Clumsy Music

Big Eyes were formed by James Green in 1999, initially as a solo experiment, a chance to mess around with acoustic sounds and to indulge his passion for soundtracks and instrumental music. The experiment soon progressed and Big Eyes added other members. Violin was added by Katherine Wood, Mark Rimmer played guitar and Harmonium, Neil Shumsky on bass and Elodie Ginsbourg offering spoken-word vocals on some songs. This line-up created Big Eyes first record, Big Eyes Songs, a mini-album released on Pickled Egg. The record was met with critical acclaim and gained fans like John Peel, who featured several of their songs on his Radio One show. The many complimentary reviews highlighted Big Eyes' love for eastern-European traditional music, folk and modern classical music.

The next year their follow-up, full-length album Clumsy Music was released - again on Pickled Egg. A darker affair and more experimental this time around. This slight change in style was met with approval by many critics and again they found their songs gaining much airplay from Peel. Around this time they gained a percussionist in Andrew Brown, whilst Mark left the band in late 2001, but not before the band shared a split 7' with Empress released on Jonathon Whiskey and finished recording their second full-length album, Love Is Gone Mad, once again on Pickled Egg.