What’s the big idea?

Portland pop-folk group the Big Ideas began as a running joke about starting a band between old friends Matt Halvorson and Louie Opatz. After taking up the guitar and piano, they accidentally started something great without losing any of the casual, good-time charm.

“In a way the most amusing part is that we’re still using the same name and MySpace page that was a joke years ago,” Halvorson said. “I started that page at work.”

During the winter two years ago, the duo played a San Francisco show and realized they actually had something far bigger than a good laugh. Opatz relocated to Portland with AmeriCorps from Montana and Halvorson soon followed.

“I had left Atlanta and was working at a library in St. Louis,” Halvorson said. “I [thought] ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ So I’m sure that he was like, ‘Wanna go to Portland?’ and I said ‘Yep, I’ll just do that then.’ It didn’t take a lot of convincing, and a few days later I was out here.”

Once they had Portland under their feet they began recruiting other members to help manifest the sounds that began stirring in their heads. Halvorson’s sister, Kari, and her boyfriend, Gabe, joined on strings, and everyone took up vocals. The final sound is fresh and fun, a feel-good breeze of vocal pops and simple, framing instrumentals. Opatz feels the duo’s warm reception in San Francisco helped boost their playful attitude to a full-blown musical ambition. 

“I think our perception changed,” Opatz said. “We started realizing that people liked us when they heard us. That first time we played, I didn’t think there would be a reason for us to do that in front of people anymore. Then people came and [told us] it was good. It gave us a tiny bit of confidence.”

Once the band started playing regularly, the listener’s response continued to grow warmer and wider. Friends of friends who would attend out of obligation left shocked by the unassuming talent and clear point of view that’s heard in their songs. Every song is catchy without being predictable or bland, and is only fully appreciated through a live show. Once the guys started performing their music, they were hooked.

“The interesting part to me about playing is to play songs that we made up ourselves,” Halvorson said. “We fleshed them out with the rest of the band. It’s kind of cool to be like, ‘We made that. That totally didn’t exist before’.”

Both Opatz and Halvorson have studied writing in some capacity, which is evident in their thoughtful lyrics. There is a distinct sense of harmony between the music and lyrics, each giving the other space to breathe while complimenting each other well.

“The writing satisfaction is nerdier than the peforming satisfaction,” Opatz said. “But it’s not any less fulfilling, it’s just a different version.”

Songwriting has also acted as a creative release for Halvorson. Clearly the two have an innate knack for stringing together words, but Halvorson explains that writing songs was the perfect fit.

“I was a journalism major in college and I thought I was going to be writing things that were more substantial,” Halvorson said. “More words and longer than songs. It turns out that you can never actually finish writing a book because it takes too long and I’m not that devoted. But instead you can write a song, it only needs like 50 words.

You feel like you have completed something, then you can move on.”

The entire band collaborates on each effort, often writing their individual parts and blending them together.

Mixed with a complete lack of pretension or attitude about their music, the band that started as a joke has lost the punch line and become a whimsical, infectious folk set worth getting serious about.