Photo credit: Isaac Watson
After releasing a surprise album last year, the Midlands genre defying fast rising duo Big Special treat us to a ten track EP before they hit the festival circuit this year and it’s another collection of rousing tunes full of ideas reimagined from old cuts from both albums. Read on…
Following the release of recent singles “SLUGLIFE”, “PLAINTIVE NATIVE” and “DRAGGED UP A HILL (and thrown down the other side)”, BIG SPECIAL today announce their new EP, O’JOY!, out 5 June 2026 via SO Recordings. Presave the EP HERE.
Today the duo also share a new track from the project, “ONLY FREE WHEN SLEEPING”, available to stream HERE.
Comprised of vocalist Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney, BIG SPECIAL describe O’JOY! as a companion piece to the work that has defined their rapid rise in recent years.
Speaking about the EP, the band said: “We’ve moved real fast these last few years. Our first album was a long, drawn-out process of contextualising 30 years of experience into a piece of work that represents us, the time we occupy, and the history that led us here.
Our second album was a spur-of-the-moment reflection on how our lives were changing, written performed and put together in a moment between all the other moments of great change, a piece of work like a fence post in a time of our lives and this time in life where we stand as individuals and in a history of working class stock.
This new record is made of all the fallen parts of our first two albums.
We picked them up and took them back to the studio to rework and play with them to make them into their own piece of work that reflects upon what we have done so far. The songs that didn’t fit in the right place at the right time. Including songs that, at the time, might’ve made the albums too long and lean too far into a darker tone, where we wanted to keep the balance of an emotional journey, like watching a movie with your eyes closed.
So we made O’JOY!
A smirking eye roll to dread and discomfort. It all seems like such a downer, but it’s a positive thing to write songs like this, it’s important to remember that songs aren’t pamphlets. They are emotional reactions to how you feel at a certain time, and you need to let yourself feel and express. It’s probably the only reason to write at all, so that you can be who you are when you aren’t writing. Picking up the pen in the first place is an act of hope. Shit out the demons, turn them into music, then get everyone together for a big old bash.
Then crack on. As you were.
We wanted to give these songs their own place and leave nothing behind. We want to empty our clip and then go off to write our next thing. We like to move on creatively so we’re choosing not to hold on to a bank of work that can be repackaged when we need a bit of money or something, or to pressure us to lean in any sort of creative direction.
When this is out, our board is clean, and we best get cracking with the next thing.
We want to play good honest shows and make good honest records, and we want to do that for as long as we can; so here is all we’ve got.
This record is dedicated to the memory of our good friend, Handsome James Borrer.”
Speaking about the new single “ONLY FREE WHEN SLEEPING”, the band add:
“This is a head-down walking song.
When all that shows up in observation is negative, when all news is bad news and you just look at your feet and curse the cruelty and the faff of the modern day and all the days before that lead to this feeling.
When you just wanna go to bed and let your dreams make up a different story for you to smile at, just for a little bit, until you wake again.
Head down, stomp through another day.”
BIG SPECIAL are playing live as follows, with more dates to be announced. Tickets available here.
May 21st: Bearded Theory Festival, Derbyshire, UK
June 12th: Bradninch Music Festival, Devon, UK
June 20th: TRSMT Festival, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
July 31st: Valley Festival, Chew Magna. Bristol, UK
August 8th: Castelo Rock Festival, Muros, Spain
August 14th – 16th: Boomtown Festival, Hampshire
August 22nd: Beautiful Days Festival, Devon, UK
September 4th: Moseley Folk Festival, Birmingham, UK
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