James Foster Krivchenia (born December 8, 1988) is an American musician and producer, best known as the drummer of the American indie rock band Big Thief. Krivchenia joined Big Thief in 2015 following his work with the band as a sound engineer.[1] Krivchenia later produced the band's fifth studio album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (2022), which received a nomination for Best Alternative Music Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.[2] In addition to his work with Big Thief, he is also a regular collaborator of Mega Bog as a longtime engineer, co-producer and percussionist and has released three solo albums: No Comment (2018), A New Found Relaxation (2020), and Blood Karaoke (2022).
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]