Montreal metallers Big Brave on doom, despondency and Emily Dickinson: ‘We’re sick as a species’

For their latest album, the heavy trio delved into poetry archives to foreground work by female writers and tell stories of the ‘subjugation of femininity’ across nature and humanity

Since their inception in 2012, Big Brave have amplified the torrential sound of clawing oneself into being. The Montreal trio found their early audiences in metal and post-rock – recording their sophomore album a decade ago with Efrim Menuck of agitprop heroes Godspeed You! Black Emperor and signing to Southern Lord, the label of drone metal gods Sunn O))) – but their scorched, squalling experimental rock never fitted neatly into either category. “We started with concepts: basic instrumentation, using the tools that we had, which were not much at the time,” says guitarist and singer Robin Wattie. Big Brave was her first band, named to evoke pure conviction. “There’s always this element of ‘What is it that I’m trying to carve out or find?’”

That inquisitive search through heavy music, she says, “parallels my experience in the industry: quite literally having to elbow my way into environments and make space for myself at venues and bars just to be heard and treated with respect – very basic, minimal things.”