The Big Pink Discusses New Sound, Coachella and SF Concerts
“I’m kind of bored of London to be honest. I want to make the move to America soon,” says Robbie Furze, of electro-rock duo The Big Pink, the project created alongside Milo Cordell.
Furze, who performs at Great American Music Hall on April 15, is talkative and his confident, distinctly British voice sometimes slips into softer tones as he elaborates on the differences between British and American listeners. “It seems to be a much more positive vibe for us out there. Once American listeners catch onto a band, they stay with the band, and in England there’s no concrete loyalty,” he says.
Besides the band’s preference of our side of the pond, Furze had a lot on his mind as we sat down for a long-distance phone interview. The Big Pink just released their sophomore album Future This last month, and though the sound on the new album can wear the label of electro rock like their previous album, Future This holds entirely different emotions. Furze admits that the band spent more time focusing on keeping “the end goal of good shows in mind. When you do your debut record you don’t really think about the fact that you’re going to have to tour it for so long.”
The Big Pink’s debut album, A Brief History of Love, was released in 2009 and was well-received. The hit single “Dominoes” was not only popular enough for the airwaves, but also earned the award for Best Track at the NME Awards in 2010. A Brief History of Love has a bittersweet contrast of liveliness and slightly jaded lyrics, a youthful combination that rendered the record marketable to the mainstream and still allowed it to maintain a sense of depth. However, Furze noticed that “ it was solemn at times and that would translate in the concerts. There’d be a kind of melancholic vibe going on and we were jealous of people who would get crowds jumping and creating a higher energy than we were getting,” he says. “We wanted a record that’s very positive and we wanted people to dance and jump around at our gigs. We wanted it to be more upbeat.”
Future This, he says, is more extroverted. “We’re very happy people, so I think that comes across,” he says of Future This, a record with a name inspired by a 1980s skate company slogan that Milo found online. Furze says that the album is also a gift to the band because it represents their future as an established band.
