Big Eyes were formed by James Green in 1999, initially as a solo experiment, a chance to mess around with acoustic sounds and to indulge his passion for soundtracks and instrumental music. The experiment soon progressed and Big Eyes added other members. Violin was added by Katherine Wood, Mark Rimmer played guitar and Harmonium, Neil Shumsky on bass and Elodie Ginsbourg offering spoken-word vocals on some songs.

This line-up created Big Eyes first record, 'Big Eyes Songs', a mini-album released on Pickled Egg. The record was met with critical acclaim and gained fans like John Peel, who featured several of their songs on his Radio One show. The many complimentary reviews highlighted Big Eyes' love for eastern-European traditional music, folk and modern classical music.

The next year their follow-up, full-length album 'Clumsy Music' (2001) was released again on Pickled Egg. This was a darker affair and more experimental this time around. This slight change in style was met with approval by many critics and again they found their songs gaining much airplay from Peel, as well as a #2 spot in the Belgian Independent Radio end of year poll. The album featured the first of many feline-dedicated pieces in the forms of 'Sammy' and 'Tibbs' as well as two pieces featuring cellist Bela Emerson.

Around this time they gained a percussionist in Andrew Brown, whilst Mark left the band in late 2001, but not before the band shared a split 7" with Empress released on Jonathon Whiskey and finished recording their second full-length album 'Love Is Gone Mad' (2002), once again on Pickled Egg.

The album marked another progression, keeping the darker atmosphere of 'Clumsy Music' but with a more of a 'live' sound, influenced somewhat by the group playing many shows around the UK. Once again the response was positive, in particular with a feature in Sleazenation magazine as well as plentiful UK and international radio airplay.

After a short break David Jaycock joined on guitar and harmonium duties. He guested on guitar on 'Love Is Gone Mad' and after Mark's departure it seemed like a logical to bring him into the fold. In March 2003, the band released 'I See Creatures' (2003), a 3-track EP, again on Pickled Egg. Seen by some as Big Eyes' greatest work up to that point, it features the first material written by David Jaycock, in the form of 'A Death Dance'. Rather 'posthumously' Byron Coley wrote a very nice piece about the EP in The Wire about 6 months after its release.

Big Eyes continued to tour as a full band up (with highlights being the Happy Robots festival in Reading and the Pickled Pop event in London) until around late 2003, when the band decided to cease live activities. Instead Big Eyes undertook a short UK tour with a new, stripped-down line-up of just James and Dave performing on acoustic guitars, debuting new material and reworked older tracks.

In the spring of 2004 the new studio-based Big Eyes released their last album. 'We Have No Need For Voices When Our Hearts Can Sing'. The album saw the band explore more adventurous string arrangements, wordy singing and featured a collaboration with Terry Edwards of Gallon Drunk/Tindersticks.