James Krivchenia

Krivchenia moved to New York following his graduation from Berklee, where he played in local bands and worked as a sound engineer at various recording studios.^[3][4] Krivchenia met Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, and Max Oleartchik (of Big Thief) in 2015 through mutual friends and was hired to engineer the band's debut studio album, Masterpiece.^[3] He replaced the band's original drummer in 2016, even though they had never heard him play.^[5] He has played drums on every subsequent Big Thief release.^[6] As a part of Big Thief, Krivchenia has received a nomination for Best Rock Performance at the 63rd Grammy Awards for "Not," and a nomination for Best Alternative Music Album for "U.F.OF." at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.^[7]

In 2022, Krivchenia produced Big Thief's Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, a double LP which garnered widespread critical acclaim.^[8] Krivchenia had conceived of the recording plan in 2019, which involved sessions in four different locations: Upstate New York; Topanga, California; the Colorado Rockies; and Tucson, Arizona. This plan intended to capture the various dimensions of Lenker's songwriting and the band's dynamic playing on a single record.^[9] The album received nominations for Best Alternative Music Album at the 65th Grammy Awards, while the song "Certainty" received a nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance.^[2]

As a session musician, Krivchenia has played drums and percussion on recordings by multiple artists, including Taylor Swift's Speak Now (Taylor's Version), Red (Taylor's Version) and Midnights,^[10][11][12] as well as on Ben Howard's Collections from the Whiteout,^[13] Gracie Abrams's Good Riddance^[14] and Ed Sheeran's − (Subtract) and Autumn Variations.^[15][16]

• No Comment (Left Door Tapes, 2018)
• A New Found Relaxation (self-released, 2020)
• Blood Karaoke (Reading Group, 2022)
• Performing Belief (Planet Mu, 2025)^[17]

• Capacity (Saddle Creek, 2017)
• U.F.O.F. (4AD, 2019)
• Two Hands (4AD, 2019)
• Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (4AD, 2022)
• Double Infinity (4AD, 2025)

• Dolphine (Paradise of Bachelors, 2019)
• Life, and Another (Paradise of Bachelors, 2021)
• End of Everything (Mexican Summer, 2023)