In the lead up to the release of Big Scary's second album Not Art (out Friday 28 June Aus/NZ,
through Pieater/Inertia), the Melbourne outfit today announced they will be the first Australian
act to sign with US label Barsuk, home to Death Cab for Cutie, Menomena, Phantogram and Ra
Ra Riot. The multi album deal will see the Seattle based indie represent Big Scary in
North/South America.

Barsuk co founder Josh Rosenfeld commented, "In our 15 years as a label, we've never worked
with an artist from Australia, since it's so logistically challenging for them to tour in North
America."

"But the music that Tom and Jo make together - its intelligence, originality, and sophisticated
balance of complexity and accessibility - it's just too compelling to let geography get in the way.
We're extremely excited to welcome Big Scary to the family!"

At its core, Not Art reflects upon the relationship between the artist and their art. Stemming
from Tom Iansek (vox, guitar, piano) and Jo Syme's (drums, backing vox) reaction to being
labelled as "artists", Not Art contemplates the artist's journey, their search for meaning and
their interpretation and recycling of other's art to help them make sense of their own.
Said Tom Iansek, "In a nutshell, it's not that Not Art isn't art, it's just that creating art wasn't
the goal of this album. Thoughts of creating something artful, even something original or catchy
were removed from the process."

From the first tracking to the final master, Not Art was nine months in the making. Recorded
and produced by Tom Iansek, and mixed by Grammy Award winning Tom Elmhirst (The Black
Keys, Adele, Amy Winehouse) at Electric Lady Studios in New York, Not Art took shape in
between travel, work and touring Vacation - their triple j 'Album Of The Year' nominated
album which saw the alt pop outfit tour the globe playing to sold out audiences across
Australia, US, Canada and India.

Continuing in a musical direction only hinted at on their seasonal EPs and debut album, when
discussing the album making process of Not Art Iansek offered, "In a lot of ways I wanted it to
be the opposite process to making Vacation. I (initially) wanted us to control the entire process
from start to finish. I didn't want the constraints of having a certain amount of time in a studio
and I wanted to begin recording unfinished songs to let them develop in their own time
throughout the recording process."

While hip hop has been cited as a major influence on Big Scary's song writing and production
on Not Art, an homage to Bruce Springsteen, DJ Shadow and Kanye West can also be heard on
the LP. With contributions from guest bassists Ted O'Neil (The Vasco Era) and Graham Ritchie
(Emma Louise), gospel choirs and musical genius Tom Elmhirst, this amalgam of sonic
influences has resulted in a stunning sophomore release showcasing Big Scary's unique sound.
Created by Melbourne artist Adam Stone, the hyperrealism of Not Art's album art continues to
question the relationship between the artist and their art. Said Iansek, "I saw Adam Stone's
work at a photography exhibition in Fitzroy and I liked how the art of photography interacted
with the object, and in particular a natural object, as it makes you question who the artist is in
that work: mother nature or the photographer? I also thought there were some obvious ties
there with what we're trying to do with the music , i.e. taking elements from different genres
and placing them on our own canvas, perhaps where they don't particularly belong."

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