KRAAK FEST 2026 HIGHLIGHTS: Big Blood

Caleb and Colleen, how did you meet?

Through music, when I moved to Maine. Caleb  lived in a collective house “the blue house/tank28” with a group of artists and musicians (Cerberus Shoal and members of Tarpigh in 1995). I moved to Maine in 1997 and heard Cerberus Shoal on the local radio station. In 1998 through a spontaneous improvisation performance, I met one of the musicians and joined Cerberus Shoal in 1999. We toured until 2005. We still live in the blue house with Quinnisa and Aiden.

Could you tell us about the trajectory that led from Cerberus Shoal to Big Blood? 

Cerberus Shoal was a collective of musicians making music with artistic democracy as our approach, which was exciting and experimental in theory and practice but was often incongruent. It was a wild ride that spanned theatre/puppetry/dance/ improv and comedy. When I got pregnant in 2005, we decided to have a baby and stay creative. Cerberus Shoal disbanded in 2005 and we morphed into Threads which became Fire on Fire (Young God Records). 

We distilled our group even further; once we became new  parents, Caleb and I were determined to keep playing music, we became Big Blood and played our first show when Quinn was 6 weeks old with the Charlambides. Caleb recorded our set and I screen printed covers for the show. We began to put out a CDR/Cassette each time we played out. 
 

How did Quinnisa get involved? At what age did she start showing interest in playing with you? 

She was at our first shows, in a baby carrier at 6 weeks old. Her image is our first cover Big Blood Strange Maine 11.04.06. Her voice became a part of our family noise. And she appears on Sew your Wild Days, Dark Country Magic, Operate Spaceship Earth, Thunder Crutch (with Chuck Bettis & Yuko Tonohira) and Daughter’s Union.

Flexibility as a band ethos is what makes playing music for this long so possible and exciting. We never pressured Quinn to be in Big Blood. We hoped she would find solace in music like us. As she grew up, music, trombone, guitar and singing came easily. Quinnisa’s songs are featured on the albums “Do You Want to Have a Skeleton Dream? And “First Aid Kit”. Her songs are so truthful and good! 

It’s no easy task to parent and be in a band/or be the child in a band with their parents. It’s been a wild ride full of the unexpected, most of all the joy of playing music with my family. Now that Quinnisa is older, she is fully incorporated into the band as well as her friend Aiden Arel. Quinnisa and Aiden’s energy in performing music with us unreal!

Your output is vast and varied, what's your process like when it comes to releasing stuff? 

We make music and art in a constant flow. There’s not a time that is structured for creating, we have a daily practice of being creative. Caleb records constantly. Once we have enough songs he sorts them into collections that may be 3 – 4 albums. So we are never without material!

And also behind the artwork! 

I make art like we write and play music. Non-stop! In response to the world, to the beauty and ugliness in humans and nature, my inner life and dreams when the world is too much.

Big Blood is definitely a band dear to many people - the reactions we've had so far are passionate to say the least! Have you been surprised by the effect you've had on people?

Yes! We would generate the music and art -no matter what, so having such deep responses is unreal! 

You've been going at it for over 20 years and still touring and releasing. What's next for Big Blood? 

Continuing to do what we do! Planning on touring Spring 2027.

More Big Blood::: Instagram // Bandcamp // their latest album Electric Voyeur/Moon, Again is out on Psychic Sounds now!

Big Blood's electric voyages can be embarked on at KRAAK Festival 2026 March 14 at Het Bos ~ tickets buzzing this way ~