Big Red
- bizzarre
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Big Red announce debut album Big Sur, out 30th Oct. & share new single "Mission St." UK headline tour announced.
Today, Big Red - the solo writing vehicle of Joseph Scarisbrick, share details of their highly anticipated debut album Big Sur. Out 30th October, the album follows both the band’s first single “Isn’t He Funny” and headline show at Third Man Record’s Blue Basement, which saw them earn early plaudits from International media outlets.
Originally conceived as a home for songs that sat outside the world of his other project, The Orchestra (For Now), the band has evolved into a three-piece alongside drummer Charlie Hancock and bassist/vocalist Millie Kirby. Written between London, UK and Santa Cruz, California during the first months of 2025 and recorded live in Devon that April, Big Sur is an album about distance and longing.
To mark the announcement of Big Sur, the band have shared a new single titled “Mission St.” One of the earliest songs written for the project and a staple live favourite, Scarisbrick describes the track as
“a sad song masquerading as an upbeat loud banger.”
Flittering between gentle cyclical layered picking and warm power chords with subtly intricate drum lines, Scarisbrick’s vocals explode into the exasperated opening salvo “I’m alive and so are you / Except you’re barely here”
Speaking on the track he continues
“It is about seeing someone disappear right in front of you, and having no ability to bring them back. It's about a very specific person from my childhood. I don't know how he is doing but I hope he is ok.”
At the album’s centre lies an imagined journey to the cliffs of Big Sur. The destination itself becomes increasingly elusive. Across the record, California exists less as a real place than a state of mind - something hoped for, mythologised and, ultimately, unreachable. By the album's closing moments, Scarisbrick arrives at a stark realisation: "We never made it to Big Sur / I guess this kind of looks the same."
Big Sur inhabits a world of deconstructed Americana. Its songs draw on the narrative instincts of country music while rejecting nostalgia and sentimentality. Where Scarisbrick's previous work frequently relied on dense references and literary allusion across The Orchestra (For Now)’s Plan 75 and Plan 76 EPs, Big Sur takes a more direct approach. The writing is confessional; often opening up in brutal honesty.
That sense of exposure extends to the recording itself. Big Sur was captured entirely live by three musicians in a room, with minimal overdubs and virtually no studio embellishment. A second guitar appears occasionally; a cowbell surfaces here and there. Otherwise, what remains is the sound of a band playing together in real time. The end of the record, if you listen closely, is the sound of Charlie and Joe crying after the final take of “Lost (and Found)”.
The result is an album defined by immediacy. There are few places to hide. Every hesitation, every crack in the voice, every moment of tension remains intact.
Picture by Kit Vickers
Following the album’s release, Big Red will play their first headline tour with an earlier appearance End Of The Road Festival in early September.
Live dates
5th Sep - End Of The Road Festival
24 Oct - Brighton, Mutations Festival
10 Nov - Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete's
11 Nov - Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
13 Nov - Bristol, Ears to the Ground
14 Nov - Manchester, Mood Swings
15 Nov - Sheffield, Washington
18 Nov - Brighton, Rossi Bar
19 Nov - London, Greyhound
20 Nov - Southampton, Heartbreakers
Tickets are on sale HERE
Big Sur is out 30th October
preorder HERE
