Slanted and Enchanted

BIG THIEF’S ADRIANNE LENKER AND BUCK MEEK WALK US THROUGH THE TUNINGS, TECHNIQUES AND GEAR THAT SHAPE THEIR INDIE-ROCK SOUND

- Jim Beaugez

ADRIANNE LENKER AND Buck Meek, co-guitarists for Brooklyn indie rockers Big Thief, have earned the right to be tired. In the busy lead-up to the release of their hotly anticipated fifth album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, they finally found time to jam together — and so they did, until 3 a.m., despite the day full of interviews that awaited them a few hours later.

Talking at length about the deceptively intricate guitar work they weave throughout DNWMIBIY perks them up, though, and before long we’ve cracked the Big Thief guitar code. Sort of.

“I gravitate toward the sound of open strings,” Lenker says, “even if I know I could play something without a capo with closed voicings. They inspire me. Instead of drop-D where I’m dropping the low E to a D, I like to drop the high E to a D, which creates this nice drone.”

Lenker uses the trick on songs like the delicate strummer “12,000 Lines” and the fingerpicked “Heavy Bend,” transforming well-worn chord shapes into something entirely new. “I play in open tunings as much, if not more, as standard,” she says. “I can figure it out if I think about it for just a second, but I don’t generally know what I’m playing. I just go by ear and think in terms of [chord] shapes. Some of them I know are common shapes, and then some of them I don’t know how ‘used’ they are. I’m not really thinking about what I’m playing.” Combining those techniques opens wide creative lanes for Lenker, who explores the sonic territory on her semi-hollow body Collings SoCo, which has a pair of P90 pickups.