Since their inception in 2007, UK fuzz pop duo The Big Pink - Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze - have quickly made a name for themselves. Despite having released only three singles, the band have signed with the highly regarded indie 4AD who will release their debut A Brief History of Love this September. The group also picked up the NME's award for 'Best New Act', as well as have their debut single 'Velvet' gain notoriety internatiionally as well as hitting high rotation locally on Triple J. Such a meteoric rise seems more plausible when you see who's behind the curtain. Cordell runs the label Merock, responsible for unleashing Klaxons, Titus Andronicus and Crystal Castles on the world.

We caught up with a cagey (hungover?) Cordell from the Big Pink to talk about their more obvious influences, hectic schedule and joy of running your own record label.

I like the new record - are you happy with it?

Yeah I think so...it's hard to let go of it and hand over the finished product, but I think so.

I can hear a lot of different influences and elements poking through.

Oh yeah?

There's definitely a Stone Roses vibe happening, I also hear connotations of early Smashing Pumpkins in there, is that a fair comparison?

I think that's definitely fair (laughs). The Pumpkins and Stone Roses are two of my favourite bands. I mean, you never try to emulate them, but if we can conjure up the same emotions from either of those two bands then it's amazing.

You've also managed to do is keep the aggression in the songs. How important was that to the process?

Oh, it was totally imperative, we wanted to make a very English sounding record using the influences from the stuff we grew up with, like heavy noise and industrial music. Then sort of making it our own. Kind of like what the Smashing Pumpkins did, we wanted to have a really emotive, yet also heavy record.

The vocals are quite atmospheric and even poppy, but the drums bring that industrial feel.

Yeah, I don't think many people mix the really heavy programmed drums with light drums and I think that's very much a part of our sound.
 
It's definitely music that would translate really well in a live environment. Was it written more as a live project or more of a studio album?

Well, I think it's a studio album. We didn't sit down with a band and jam shit out to write it - we just went into the studio and recorded it. But in saying that, we are a touring band and when we go on tour the songs definitely take on their own meaning when they're played live.

You also produced this album yourselves?

Yeah we did. I guess we're such egomaniacs that we didn't want anyone else to have anything to do with it. But we did work with Paul Epworth [Bloc Party, Primal Scream, The Rapture, Friendly Fires] on the track 'Dominos' and that was great. It was sort of like hot chocolate you know? We already knew how to mix the chocolate and the milk together to make hot chocolate, but then we got another guy involved and it was sort of like 'Oh shit, we can mix marshmellows in with this', and then we thought maybe we can make a cocktail you know?


The Big Pink - 'Velvet'
 
You're in Europe right now...

I'm in bed right now.

But you're on the festival circuit right now?

Yeah we've been doing festivals all summer. Japan was awesome. For our set there was about 5000 people just going mental, much better than here. We'd only really played shows in London you know? So it was very new ground, but very cool.

How do you find the festival shows, compared to standard gigs?

Well I think we gauge our shows by our own environment. We control all the lighting and stage effects, so we try to make it like our own little micro-world. When we play earlier in the day it's not as good 'cause we're definitely a darker band. Without trying to sound...you know....we should be headlining (laughs).

'Velvet' has been receiving big airplay on JJJ, down here in Australia - it must a comforting feeling to know that your music is making splashes on the other side of the world before you have even released an album.

It's fucking beautiful. But I don't want to believe it until I get there.

Just getting away from The Big Pink for a second. Could you tell me a bit about your record label, Merock Records.

I went traveling around India and had a bit of an epiphany while on the beach one day that I should go back to England and start a record label. Then I met up with the Klaxons and talked about having them as the first band on the label - we all went out for some Turkish food and everything just seemed perfect you know? It just seemed like a bunch of cats out on the same journey.

Is it easy to find a comfortable balance between your label and your music career?

Yeah it is you know, we're still putting out new music and there's new people working for me now and we're always searching for new music to release. That's what we get off on.

Is the new Klaxons album coming any time soon?

I think so, I think they've recorded a few different albums but from what I've heard it's all been brilliant.

The Big Pink are signed with 4AD now - this has obviously helped with exposure, but did you and Robbie talk about releasing the record on Merock?

Not really, no. I think we really wanted someone else to have the same feeling we have when we put out an album for another artist. There's a lot of hard work, long hours and money that goes into releasing a new artist and I think this time around we were happy to hand that over to other people.

Is there an Australian tour on the horizon?

I fucking hope so - I'm hoping we'll be there next year. We want to be there right now. I wish I was on Bondi Beach right now being eaten by a a big great white shark.

It sounds like it could be a good option for you right now.

I'd much rather be there than here, that's for sure.

Nick Holt

A Brief History of Love is out September 12th.