Big Something defies genre — hence its all-encompassing name. The six-man band will be performing on Friday, July 15, at Howelsen Hill as part of the Steamboat Free Summer Concerts series. Doors for the event open at 5 p.m.

With Nick MacDaniels on lead vocals and guitar, Ben Vinograd playing drums, Casey Cranford on EWI — a digital wind instrument — and saxophone, Doug Marshall playing bass, Jesse Hensley on lead guitar and vocals and Josh Kagel on the keys and trumpet, Big Something strives to put on a fun and energetic show.

MacDaniels chatted with the Pilot & Today to answer a few questions about the band and its upcoming show.

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Explore Steamboat: What is Big Something’s origin story — how did the band get together?

Nick MacDaniels: We met when I was in college in North Carolina, a small school called Elon University, I was playing every Wednesday night at this Grateful Dead bar called the Lighthouse Tavern. And that’s kind of where I met our bass player, Doug, and our keyboard player, Josh, and slowly but surely, we formed the band and started playing original music.

ES: How would you describe Big Something’s sound and performance style?

NM: We are kind of a hodgepodge of a lot of different things. We are, first and foremost, a rock band. We all love rock music and high-energy shows, so that comes out when we play together. But you know, we’re a six-piece with horns and synthesizers and guitars and drums and bass vocals, and there’s a lot going on in the sound. So, there’s a lot of different types of music that we play, and each member of the band kind of has a different taste in music. And that comes out in how our sound comes together. So it’s kind of hard to describe, and that’s part of the reason behind the name Big Something. It’s kind of a melting pot of different sounds and influences.

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ES: What’s your favorite memory with the band?

NM: It’s tough to say if there’s a favorite. But there’s been a lot of good ones. The Lockn’ festival was a big deal for us, back in 2017. We’ve played a bunch of great events in Telluride, the RIDE Festival, getting to play the same stage that Pearl Jam played on, which was really cool. We throw our own festival every summer called the Big What, and that’s always really memorable and a special occasion for us. A lot of my favorite memories involve the shows and the people that are involved. Some of the other fun memories we had just from recording and writing music in the studio.

ES: What’s planned for your show in Steamboat?

NM: It’s gonna be just a high-energy, good, old-time rock show. We are working on a bunch of new music. We’ve been having some really great shows this summer, so we’re just going to keep the momentum going and put on a high-energy, good time for people in Steamboat.

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ES: Can you tell me about your new music and plans for the future?

“Escape from the Living Room” was our first, official live album. That was a compilation of tracks that were recorded that shows post-pandemic. So it’s kind of like a “best of” from 2020 and 2021. Some of the tracks were recorded in my living room, and then some of them were recorded at different festivals and shows that we played. And those in particular just felt really special because they were like the first live events back from the pandemic with an actual audience in front of us. So, it kind of has a little bit of that vibe on the recording, I think you can hear that in the energy too. Those are some really special shows for us. So, that was a live album and then we’re actually getting ready to record a full length brand new original album. And there’s a ton of songs that we’ve been working on and we’re just kind of narrowing it down and figuring out how we’re going to make this next album the best one yet.