Words by Laura Martin
Photos by Rob Low

Ah, the folly of youth. Most band start-ups are spritely young dudes dreaming of life on a tour bus, throwing TVs out of hotels and a permanent supply of Jack Daniels and groupies on tap. But where’s the wisdom that comes with age? A long way off, like their dreams of number ones. Much better to start a group after you’ve lived at the heart of what you’re writing about. The Big Pink is the newest project from Robbie Furze (vocals) and Milo Cordell (beats), who you could describe as the sages of the industrial experimental electro noise scene. For the best part of a decade, they’ve been behind some of the best cult and leftfield acts such as Klaxons, Crystal Castles and Panic DHH in their roles as producers, record label owners and musicians.

Now they’re channeling their energy into the Big Pink, set up last year, which takes the legacy of ’90s Mad-chester scene and sets it to a background of distorted buzzes and white noise. Here’s the clever bit – they’ve ended up with strongly catchy melodies and haunting tunes over synth-y beats, like their limited-edition release of debut single “Too Young To Love”. The BBC named them as ones to watch in 2009, (‘….surprising’, comment the band), the NME gave them similar props and their live shows are being touted as the one to bagsy a summer festival ticket for. See, sometimes time can wait for two men…. ‘Sup caught up with the guys in Dalston for a chat about the noisy path that’s lead them to the Big Pink.

You’ve both had careers in the music industry for quite some time, but how long have you known each other for?
Milo: It was about nine years ago now, we met at a millenium party.

Is the Big Pink the first time you’ve collaborated together then?
Milo: Not really, as when we met we were both really into extreme noise and we decided to started up a record label called Hate Channel, which was really horrible nosebleed noise. Robbie made music and I set the label up. The label didn’t last very long then Robbie was out with his band for a long time.

So why set up a band now?
Milo: I don’t know know, Robbie’s old band finished.
Robbie: I got bored of doing the old thing as we toured it to death, we played every squat we could find in Europe. It was great but very one directional. We hit a dead end, or I hit a dead end I guess.

How long were you doing that for?
Robbie: Maybe a couple of years?

And was that with Alec Empire?
Robbie: Well, I started off as a guitarist and that was my own band Panic DHH and I had signed to his label Digital Hardcore Recordings and we put the record out on that. Later, I guess creatively we hit a wall. I remember the gig in fact, I can’t remember where I was but I just looked at the crowd and just thought ‘You know what? I’ve had enough’. We gave up, we cut the set short and I just walked off.

Wow. Was that the end of the band or that type of music scene for you?
Robbie: It was the end of the band as the music of the Big Pink is a kind of a progression from that.
Milo: It was refined from that, and a bit of my taste as well, music that I’m into.

Did you have a specific idea what you wanted to sound like?
Mile: Yeah we just wanted to be a digital version of the Velvet Underground. It was really simple, we didn’t programme any beats or anything, it was literally just like a tambourine, psych-y synth sounds and pedal, then we were like ‘this is cool, we’ve got a thing going on here’. Then we thought maybe we wanna make people dance and got a bit more of that digital hardcore programming in, progamming beats a bit more.

Your new stuff is a big departure from that more industrial nosebleed experimental stuff, it’s got that 90s Mad-chester sound, like twinges of the Stone Roses. Is that an era that you were really in to?
Robbie: Definitely, that’s the kind of blend we’re going for. That, with the noise foundations and that kind of melody or attention to song structure.
Milo: There were only a few bands from that era that we’re into. We’re both huge fans of the Stone Roses, we both love Slow Dive and My Bloody Valentine. I guess what all those bands have got, especially the Stone Roses, is really good song writing, that’s something that we really try and work with.

How important are lyrics to you?
Milo: Really important. You can write beats and play around with synths but we spent hours working on lyrics.
Robbie: Lyrics are a long process, we really want to get them right.
Milo: Sometimes they just roll off the tongue and sometimes you just get a song which is great because you might have written something great.
Robbie: We write the music first before we write the lyrics and get a melody.
Milo: It’s really weird actually, it’s a cliche but it’s really down to how you’re feeling and what inspires you. I never thought I’d be sitting here going ‘yeah, I’m really inspired, man’ and here I am doing it! (laughs).

And what inspires you?
Milo: Girls, love, going out. It’s not just one thing, it’s when everything clicks into place, whether it was a night out or a meeting or something. We can come back to a song that we’ve had problems with and it will suddenly seem right to work on it again.

You’ve had one single out so far, are you working on the album? How’s it going?
Robbie: We have our own studio in my house we kind of get really good demos there, we can get it to a certain point. We just got Alan Moulder to do the next single, Velvet.
Milo: We produced it and he mixed it. He did My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, all the bands we love. So it was cool to have him polish the diamond, as it were. That was fantastic. We’re going to New York on Friday to work with Chris Zane, who just did Passion Pit.

Milo, your record label Merok launched Crystal Castles and Klaxons, who’ve both had massive critical and mainstream success with pretty hardcore electronica. Do you think music audience are more leftfield in their taste these days?
Milo: Yeah, I think so. I think Klaxons took that sound and made it their own and took it into the mainstream. I guess dance music was really unfashionable for a really long time, but I never really classified that label as electro or dance, I think the Klaxons and Crystal Castles were completely punk. Crystal Castles were – and still are – the most punkest band and people I’ve ever met, in attitude and everything. They completely don’t give a fuck about anything.

You played with them, right?
Milo: Yeah we played one show with them as the Big Pink and I toured with them. I brought them over to the UK and they’d only played four gigs. I think they lied. They said they’d played four shows, but I don’t think they had played any shows until they came over here! They were SO bad.

Really?
Milo: Yeah, they were awful! Then every time they came back, they got better and better. Then suddenly they’re on the cover of the NME and headlining gigs to a few thousand people. That was completely amazing to watch as they have their own ethos and they did it themselves, they’re not on any label, it was all them. They’ve got a really good ‘fuck you’ attitude.

Cool. How have your live shows been going?
Robbie: We started about July last year I think…
Milo: I remember, it was April last year which was my first show, and I was like ‘I am never doing that again!’

Why?
Milo: It was awful.

What, because of nerves, how the show sounded?
Milo: It was everything, I just hated it, I was sick, I was..ugh.
Robbie: I thought it was a great show – I loved it!
Milo: Looking back, it was pretty cool.

Have you got over the stage fright now?
Milo: Yeah, I’m totally cool with it now, I still get a bit stage-frighty thought. But I get nervous going to see live music anyway.

Why?
Milo: I get butterflies before bands come out, I don’t know why.

Do you feel more pressure when you’re performing your own tracks?
Robbie: I actually hate playing in front of people. Well, I don’t hate it, that’s a strong word. I don’t really give a shit about it, it’s boring to me after a while. Touring is fun for a bit, but it doesn’t compare to when it’s your own thing.

Have you worked with anyone interesting on the tracks you’ve done so far? I’ve been trying to work out who that girl is on “A Brief History of Love.”
Milo: It’s a girl called crazy Jo Robertson. She’s just fucking mad. She’s an artist and she’s also got the most incredible voice.
Robbie: I love her voice but it’s terrible as we might have to re-record her again – I’m dreading it as she’s really hard work.To get that session done took a long time. Milo just left me with her. He just bolted and I was sitting there going: ‘Christ’. She had to draw a picture for an hour before she could work, then she came on to me. She’s nuts but in the end it’s worth it as I love her voice.
Milo: Totally – it’s a spine tingler.

And what’s next for you guys?
Milo: We’re going Glastonbury and we’re going to record the album in the next couple of months. We don’t really need a producer, we just need someone to make it sound better – we just need to meet the right person. We’ve got ideas to collaborate with people on an EP over the summer, get as many friends involved as possible. We’ve asked a band from America called Salem, hopefully Crystal Castles and hopefully Telepathe. It’s all TBC, so we’ll see.