Doctor’s Orders: The Big Pink’s Robbie Furze prescribes his nine favourite albums
After ten long years without a new record, The Big Pink are back making music. Their new album, The Love That’s Ours, proves to be a perfect fit for our Doctor’s Orders feature in itself. It is a record that lives and breathes on the challenges faced in the creative process and the cathartic release of overcoming them. “I get told I shouldn’t say this word, but It sort of evolved into a concept album. The whole album became the soundtrack to me getting this record finished and making my way back home,” Robbie Furze informs me.
It’s an album that is brimming with that sort of tension and release of pop music made with absolute sincerity. The mounting rock guitars build a sense of a journey, and the bullish intent whisks you along for the ride. As Furze continues, it was an intrepid spiritual journey “not just my family and where I live in London, but metaphorically the home in my head. It was like my Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It was my struggle down my own river to face my madness and try and get home. That was where every song started.”
This is reflected in the musicology of the album too. “What I wanted to do on this record was to return to an understanding of the first record in the third person,” Furze explains in a continuation of the motif of a creative recapitulation. “What is it about our sound that is important? What is it that makes The Big Pink?” he pondered.
However, in the act of stewing things over, he found a fresh release. “I felt like I wanted to be true to that sound. I wanted to take that sound and get the technical side of it better. To actually focus on the songwriting side about what chord should go where and how long things should be. I’m a pop slut really, I like pop music. You could say that the Pixies have a similar mindset, so that’s the sort of pop arc I was after.” This notion of taking some time to figure things out is important not only creatively but also in general life, music is a vital force on this front.
This makes the music that has inspired Furze during testing moments all the more notable when it comes to the nine records he has selected for our Doctor’s Orders feature in conjunction with CALM. The band offer an eclectic sound, tied together with a sense of pointed purpose, and the records Robbie has chosen to represent the music he turns to when is a reflection of that.
In support of CALM, we’re asking a selection of our favourite people to share nine records that they would prescribe for anyone they met and the stories behind their importance. Doctor’s Orders sees some of our favourite musicians, actors, authors, comedians and more offer up the most important records, which they deem essential for living well.
In support of suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). If you or someone you know is struggling, head over to thecalmzone.net for practical support and advice. There are loads of ways to support CALM and their life-saving services. If you fancy making a small donation, £8 can answer a potentially life-saving call.
The Big Pink’s Robbie Furze nine favourite albums:
The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
The first record to really inspired Furze was the seminal 1993 Smashing pumpkins sophomore records Siamese Dream. He explained: “For me, that was me in my teenage years, I might have been smoking weed and drinking, but I was young, and it was the first time I felt the power of music elevating me and making me feel euphoric. The guitars on that record are just huge. They just hit you and wash over you. The song ‘Mayonaise’ on that record is just an incredible wave of guitar and noise.”
Adding: “It was one of the first records, where you just thought, ‘I feel special. I feel that when I listen to this, I understand who I am a little bit more, and why I’m here a little bit more’. I was having this problem with a friend of mine who I was at school with recently. He has mental health issues, and I almost feel like albums like this are maybe why I’m OK, I can put two and two together when it comes to the chaos of life because of, well, every album we’re about to talk about but predominantly, this was one of the early ones where the euphoric nature of music really had an effect on me.”
Phil Spector – The Wall of Sound: The very best of Phil Spector 61-66
The next album to have a bearing on his spiritually and musically was the Phil Spector compilation capturing the best of his production. “It takes a bit more maturity to admit that you love ‘Be My Baby’. If you admitted that at school, you might have gotten a bit of stick. I think that was my early 20s when I allowed myself to hear just how incredible that music was. Why I ever thought that music was dumb or pussy? It’s so tough. Much tougher than other metal shit I was listening to at the time. It’s razor-sharp in its delivery. That whole record is insane, and a lot of that went into The Big Pink.”
Aside from allowing him to become more eclectic, the musicology still proves influential on his output even now. “The beat for ‘Be My Baby’ was huge for us. Jesus and the Mary chain used it for ‘Just Like Honey’ too. So, this sound was hugely important creatively,” Furze adds.
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
“This came out around the release of our first album,” he says of Kanye West’s famed epic. “Rarely do you hear a record that you can call a perfect record. I believe this is one. Every single song is a hit. There is no filler. I was absolutely blown away by it. I’ve tried to rip off the drum programming for ‘All of The Lights’ hundreds and hundreds of times and I just can’t figure it out. He is a true genius when it comes to drum programming, and production in general.”
Continuing: “Songs like ‘Runaway’ are up there with ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’. That’s just a genius song. The bass on ‘Hell of a Life’ was heavily influential on the first song of my new record. It’s just a really eclectic record. It’s a hip-hop record, but it’s really musical. There is so much going on but it doesn’t sound too chaotic—he’s managed to really fine place all these musical elements. It’s a perfect record for me and I keep going back to it. It’s definitely my favourite from his repertoire.”
It also inspired Furze to follow his own individualism. Adding: “I always feel that these days the nature of the music industry doesn’t fund the freaks. It doesn’t fund the oddballs. It would be very difficult for another Bowie to be allowed to exist. All these mad singers and characters. So when someone like Kanye who is definitely an oddball, but is unbelievably talented, is funded and can take the stage and get his music to so many people around the world is a great thing.”
Ministry – Psalms 69
Back to Furze’s youth, this is another record that proved vital in forming him as a character and helping him through his brutal school days. “When this came out, I felt like it was just evil,” he begins. “I would put it on in my bedroom at school, and I’d feel scared – especially because I was sent away to some horrendous boarding school – it was like listening to devil music. It was really pushing the boundaries for me at the time. It was really dark. It was chaos.”
Further eulogising the impact of the album: “I loved that side of it. I didn’t really know what the music was, but it was just pure chaos and pure power. It did the same things the Smashing Pumpkins did where it gave me an identity when you thought, ‘No, I get this music’. And someone else would agree then you were a brotherhood. Then, we felt special and elevated. When you were being shouted at by teachers or beaten up by older boys, you could just have a little grin because you knew you could go back to your room and put on ‘New World Order’ to charge yourself up and get through this bollocks. It was survival. It’s survival music.”
The Band – The Last Waltz
Some records seem fatefully ordained to enter our lives, this is certainly one of those when it comes to Furze and his future: “This is why we’re called The Big Pink. We actually went to see The Big Pink house once when we were on tour, and I buried a record in the garden outside. My full name is Robertson, and my people call me Robbie, so this was played non-stop in the house when I was a kid. My dad was into Martin Scorsese and The Band, so it was always on TV and it was always being played everywhere, so I felt this affiliation.”
Triumphantly recalling: “They were the real deal, and I wanted The Big Pink to be the real deal. I had this mentality of we’re going to be on the road for 15 years, we’re never going to give up. When we’re talking about my journey down my river, being a musician isn’t for everyone, it is difficult. A lot of it is super hard and I like the ethos of the band being on tour for so long. It was really important to have that band there when you’re humping your amp about gig after gig wondering whether you can really do this. Well, of course, you fucking can. Yeah, you might not be able to sleep much and you miss your family, but you get to play this beautiful music. That’s what they symbolised for me.”
NWA – Straight Outta Compton
While Furze might have been a little young for Straight Outta Compton, it didn’t do him any harm: “This was one of my earlier cassettes. I remember on my way to school I’d put it on and I’d be so happy that there was swearing. I guess it was one of my first experiences with music as a meaningful punk thing. I had no idea about gangster rap, but I just loved the aggression of it. NWA has never left me. It has always been there in different incarnations. And beyond me, this is such an incredibly important record for hip hop. The production is up there with Dark Twisted Fantasy. It’s super musical, but also super heavy with just massive beats and breaks.”
Adding: “The whole record is a memorable moment. It was a time when you would just turn it up super loud and wait for these breaks that you knew were going to drop at any point. When they landed you would just feel incredibly elevated. And I was a white kid from West London so I had no idea what these guys were going through and the socio-political struggles, but at the time it was just so exciting. As a young guy, even if you don’t understand it, you can feel that, it’s just like punk.”
Metallica – And Justice For All
Metallica’s 1988 record helped to endear them to an ever-widening audience. Furze was one of many swept up in the maelstrom of sound: “I love Metallica. I’ve got a Metallica tattoo. I remember being taught how to play tracks on this record and it was just so difficult. They had toned down various elements. It’s sheer power.”
Continuing: “I went to see them in 1991 and I was just blown away. It made me feel special. It saved my life because it took me away from depression. It elevated me and made me feel like I was part of a bigger question that life wasn’t just the horrors of growing up. Metallica have always done that to me—I stick them on in the car, turn it up really loud, and everything is alright. It doesn’t matter what is going on in my life; I put Metallica on and there’s a big smile on my face.”
Now, he has even more of a personal connection with the band. “I’m lucky now, I’ve become good friends with Lars Ulrich. It’s an absolute dream. We met at Glastonbury and bonded. He came to my house a week later and just stayed up all night and became really good friends. I had to reveal in the morning that I was actually a massive Metallica fan, so I hid the tattoo all night. He is possibly one of the nicest human beings I have ever met,” he concluded.
Einstürzende Neubauten – Halber Mensch
The cult industrial sound of Einstürzende Neubauten is one you won’t forget and its impact on Furze has been profound. “This record changed me completely,” he recalled. “It really changed my music tastes. I found this band in my late teens / early 20s. It was the first time I had really appreciated music without the confines of notes and structure and chords and choruses. It just showed that music could be more of an expression. When I found them, I realised that technical efficiency goes completely out of the window, it’s how you play. Music should be an expression. There should be no confines on music.”
Adding: “This record is all about attitude and conviction. If you believe in music, then that energy transfers to the listener. If you truly believe what you’re doing, and it comes from the soul, then people will understand that. That was a really important lesson for me to learn. I got it from listening to this. I have a tattoo too.”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call
Nick Cave is not only an artist who has touched Furze emotionally and inspired him but someone who always helps him stay mindful when he is looking forwards too. “He is so important to me. He is where I want to take myself to musically. I want to be that age and making music that’s really exciting. It’s a nice transition from Neubauten too, because I’ve watched a lot of those videos where Blixa says he doesn’t know how to play chords and just goes with it. They’re just amazing. Truly amazing musicians. It’s all about feel,” Furze explains.
Continuing: “’Into My Arms’ is such a beautiful song. It makes me cry. I can’t listen to it without crying really. Boatman’s Call is so beautiful. It will always stop me in my tracks. You can’t just put it on and ignore it.” You can check out a playlist of all his choices below.
