The Big Pink release stirring new single 'Safe And Sound', out September 8th
LISTEN HERE
NEW ALBUM ‘THE LOVE THAT’S OURS’, OUT SEPTEMBER 30TH THROUGH PROJECT MELODY MUSIC
PRE-ORDER HERE
OFFICIAL ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY @ OUTERNET, LONDON - OCTOBER 5TH - TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
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"A fantastic return after a decade-long hiatus by the London band who combine big tunes with an undertow of gothic dread. A taster from their long-awaited third album."
THE TIMES (Best New Tracks)
“A taster of what’s to come and dose of their trademark indie-pop-meets-shoegaze sound from their acclaimed 2008 debut ‘A Brief History Of Love‘” NME
“The new track sees the ‘Dominos’ group heading back to their roots with darkened and prog-tinged alt pop. It marks their first piece of new material since the release of their second album ‘Future This’ in 2012.” ROLLING STONE UK
"(‘Love Spins On Its Axis’) is a big, bleary, catchy song that combines a synthpop skeleton with a whole lot of squealing electronic effects." STEREOGUM
"'No Angels” is a return to form, both sonically and thematically" CONSEQUENCE
“The electro-rock band have returned with the indie-pop, shoegaze-tinged 'No Angels', which sees a return to their origins. Produced by Tony Hoffer, the track explores the melancholy of feeling far away from home, yearning to return to feelings of comfort and safety.” CLASH
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Following the enormous response for their recently shared releases ‘No Angels’, ‘Love Spins On Its Axis’, and ‘Rage’, which have seen media support from The Times, NME, Rolling Stone UK & US, Consequence of Sound, CLASH, Spin, The Sun, The Line of Best Fit, Stereogum, DORK, DIY, Flood Mag and many more, The Big Pink continue the support for their long-awaited third studio album ‘The Love That’s Ours’, their first in a decade, with the haunting new single ‘Safe and Sound’.
Capturing more of the poignant and heartfelt direction they have cultivated since their return, ‘Safe and Sound’ marks one of the more captivating offerings lifted from their forthcoming full-length. Adopting a warm and passionate piano-led aesthetic this time around, they conjure a beautifully fresh and alluring sound that matches the vibrant energy they have been producing up until now.
Speaking about ‘Safe and Sound’, frontman Robbie Furze said, "Dancing with these vultures in my fugitive apartment”, “Angels with their wings clipped gunning for the love that’s ours”.
“These lines sum up the record perfectly. I moved to L.A. to find my record and I found it, but at a price. I was chased by every temptation known to mankind. I was promised love. I was promised wealth. I was promised the world. Drugs, women, stardom, all the cliches hounding me and biting at my heels. I got caught up in it. I was strung out and I got lost. I can now put my hands up and admit that.
“For a while I lost my wife. I lost my family and friends and mostly, I lost my mind.
“This song, Safe and Sound, came from a moment of pure clarity when I realised I had to turn my life around and just deliver this record.
“I was held up in my fugitive apartment and these people were not angels at all, they were gunning to take away everything I loved!
“The process of writing this song started with a songwriter named Peter Stengaard, it wasn’t the easiest of writing sessions. I just couldn't hear the song and where we were going with it. Peter, I think, felt this and walked me over to this beautiful white piano in the back part of his house. He told me to just sing the chorus, "you, me and the piano," and suddenly it just clicked and the whole song came alive. I could hear it! The whole song presented itself.
“I immediately called Ryn Weaver and told her that I was on the brink of something special and could she meet me back at my studio right now, that night. for her to hear it. The moment she heard the top line she knew exactly what I was trying to say. We spoke at length about the purgatory-feeling that I was existing in and then the verse words just fell out of us. I'm so proud of these lyrics and they truly are the most personal on the record. Over the years that I was in L.A., I had created a pretty dark place for myself. This song was the turning point.
“TURN THE SHIP AROUND
WE'RE TOO GOOD TO BE DRIFTING
SAFE AND SOUND……” I’m not just singing this to my wife, but I’m singing it to myself.
Now here I am back at home, the record is coming out and all IS “safe and sound”.
Marking their first full-length release since 2012’s ‘Future This’, The Big Pink are looking to make ‘The Love That’s Ours’ the biggest phase in their journey yet. Produced by Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, Phoenix), the record will include a host of guest collaborators, including Jamie T, Jamie Hince (The Kills), Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Ryn Weaver, Mary Charteris, Ed Harcourt and many more, all aiming to make this new release their most memorable to date.
The Big Pink have also announced an official album release party, taking place on October 5th, in partnership with DICE, at London’s Outernet. Tickets available HERE.
‘The Love That’s Ours’ - Tracklisting
How Far We’ve Come
No Angels
Love Spins On Its Axis
Rage
Outside In
I’m Not Away To Stay Away
Safe and Sound
Murder
Back To My Arms
Even If I Wanted To
Lucky One
A decade is a long time in music.
One listen to The Big Pink’s latest offerings however, and the ten years since we last heard from them melt away. Grandeur mixed with melancholy, singalong tunes tinged with nagging doubt, dreamlike atmosphere and pure noise, electronic dystopia shrouding a spirit of hope, all driven by the big questions on identity, purpose and belonging… It’s all in there. And those ten years out of view have brought to The Big Pink a new character: experience.
“The first album was that classic thing: is this actually happening?” says Robbie Furze, the sole founder member since his musical partner Milo Cordell left in 2013, of The Big Pink’s 2009 breakthrough ’A Brief History of Love’. “There were no expectations, just two best friends working on music together, and to us it felt like an explosion. Then came the second record [Future This, 2012], which we thought we could bash out because we were now so busy on tour, but we soon realised that it didn’t have the same romance or importance of the first record and that affected Milo deeply. I remember doing the first gigs after Future This and thinking: something doesn’t feel right here. We were trying to get the songs written as quickly as possible and we neglected the essence of The Big Pink in the process.”
After a huge tour of Asia that, in Furze’s words, ‘finished us off,’ he and Cordell decided to step away from music; to avoid the fate of so many bands who fall into the recording-touring treadmill and kill the passion that first opened their hearts along the way. There was no major split, no blazing rows presented to the world as musical differences, just an understanding that it was time to move on.
Milo Cordell concentrated on running his record label Merok, while Furze felt a strong urge to change the backdrop and start anew. “I fell into DJing in Los Angeles. London was on a bit of a downer at the time, especially if you were in a rock band, and there seemed to be a lot of English musicians moving to LA – it was the place to be. A friend of mine was opening a bar in Silverlake called Tenants of the Trees and it felt like the beginning of a movement. It had the beautiful models, the token celebs, the bands I love… There I was with Black Motorcycle Club and Queens of the Stone Age, and I was Robbie from the Big Pink, DJing on Tuesday nights. It was fun.” For a moment Furze considered a future as club owner, before realising that he really should be getting back to making music of his own.
“And that’s when things started happening again because there are a lot of lost artists in LA; people who have gone out there with their talent and lost their way. LA’s great when you’re on the up but if you find yourself having fallen out of favour it can be hard to get back on the proverbial treadmill. But if you can get those people in the room for a moment, lovely things can emerge from the chaos.”
The Big Pink’s drummer Akiko Matsuura was back on board while Charlie Barker, a visual artist from Nottingham, joined on bass guitar. Furze bounced musical ideas off a network of friends either visiting or resident in Los Angeles including Jamie Hince from the Kills, Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jamie T and Joel Amey from Wolf Alice, the latter suggesting that Furze resurrect The Big Pink to do a US tour with Wolf Alice in 2018. “That reinvigorated me because going on tour is like going to war: it’s so hard but you feel invigorated by the pain, especially if you are back on a support tour, shlepping your own amplifiers around. It gives you a tangible feeling on what it means to be a musician.”
“The Love That’s Ours’, one of the most creative and multi-faceted rock albums of recent times, has offered a rebirth for Robbie Furze. He wants it all back: the festivals, the world tours, the Glastonbury spots. “There is a song on the record called Lucky One, which is about a friend of mine who died of a heroin overdose. Los Angeles is such an aggressive town that people do lose themselves. I found my calling again, and the confidence needed to write these songs. So I was the lucky one because that could have been me. The record became my ticket out of LA, my situation — and myself. From there, I came home.”
And so begins a new chapter for The Big Pink...
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