A Great Big World’s Ian Axel is returning to the city that helped launch his music career. His upcoming Boston show will be reminiscent of the days when the Grammy-winning artist performed some of his first gigs.
This time around, however, Axel will be focused on the challenge of an altered setlist rather than filling seats. He is touring alone for the first time since coming together with Chad King to create A Great Big World.
King is battling multiple sclerosis and is unable to join the tour. Despite this, Axel told MassLive that he doesn’t actually “feel like I’m on my own.”
He will perform at City Winery at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27, as part of a four-date tour this winter.
The miniature tour supports A Great Big World’s latest EP, “then there were sparks,” which will be released Friday. This marks the duo’s first new project in nearly four years and a decade since A Great Big World won a Grammy Award for the chart-topping, multi-platinum single “Say Something” with Christina Aguilera.
It was revealed in January that King wouldn’t be able to travel because of complications associated with MS, a chronic disease of the central nervous system. This will also be the first time Axel has played on his own since he was a solo artist.
“It feels like brand new territory for me,” Axel said in an interview with MassLive. “It feels like playing shows when I kind of first started.”
‘The streets were lit up’
Axel’s connections to Boston date back decades to when he first actively started to play his music live. The New Jersey native, who spent his freshman year at Boston University in 2003, had some of his earliest performances in the city.
“I love Boston,” Axel said. “When I first started singing … New York and Boston were the first cities I played in. So that’s kind of where it started.”
He said Boston made him feel “a little scared for my life” after he witnessed firsthand the rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and his home team, the New York Yankees.
The musician recalled seeing angry baseball fans flooding the streets not far from his dorm on Commonwealth Avenue when the Red Sox didn’t win the 2003 American League Championship Series.
“I just remember the streets were lit up, and I’ve never seen that,” Axel said. “But I wasn’t wearing any Yankee gear. So I was good.”
Meeting Chad King at NYU
The baseball riots didn’t cause Axel to leave Boston, his education did. The musician went on to study music business at New York University. That’s where Axel met King, who started out as Axel’s manager before they decided to join forces and adopt the band name, “A Great Big World.”
The duo used Kickstarter to raise money to record songs that were included on A Great Big World’s first and self-titled EP, which was released in 2012.
The independent release preceded A Great Big World’s first studio album, and major label debut, “Is There Anybody Out There?” in 2014. The duo has since released two more albums with Epic Records: “When the Morning Comes” in 2015 and “Particles” in 2021, with the deluxe version of “Particles” coming out in 2022.
While Axel wants to play all of the duo’s hits on tour, he will have to make some changes because of King’s absence.
“This is the first kind of run of shows that I’m doing without him so I’m still figuring out like, ‘okay, what songs am I singing? What’s the arrangement on them? Am I going to have a special guest,’ because some of those songs really thrive with two vocalists,” Axel said.
“Chad always carried around half of the singing. So a lot of the songs are challenging vocally and I’m curious to see how I hold up with it,” he said. “I haven’t done this in a while and so I’m a little nervous, but I’m excited. I feel like I’m more excited.”
King’s MS diagnosis
King opened up about his struggle with multiple sclerosis in an Instagram post on Jan. 15. The singer said the chronic disease has caused him to get “tired more quickly than usual.”
“Currently my body goes weak by the afternoon, including my vocal cord muscles.” King wrote in the Instagram post. “I know many of you have been with us since the beginning so I wanted to be really honest and tell you what’s going on.”
Although he is missing out on A Great Big World’s tour, King still encouraged fans to go see his bandmate live.
“Please go see these shows! I’m bummed I won’t be able to make them but I know you’re gonna have a blast,” he wrote. “Thank you all for continuing to inspire and support us through these days. Love you beyond beyond.”
“I think he just needs time to figure it out,” Axel said about King, adding that his musical partner is “ in this process where he’s rediscovering what his voice is.”
Despite King’s health journey taking him away from the band, he and Axel have found ways to continue working together, supporting each other and keeping A Great Big World and its creative partnership alive. In fact, Axel said that King is still “very much a part of” the duo’s production, marketing and visuals.
‘Such a beautiful moment’
King has also continued to write songs during his battle with multiple sclerosis, but Axel said he still wants to express himself vocally.
That desire became a reality when King posted an Instagram video on Feb. 3 of him signing a new song, in what Axel described as “such a beautiful moment” for King.
“This is a new song idea I started writing with Ian. I’m trying to understand why this post is so difficult for me. I guess I’m seeing the situation change in my body and it’s becoming clear as I see these videos … and that’s scary,” King wrote in the post. “But one thing feels certain. And that’s that I’m here to create. And whether I have MS or not, that won’t stop me from creating. Love you all. Hope to see you soon xx.”
“The partnership just looks different today and it’ll keep changing,” Axel said about his and King’s dynamic. “The only constant thing is change. So we’re trying to go with the flow with that, no matter how scary that feels.”
Aside from the new EP, A Great Big World has more projects in the works. Axel said the duo has been working on a musical for four years and cannot wait to share it with fans.
“We’re really excited about it and hopefully soon we’ll have more info, but be on the lookout for that,” he said.
Overall, Axel said A Great Big World will keep writing, releasing music and hopefully touring more this year. After the Boston show, Axel will travel to Philadelphia on Feb. 28, Washington, D.C., on March 1 and New York City on March 3.
Fans can shop for tickets using reliable third-party ticket sellers like StubHub, VividSeats and SeatGeek.
