‘Status, hierarchy, cool – none of it matters’: Dinosaur Pile-Up’s frontman on the chronic illness that changed his life

Doctors were baffled as Matt Bigland bled internally and his body became unrecognisable. He’s now channelled the trauma into a headbanging new albumIn recent years, when asked how he was feeling, Matt Bigland’s default response was to shrug and say: “I’ve felt better.” Those three small words hardly

Doctors were baffled as Matt Bigland bled internally and his body became unrecognisable. He’s now channelled the trauma into a headbanging new album

In recent years, when asked how he was feeling, Matt Bigland’s default response was to shrug and say: “I’ve felt better.” Those three small words hardly graze the surface of the trauma the Dinosaur Pile-Up frontman has endured. He became ill in 2019 with what was initially diagnosed as Crohn’s disease, later corrected to ulcerative colitis. At one point, he suffered internal bleeding, and at another, he was covered in sores. His body changed in ways that made it unrecognisable, from rapid weight loss to what he calls “moon face” – when the face becomes puffy and round owing to fat redistribution and fluid retention – as a side-effect of receiving a huge dose of steroids when doctors were unsure how to proceed.

In February 2021 he admitted himself to hospital. “I didn’t have any power – physically and spiritually – and that was horrible,” he says. “I was super vulnerable. I didn’t feel like me and I definitely didn’t feel like the dude in the band that everyone knew.”