Joining the biggest Brooklyn indie band of the last decade took James Krivchenia out of New York. Big Thief has been touring relentlessly since he became their drummer. He engineered what ended up becoming their breakthrough album, "Masterpiece," which came out in 2016. Krivchenia said he figured if he was going to spend eight or nine months out of a typical year on the road, "I might as well live somewhere really cheap and beautiful." He moved to New Mexico, but then "got, like, really lonely."
"I loved it, but also was like, damn, I don't think I'm ready to go full hermit," Krivchenia said. He tried Los Angeles for a few years, but then his house burned down in the Bridge Fire last fall. So, recently he decided he'd move back to New York, and has brought with him an album's worth of solo material, "Performing Belief," an electronic album that came out last month.