I tell them, Hannah said it was about a hundred tickets, nearly sold out. Luke responds, “That’s like the biggest Big Sky headlining gig that we’ve ever done, so can’t complain at all.” Sam shares “I think it was surprising like going to Manchester / Nottingham on Sunday/Monday, they were both really busy nights…” How does it feel to have folks going out of their way to see you? I ask, and Sam enthusiastically states “It feels amazing!” as Ben adds “So strange, yeah.! As James agrees “Honestly, it is a bit, Ben and I were talking just after we played tonight, and this is the biggest show that we’ve done, 100% and in our careers as musicians.” Ben replies “Yeah, where it’s like, Big Sky being the draw rather than being at a festival and hopping on somebody else’s audience, for it to be primarily a Big Sky show.”

“It’s mad that people are here.” James tells me “I said it, on the mic, but it’s crazy that people are coming to see our music. To us, especially to me and Ben, the way that I certainly see it, we are still the people that did ‘Hint of Lemon’ and we’re just kinda fuckin’ around in the garage. Sam and Luke are killer players, it’s amazing that they play with us, and I’m so grateful that they do play with us. We are just incredibly mind blown and grateful that people like what we do, and it’s something that they wanna spend their money on and come out on a Friday night, in London. Especially since there is tons of shit they could be doing, they’ve chosen to be with us, and we couldn’t ask for more.”

One stand-out moment to me for Big Sky on this tour, and curious of the story behind it, is a simple white t-shirt, with a slogan on it. It states ‘We are one human race under this big sky’ I ask Hannah if she would like to share the story behind this strong, yet comforting statement.

“Yes! Um, it started when we were rehearsing, we rehearse in our hometown of Birmingham, where the rhythm cats still live and it is easy to get to for us. Unfortunately, Birmingham and Bromsgrove and surrounding areas are where all flags started going up around the UK to spread a message of hate and racism, and I was shocked seeing them all there. In London you don’t really see it because it’s such a diverse place.”

“So, we are in our hometown and there’s just racism everywhere, really shocking, and it felt really messed up, I was really um, shaken by it. I grew up mixed race in Birmingham, and I never ever felt unwelcome in my hometown, then suddenly, I felt unwelcome. It was weird, so we talked about it, and the whole band was supportive.” Hannah continues, “The guys suggested we use this tour as an opportunity to do something about it, we are going across the whole country, from North to South and these places that we’ve never been before. We get in front of rooms with loads of people, it’s an opportunity to genuinely share what we want to, to say things in front of people, so we decided to kind of spread a message and on that day, this phrase came to me, ‘We are one human race under this big sky’ and it kind of felt like it’s been hiding in the name of the band. We decided that night that we were going to make a load of free t-shirts and tote bags with this message on. Do a little bit in the middle of the set to talk about it and give these things out, and oh my god, I could not believe the reception! Seriously under prepared, we made hundreds of these things, and they were all gone by the time we got to our hometown, which is where we needed it the most (Laughs) which is kind of amazing and it’s just a massive fuel under us to just do more. What the public are seeing is the voice of the nasty racist minority. Most people are welcoming, loving, tolerant and understanding. Cosmopolitan really. The public view does not really reflect that; you just see the flags. You don’t see, not flags, you don’t see the other flags, you don’t see anti racist stuff, so we wanted to put something out in the public eye that reflects what we think majority of people truly believe, which is that we are one human race under this big sky.”

Such a beautiful and required sentiment, I can confirm I am now a proud owner of one of these shirts. In awe of the comradery and unified connection the band have expressed, I asked the rest of the band their thoughts. James shares “When we were rehearsing, Hannah shared her emotions about it to us…Hannah excluded, we are four, white, straight British males with no other… he pauses and Ben at the speed of light jokes “discernible talent….” as everyone roars with laughter and James continues “I imagine a lot of people who live in this country, maybe the same age, people in the same position, because it doesn’t affect us directly, it’s something, not that we struggle to relate to, but maybe when our peers who are kind of influenced and affected by that, we maybe don’t pay as much attention to that as we should. I think it really hit me, that one rehearsal, we all stand for that, we all truly believe in it, the message of we are one human race under this big sky, differences, or anything, it doesn’t matter to us.”

It’s such a true statement I add and James continues “Absolutely, and it kind of shone a light on it, in that rehearsal, fuck, maybe we aren’t doing enough for it, and it was a great opportunity that we had, that we were rehearsing for this tour, and thought, well fuck, we’ve got this great message to spread.” Ben replies “It’s also a moment, when it’s easy in our position to feel like it’s a political thing, and a sense of frustration at the way the world is, politically in this country. It’s not outwardly obviously threatening to any of us, so it was a reality check. Realising the actual threat of this nonsense, and that we could do something to change it. It becomes more real when you have some sense of empowerment, you can engage with it a little bit more, you can take it to heart a little bit more, instead of feeling like it’s a piece of bad news, you know.”

I do, I have a massive sense of respect for the band, it isn’t easy to stand by what you believe in, it takes real courage and strength to do that, something that Big Sky as whole has shown they have in spades. They have no fear, they are real, raw, and unwavering, not to mention the nicest people you will ever meet.

I have adored this time with James, Ben, Hannah, Sam, and Luke. When I knew I was going to start Rhythm of Red again, I wasn’t sure of much, but I was sure that I wanted Big Sky to be the first feature I wrote. The first story I wanted to tell. They are beyond deserving of every success and I hope that in hearing their story, you are intrigued enough to seek out their music, and as much as the recorded music is great, and it is, I highly recommend that you make it to a show and experience the brilliance of Big Sky Orchestra in all their glory, live. I don’t think there will be long to wait!

As we all say in the dead head community, get on the bus!