The Big Pink Reveal Plans to Work on a New Album – Exclusive Interview

London electronic rock duo the Big Pink have been turning heads since releasing their single 'Too Young to Love' in 2008. After signing with legendary British record label 4AD, Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell dropped their debut album, 'A Brief History of Love,' the following year to much critical acclaim. The Big Pink put out their new album 'Future This' earlier this year and sat down with Diffuser.fm before their set at Lollapalooza 2012.

Robbie, you told NME that 'Future This' would have a big hip-hop influence, but later retracted that statement, saying you should have never made a claim like that. This is an ironic question coming from us, but do you feel weary of doing interviews since everything you say is under a microscope?

Furze: Yup. It's kind of annoying because what we meant was that we were kind of likening it to hip-hop because we were basically taking samples, like looping and sticking beats behind it, and then writing a song like that way rather than strumming around an acoustic guitar. And we just said it was the essence of hip-hop, writing. That's how hip-hop has been made since the early '70s. I think that then people just say, "Oh, they want to be a hip-hop band." Well, we didn't really say that. We were trying to tell them something a bit deeper, but everyone wants a one-liner thing. And our beats are all break beats or they're kind of hip-hop beats to a certain extent.

Cordell: We were never gonna rap. That was never part of the game.

You sample songs from other artists on Big Pink material. Does it feel weird when acts sample Big Pink songs, like Nicki Minaj?

Cordell: It was incredible. That for us was a great, kind of defining moment because we've been working on the samples and we always knew that we wanted to sample stuff. But we never imagined that we would be sampled. It completely blew us away. I wish we got sampled more.

Was there backlash from your fans who wondered why you would let a pop star like Nicki Minaj sample your material?

Furze: No, not really. I think our fans supported it. It's a good song. I think if it had been a s--- song then I think they might have been a bit pissed off.

How much planning goes into your live shows? Is it as extensive as creating a record?

Furze: I think it's an ongoing development. You start off at a place and then it grows and changes. The live shows are progressive.

Cordell: It's never like a finished article. We're never like, "OK, that's it." It's all changing because everything is on laptops. You can chop things up so you can do whatever you want and mutate it.

Music festivals are obviously a different animal compared to a regular tour. Do you prefer the massive install base of a festival crowd or creative control with your own shows?

Furze: I think we prefer our own shows. We like playing at night or in dark rooms. We like to create our own atmosphere as much as possible. I do love festivals because we get to play to people we normally wouldn't play to. And it's so fun, especially because it's Lollapalooza. But I think as a whole we like to play long tours and in small clubs.

There have been critics of electronic music saying that it's too processed or not authentic enough. Do you feel that's a stigma that will always be associated with the genre?

Furze: I think that kind of thing is leaving. I mean with us, there's as much live drums and guitars and then we add a whole lot of stuff on top of it as well. You're not cheating using a keyboard or you're not cheating using a sample. It's just part of it.

Cordell: And then you have groups like Justice who are more punk and more like rock than any other rock band around. You know what I mean? We put on such an intense show and I don't know that you can say it doesn't count.

What are the immediate plans for the Big Pink after the summer ends?

Furze: In my opinion we toured the first record a bit too long. We did almost three years of touring. We want to get back into the studio and get into the third record so that we can get that out before the spring next year. That's sort of our plan.

Watch the Big Pink's 'Give It Up' Video