Cheering up Big Ups

Credit: Tiffany Yoon

So many of us have never taken a proper beating, but listen to Big Ups and you’ll think you have. Their brand of post-punk Weltschmerz will leave you battered and contemplative. Either way, the Brooklyn based band has been getting a lot of well deserved attention since the January release of their debut album 18 Hours of Static. Frankly, it’s one of the best albums we’ve heard in 2014 so far. But with lyrics like "I feel like I've lead a pretty happy life/ Then how come all I can remember is the strife” we wanted to figure out how miserable the guys are and what cheers them up.

The band is playing at Pumpehuset this Saturday, so we wrote frontman Joe Galarraga to get to the bottom of their anger issues before meeting them in person this weekend.

Noisey: You’re called Big Ups even though you’re clearly bringing us down. Intentionally humorous or?
Joe Galarraga: The name really has no interesting story behind it. It's basically a joke about band names - specifically band names that are plural nouns with no article.

We fucking love ‘Eighteen Hours of Static’ and we’ve listened to it a lot. What’s up with the title?
It's a reference to a line from the film Contact. Without spoiling the entire story, the title references a point in the plot where the lines separating the rational and irrational become blurred.

The artwork looks like Jackson Pollock abusing Mark Rothko on canvas. What’s the story of the artwork?
One of my best friends, Austin Redwood, painted the cover. It's also inspired by the same scene in Contact. Yeah - watch the movie and this will all perhaps make a little bit more sense, but probably not.

Looking forward to playing in Copenhagen? Know any Danish bands?
Yeah, there's this band Iceage that I think I read about somewhere.

What do you think of your last album?
I see it as an introduction. We've been a band for about four years, but it took us a while to put this record out, and that's partially because we wanted to make something that we thought was worthwhile. The songs on the record are ones that we had been playing live for years, and we've been writing new material constantly. I'm ready to get started on the next full-length and see what happens. Writing music is really fun.

How has your big break affected your day to day?
We go on tour a lot more now. We are excited to be going to Europe; I never thought I would be in a band that would have the opportunity to do anything like this. Other than that, not much else has changed. You can find me making drinks at the coffee shop.

You guys seem pretty furious. How angry are you on a scale from Pharrel to Ian Curtis?
I think we're Alanis Morissette. Why? I have no idea. She's pretty angry, right? I'm not that angry of a person. I guess it comes out every once in a while. But yeah, we're Alanis Morissette because there ain't a bad track on Jagged Little Pill.

When was the last time you got into a fight and what happened?
Last time I got in a physical fight, I must have been about 12 years old. I was teasing my friend who was older and bigger than me. He chased me down and hit me in the face repeatedly with a football. I guess I got pretty beat up but it wasn't anything serious.

Via

What do you guys hate the most these days?
Oppression.

We really like you guys, and kinda feel like cheering you up. So what’s the best way of doing that?
Zebra Cake.

Describe your happiest childhood memory
Zebra Cake.

What’s your favorite cake?
Zebra Cake.

Via

If your band was a balloon animal, which would it be?
Tapeworm.

When you’re happy, what song do you listen to?
Get Free by The Vines.

How does this make you feel?
Doesn't really make me feel anything- it just makes me wonder who compiles and edits clips of babies that aren't theirs. Where does one find baby footage?

Do you guys all love each other?
Yeah, these dudes are the best!

When was the last time you gave flowers to a girl?
I gave flowers to my mom on her birthday two years ago.

Are you in love?
Yes, very much so.

Nice to know. See you Saturday, guys.