CityLife

Big-noise band are in the Pink

The Big Pink

IT'S a common plot device in sitcoms and Hollywood chick flicks: the guy who pretends to be gay in order to seduce the girl. But have you heard the one about the band that 'faked' a homosexual relationship to get in the pages of the NME?

Meet noise-pop purveyors The Big Pink, whose initial photoshoots featured the duo amorously snogging or naked, while the record sleeve of their critically-hailed debut single, Too Young To Love, was festooned in homoerotic imagery.

"It was never premeditated," laughs Robbie Furze, one half of the not-couple. "We were just bored with the generic band images, like standing against a wall looking moody or sitting around a table in a café. It's just pointless - it doesn't say anything about your band.

"We were reading a book by Dennis Cooper at the time, which was very graphic, pretty druggy and included lots of references to homosexuality. We were being photographed for Vice magazine (It wasn't going to be Bella, was it?) and the photographer wanted to recapture this photograph he'd done for Skins of two people kissing against a wall. We just sort of ran with the concept from there."

Two men playing up the gay image led some magazines to assume they were in a relationship together.

"The only time it caused problems was when we were doing an interview with a gay fanzine called They Shoot Homos Don't They?," he remembers. "It seemed to be going on forever and then I mentioned we weren't actually gay."

Apparently the journalist got a crestfallen look in his eye that can only be described as the equivalent of a child being informed that Santa doesn't exist.

"I've never seen an interview ended so abruptly," he chuckles. "We're trying to move away from that whole thing now but for a while, we enjoyed being the indie t.A.T.u."

Fortunately, there's more to The Big Pink than simply being gay-for-radio play.

Having returned from recording in New York, their first album - titled A Brief History of Love - justifies the hype the pair have received and effortlessly brushes the weight of expectation off their shoulders -from being on the longlist in the BBC's Sound of 2009 poll, to winning the NME's Philip Hall Radar Award for best new act and supporting TV On The Radio on tour.

The group's foundations were laid when Furze met Milo Cordell (son of 60s producer Denny Cordell) at a millennium eve party.

"We started an unsuccessful noise label (is there any other kind?) called Hatechannel and put out some EPs of epic, full-on white noise," says Furze. "I'd started playing with Alec Empire (best known as instigator of Atari Teenage Riot), so we were introduced to noise through that and we were going to lots of squats and illegal parties anyway.

Aggressive form

"Then we decided we wanted to make the most aggressive form of white noise - and I think we achieved it. It was definitely more extreme than anything anyone else was doing."

Furze ended up touring his own noise band, Panic DHH, with Cordell joining him for one-off appearances.

"I've played pretty much every squat there is to play in Europe," he grins. "You start to think: will anyone normal turn up to these gigs? I had a stalker we nicknamed The Crusty. He was this David Koresh figure, a leader of a cult who had three or four wives and multiple children. He was an alcoholic and a drug addict who was propelled to this kind of messianic figure. And he loved me. He wanted to take me home. He was pretty much insane."

With a mantra of 'girls, love, going out', A Brief History of Love eulogises 'love in all its forms - not just girls but for each other and every aspect of life'. Mirroring the Jesus and Mary Chain's knack of combining white noise and pop to stunning effect and written in the wake of both members breaking up from `long-term relationships', it was self-produced and recorded in Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady studios, New York.

"I sort of felt like the ghost of Jimi was there in the studio," says Furze. "It's just an incredible room: the actual piano that David Bowie played on (and allegedly snorted cocaine off ) is still there. You felt like you were part of rock history and soaking up that entire heritage."

Cordell as the record company A&R who signed The Horrors to XL and established the influential Merok records in 2005, the label responsible for early releases from the Klaxons and Crystal Castles.

Naturally, his connections, coupled with the speed of The Big Pink's ascent (they were signed by 4AD after just two gigs), have led some naysayers to cry 'nepotism'.

"It was always important to keep everything we have totally independent and separate from Milo's label," says Furze.

"I mean, we don't even sound like the kind of band that would be on Merok. And anyway, they only release singles.

"It's a pretty small label and it's not big enough to sustain our ambition. Ultimately, we want to be a big pop band."

Already receiving myriad plays on Radio 1, their next single, the Madchester-tinged Dominos boasts a skyscraping chorus that threatens to conquer indie-discos.

Incidentally, The Big Pink culled their moniker from The Band's debut album.

"Plus we're suckers for anything that sounds a bit phallic," says Furze, proving that while his faux-mosexual posturing may be dormant, it's certainly not gone entirely.

Dominos is released through 4AD on September 7. A Brief History of Love follows on September 14. They play Academy 3 on Wednesday, October 21. £8. Call 0161 832 1111.