By Kayla Chanthavong, Contributor
Photo by Harley Wince, Visual Media Director

Q&A with guitarist Carter Hickman, drummer Cobi Powell and bassist Gabe Dooley of Burger Big.

What are your goals with Burger Big?

Carter: Well, Cobi and I will be in Columbus next year, and Gabe will be here, so we’re not sure.

Cobi: Well, the plan was, “Let’s just do the band, we’ll have fun for a year and then we’ll all go on our merry ways.” In the past two weeks, as it gets down to crunch time, we realized we actually don’t want to do that. What we need to figure out is how to write and stuff. We still want to practice, perform, record and make music together, but it’s going to be tougher than it has ever been in the past.

Carter: So, our goal is to keep going.

Any future plans?

Carter: We want to record, but we feel that it needs to be soon. We’re also kind of confused if we want to write stuff before we do that because we’re thinking we want to change our sound.

How would you describe your music, and what artists influence you?

Carter: If I were to pick three bands and take out the vocals of all of them, maybe like Khruangbin, a little bit of American Football and Mac DeMarco.

Cobi: We’re barely math. I think people hear a warm riff and time signature wonkiness. They know American Football and Mac DeMarco but listen to their albums, and we don’t really sound like them, but maybe in terms of the vibe, yeah.

Are there any plans for tours?

Cobi: Our plan is to get famous and play Madison Square Garden, so keep your heads up!

Gabe: We plan on making an amazing, critically-acclaimed album. Then, we’re going to break up and stay apart for maybe 20–30 years, have everyone get back together and make a really “not that good” album.

Cobi: I’m glad that our common goal is to make a critically-acclaimed album, break up and get back together someday to make something mediocre.

Carter: We’re gonna be really famous.

When and how did you guys get together?

Carter: About mid-summer, 2018. We had been talking about getting together all last year.

Cobi: We all knew each other before as friends, but being in the band has made us really close.

Gabe: We [Gabe and Carter] went to Europe, and we saw this funny item on a menu in Montenegro, and it said “Burger Big.” Carter and I were like, “That’s funny. Let’s start a band.”

Carter: Before, we were trying to think of a band name, and originally we were going to name the band “Piss Mountain.”

Cobi: I remember getting that message. They said our band name was going to be called “Burger Big,” and our first album is going to be “Piss Mountain.” Gabe and I are also in another band together, so we already have experience playing with each other.

When did you guys get into music?

Cobi: My dad had a drum kit in the house since I was nine. I never learned how to play it, but I did marching band percussion when I was in high school. Then 13–14 months ago, when I joined another band, I hadn’t been behind a drum kit in years – percussion for ages, drum kit just recently.

Gabe: I took guitar lessons when I was in sixth or seventh grade, and then I didn’t think about it for a long time. Then when I started practicing bass in my free time, somehow, someone found out about it and asked me if I’d be in their band. And I was like, “What, what are you, what do you mean?” And then I just said okay. So I just picked it up maybe about a year and a half ago.

Carter: I played for a bit when I was younger, maybe around 10-12 years old and quit but picked it up again when I was 16. I’ve been doing it ever since.

Listen to Burger Big’s single, “Long Song of the Law”,  here: