A walk along the water with your dog on a lovely late summer day: does anything sound better than that right now? The fun and vibrant new single by the New Haven-based band Big Sigh captures that vibe both visually and musically in “Dog Boy,” a meditation with a chorus — “we walk around and he goes wild listening to Arcade Fire” — that catches after one listen.
Galyna Poczciwinski Photo
Big Sigh
The “quite gregarious” star of “Dog Boy” is named Rabbit, and belongs to Big Sigh’s bassist/vocalist Victor Poczciwinski who wrote the song and came up with the idea for the video, which was filmed along the shores of Long Wharf and features its famous stretch of taco trucks.
“I’m sort of the cook for this song,” said Poczciwinski. “Everybody contributed their parts, but I came up with this whole idea.” He then storyboarded the video, sharing his vision with the rest of Big Sigh, who all heartily approved.
The band — which also includes Peter Omalyev on guitar and vocals, Laura Abreu on keyboard and vocals, and Renna Yu on drums — then hired Kicker Pictures to film the video. They ended up filming two different videos for two different songs on the same day in September 2021.
“We caught both golden hours, the morning and the evening,” Poczciwinski added.
The first video was released this past Friday, one week after the song was released. The second video, for the song “Especially Me,” will be released March 24, one week after that song is released. That will coincide with the release of the band’s six-song, self-titled EP which was co-produced, mixed, and engineered by Alexandra Burnet and is being released on her label Free As Birds Records. Burnet is eager for the world to hear what this band has to offer.
“They had the sound they wanted for it,” said Burnet. “I helped guide some things in the right way to help them come up with some new ideas they hadn’t thought of yet, but they had a vision and I helped them execute it. They knew what they were doing going in, which is why I wanted to work on it with them in the first place.”
The band has had a practice space next to Burnet for the past few years, but only reached out more recently to collaborate.
“I approached her and said I wanted to do something real,” said Omalyev. “We have a demo on Bandcamp, but it’s lo-fi and was mostly for us.”
“Listening back to that demo, though, I feel like that harnessed a sound that I’ve grown to really love, especially the lo-fi quality,” said Poczciwinski. “And you know, I grew up liking lo-fi, like it or not. I did gravitate toward it, so it was nice to doing it my own self.”
“I think we kind of did it for the experience.” added Omalyev. “This [EP] was kind of the same thing. We had our own experience, which was kind of smaller, and then Alexandra was able to take us to the next level.”
“It’s the first grown-up recording, the mature recording,” Poczciwinski responded.
Big Sigh EP cover art
The process of getting the EP out into the world began in January 2021, which was a new experience for the band in more ways than one.
“The Big Sigh way is to take the winters off,” said Poczciwinski with a laugh. “We used our winter last winter to do something creative with that time, instead of just being like, ‘oh, you know, let’s not do this for a minute and come back when its actually warm outside and we’re not freezing.’”
“We did a lot of it in the winter, but it’s kind of like a summertime vibe,” said Omalyev. ”I guess it’s almost like coming out of winter into summer. That’s kind of how it feels like we are as a band almost, it’s like we hibernated through Covid and it almost feels like we’re coming out of it and you know, things are a bit brighter and we’re ready to go out and party a little bit.”
The songs the band members chose to record had a specific vibe to them and were in line with the band’s goal to get back out on stage.
“Our main gig has always been playing live, so most of the songs we write are for playing live,” said Omalyev. “We picked our strongest ones for this first thing … we have a bunch of other songs hanging around for the next time we get into this. But I think the main purpose of our songs is to go play them out live, which we will be doing again soon now that spring is coming around.”
Poczciwinski described the EP as a “rough, gritty, eclectic mix of rock and almost pop,” with Omalyev noting “the beginning of the record is quieter, and we slowly ramp it up into something more exciting.”
“I always try to avoid genres, but at the same time what we do to avoid genres is to try to play as many genres as you can,” said Omalyev. “You have your own sound that way. I think that’s how I’ve always wanted to approach it, like playing jazz and learning different techniques and writing songs then writing more songs.”
“I miss the idea of the eclectic record … the record with all different sorts of songs that sound like not that one genre,” said Poczciwinski.
Burnet is proud of how the songs came out and how they express Big Sigh’s own personality.
“The songs they wrote are self-knowing, earnest, and innocent,” she said, adding that there was a “vulnerability” in the songs and that the band was “not afraid” to be themselves.
Galyna Poczciwinski Photo
Big Sigh (and Rabbit, too)
For Big Sigh, being themselves also means having a few laughs.
“I would say on top of everything another big factor in the band that I think will be evident in the video is humor,” said Poczciwinski.
“It goes back to the earnest thing,” added Omalyev. “We try to be earnest. I think that involves humor.”
Dog Boy definitively has that vibe, and the second video — which has the whole band in it — promises more of the same.
“It’s almost like a sitcom opening,” said Omalyev. “We introduce each person in the video. That’s part of the humor and trying to involve everyone in everything. It’s full of corny gems on amazing quality film.”
With a show this past Friday at the Beerracks in East Haven, the band is now ready to resume more regular live local performances, as well as a possible mini-tour back to the Boston area, where they played last summer. They are hoping the videos give viewers a taste of what to expect.
“That’s been a goal for me, to have a good video, and I’m glad we managed that,” said Omalyev. “Kicker Pictures were really awesome.” Add in Sans Serif Productions mastering the record, along with Burnet’s role via Free As Birds Records, and you have a local experience almost as deep as that line of taco trucks on Long Wharf Drive.
“It’s a lot of that community building through the whole scene.”
Big Sigh’s self titled EP will be released on March 24 and is available for preorder through the Free As Birds Records Bandcamp page here. For further information about their release show and other live events please see the band’s Facebook or Instagram pages.