[2] Adrianne Lenker met Buck Meek at a show in Boston, and after meeting him again in Brooklyn as undergraduates, the pair began performing as a duo.

In 2015, after performing for two years and developing a small grassroots following, they began looking for additional members to accompany them, and formed the band Big Thief with the arrival of Max Oleartchik, a bassist and longtime friend of Meek's.

[10] Ben Salmon wrote in the Portland Mercury that on the album Big Thief "alternately sounds like an unearthed field recording ("Little Arrow"), a pop band with a broken heart's pulse ("Vegas"), and a classic, buzzy indie-rock outfit ("Interstate").

[11] The next day the band released the single's official video and confirmed that the song would appear on their second studio album, Capacity.

[13] Capacity appeared on multiple album-of-the-year lists, including #1 on NPR's "Bob Boilen's Top Ten Album's of 2017".

Spin named Capacity #2 on their "50 Best Albums of 2017", citing the band's "open engagement with anguish in their bracing songs.

[27] On August 10, 2021, the band released the songs "Little Things" and "Sparrow", both which were produced by Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia.

[31] In the November 2021 issue of Mojo, Big Thief announced their plans to release a 20-track double album in early 2022.

The album was recorded in four different locations across the United States after the band quarantined in the Vermont woods for two weeks in July 2020.

[32][33] Later that month the band confirmed the album's title Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You and a February 11, 2022, release date.

[34] In June 2022, the band announced two concert dates in Oleartchik's hometown of Tel Aviv, Israel, for July 6 and 7 of the same year.

[40] In July 2023, the band released the single "Vampire Empire",[41] which they had debuted in a live performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier in February of the same year.

[2] On July 28, the band performed their first show in nearly a year at Project Pabst in Portland, where they debuted a five-piece lineup featuring a second percussionist, Jon Nellen, and a new bass guitarist, Justin Felton.

[44][45][46] On August 27, 2024, it was announced that Big Thief served as producers and backing band for singer-songwriter Tucker Zimmerman's 15th studio album, Dance of Love.

[49] AllMusic called Big Thief's style "folk-tinged indie rock," making note of the "personal songwriting" of frontperson Adrianne Lenker.