Big Big Train has evolved throughout its 30-plus years into one of the leading bands of modern progressive rock. They have settled into arguably their strongest lineup and are about to release a true masterpiece of a record called Woodcut on February 6. Recently, Big Big Train vocalist Alberto Brevin took some time to discuss their new work with me.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Alberto Bravin interview –
On the plot of Woodcut – So this time we decided for actually go for a concept, a proper concept album. There is a story going from the beginning to the end of the album and the main character is this artist that is creating a piece of art. He’s going so into his work and into the way he is cutting this piece of wood and creating this kind of world, new world that he cannot understand anymore if he is reality or he is actually into his creation. So, it is quite interesting because I can, I could see, I could picture this while actually I was recording vocals, or I was thinking about the overall album. This artist actually could be a musician creating the music or actually also a listener. When you listen to something in your head, your headphones or your good Hi-Fi thing, and you’re entering like kind of another dimension when you’re listening to something that you love so much and you enjoy so much. So it is like a parallel story that actually anybody can relate to.
On how the concept was developed – It was completely random actually. It was one morning we were in tour in Europe and we were in Oslo in Norway. Me and Greg (Spawton) always wake up pretty early. So, we like to go checking around if there’s something interesting and stuff. We had the morning off, so we said, “Okay, let’s go to the Munch museum”.
Everybody knows from The Scream that it’s the famous painting. But actually, he was an artist doing a lot of different (things), kind of using different kind of techniques and we were walking around the museum, and we just were watching like a part of the museum with his woodcuts. Actually, to be honest, I didn’t know what a woodcut was. I didn’t know that was the name of the technique. We saw “Woodcut” written on the description of a piece of art or something, and me and Greg just looked at each other and said, “Oh, this is a title of an album. This is great.” Of course, the woodcut, you have to cut the negative to have the positive then when you press it. So, it’s, it was immediately something that we fell in love actually with the story, with the idea and how much we could actually write for the story, but for the music too.
We had no music, no story, nothing at that time. So, I think we kept this idea in our head for maybe that day, couple days, I don’t know. But then we share it, we shared it for with all the rest of the band, of course. And everybody was, “Oh, this is really interesting”. So actually, the idea of a proper concept album, was born there at that, that, that particular moment.
On if it was tough to convince the band to do a concept album – We were talking after, so all the Big Big Train’s music, most of it, it’s about history or facts or famous stories or, I don’t know, something happened in the past or something like that. Then when we recorded The Likes Of us, our previous album that was a little twist there because we talked more about personal feelings and personal stuff and emotions and that kind of stuff. So, after that the concept idea was a little bit in the air. Everybody was, “Oh, maybe a concept”. But then really it is, if you want to do a concept as, all the prog fans I think will like the idea, but you need to have a story or you need to have a project pretty solid to make it for real, because if not, it’s better to have a collection of songs than having a story that it’s not that interesting or the songs are not connected in any way, or, you have to work pretty hard to make it happen. So yeah, when the idea and the story was there, we were all on board to create this concept album.
On having the entire band involved in the creative process – The first thing, I think the most important thing, it’s time because we spend so much time together that we, I think we build friendship of course, and trust and also I mean everybody, we know each other now, and so it was easier to just open the doors for everybody. Just put your stuff and we will take care of it. We will put it somewhere into this. I think the biggest help here came from Clare (Lindley). Because she took care of, with Greg and also NDV (Nick D’Virgilio) of course. But Greg and Claire took care of the lyrics and actually creating the story. She really worked hard and I think she did a beautiful job in conjunction with Greg. Actually, I think listening to the songs and reading the lyrics you cannot tell who wrote what. That’s very important because, Greg was always the main lyricist of the band so well, with David (Longdon), of course, in the past. But his writing is really particular and really loved by Big Big Train’s fans. Asking another person to put some contribution to the lyrics, it could have been a little dangerous because maybe, you have another style and it’s a normal thing, but you have another style, another experience, a life experience and all of that. But Clare just did a great job and, yeah, and it was super easy It was super easy to do it.
On being the producer on Woodcut – I realized I was the producer when everything was done. So, because I did it. I did it just because I felt it. I collected all the ideas of everybody. With the previous record. We just created a folder, and everybody has an idea and just put it in the folder so everybody can listen to everything. But here I think I had the overall idea of the album and how the album should have been done. I asked everybody, I said, “Just put the songs there or the ideas, the themes, melodies, whatever you have put it there, I’ll take it. I’ll try to make sense of everything in the way that I had in my mind.” So, I tried, and it was pretty late because it was like a crazy amount of work. Everybody was like, “What’s Alberto doing?” They were waiting to listen to something.
But I actually shared the one-hour piece of music. When I was okay with it, I said, “Okay, this is okay. This makes sense. So now you can listen to it and maybe tell me, this is horrendous. This is this was a mistake, don’t do it.” But actually, everybody was happy about it. Then we changed it. In the studio, we changed the order of the songs. We changed some songs are not there anymore. We just wrote some stuff in the studio together. But I wanted, all the band had this overall idea of this is the story, this is the music, this is the flow of an album that starts and finished in a way, Actually, at the end when everything was done, and I through email just I had a draft of the artwork of the actual album, and it was “Written produced by Alberto Bravin”. I text Greg. I said, “Am I the producer?” He said, “I think you are”. So, I didn’t know. But I’m super proud about this. It’s dream come true for me.
On the record feeling like one long song rather than unconnected parts – It does. Absolutely. That was the intention. Of course, having the chapters or you can call it songs because they are actually single songs, or a piece of music. But all the songs should have been connected and linked in a way that you can just you can just embrace the, that power of music with one breath. So that, that was the idea.
On if he felt more pressure doing his second record with the band than he did on his first – I think it’s weird to say, but but it, I felt more pressured this time. So last time was, of course, I had big shoes to fill. So that was the pressure, “Okay, I need to do whatever it takes to and work hard to make it happen, and we’ll see what’s happening”. At that time, it was the choice of the band was no band or band with another singer. So, there were no other choices, unfortunately. So, I had that. But during the recording and the writing and the recording of the album, the idea was and maybe it was not an idea that we actually thought, but now thinking about it everything was a little bit safe because the attention was “Okay. We changed the singer we had also Oskar (Holldorff) on keyboards and Clare. So new people in the band. It’s a kind of a new band”. The pressure was there and not really on the music, I think. But for us, because we just wrote the songs in a normal way, but I think it was a little bit safer that time because the music was okay for Big Big Train’s fans to appreciate and to feel safe on their own with our new music.
This time actually, this album is what we are now. So, it’s us. It’s what we wanna do. Maybe it will sound different. It will sound a little bit different. It will sound weird to someone. People will not like it. It’s possible. So, there is more pressure I think this time. We’re doing exactly who we are now in this time, and because we know each other, because we play together a lot because now it’s a stable lineup of people that work together. I think it is exactly like the stamp of what we are.
On if Big Big Train will tour the US for Woodcut – I hope so. So, for 2026, we have the Cruise to the Edge again. So, we are in the US just with one foot, a little bit, but yeah, we have just that. Then we will tour. We’re touring Europe and UK in October, like later in the year. But I hope we’re coming back to the US maybe 2027, I think. I hope so because that tour was amazing. We played in beautiful places. Everybody was showing up, that is important. Everybody knows, it’s really difficult because for a European band going there because all visas and the stuff, it’s economics actually. It’s really expensive coming there. If you do it you have to do it with a plan, with the right plan and doing it and we wanna do it. We don’t wanna come there and just play maybe wrong places or something like that or not satisfy everybody because of course northeast coast, it’s easier to get and you have all the places. Really the easy to travel to, it is easier. But we wanted to play also in the south, maybe on the west coast and whatever. We’re working on it.
On if he has any plans outside the band for this year – No, that’s my focus. Big Big Train is taking a lot of energy and a lot of time actually because behind the curtains there is a lot of work to make it work and to make it happen. We are just now, doing some stuff for Woodcut. It’s not even out yet but we are already working on the, on a new album or on the next one. We already have some demos and stuff for the next one and we are actually. Thinking about 2027 tour, it’s everything. It’s a year earlier actually to think, you have to think on the future. There is a lot of love stuff behind the curtain. To make the band grow and try to do more and more stuff around the world.
