Pioneers of the live electronic world, Big Gigantic, have released their much anticipated 5th studio album, Brighter Future.
The group has been regularly covered by TSIS over the years on everything from their past albums to remixes. In addition, we've been lucky to partner up with Big Gigantic on the annual Rowdytown mini festival that takes places at Red Rocks and has become an exciting event we look forward to each year.
For their latest endeavor, we see the group expanding the signature Big Gigantic sound we've grown to love in all the right ways. While their previous albums were mostly instrumental based, they've taken a new approach on Brighter Future enlisting features on 10 of the 13 tracks. The impressive list of collaborators includes Logic, GRiZ, Waka Flocka Flame, Rozes, Cherub, Pell and many others have all come together to create something that pushes the boundaries.
To celebrate, we are not only happy to be debuting the project, but we've also done an interview with Dom to help fully understand the story behind this record. Brighter Future not only marks an exciting point in Big Gigantic's career, but also holds an important meaning that is best explained in the interview below. The duo has also started A Big Gigantic Difference Foundation to donate a portion of ticket sales to local charities. Check out the interview below and enjoy Brighter Future!
Big Gigantic – Brighter Future | Stream & Download
As pioneers of live electronic music, how have you seen the live space change and how do you feel you’ve adapted to it?
I feel like for the most part, people are mostly finding new ways to play their electronic music live. Obviously instruments come into play and people are playing more actual instruments at their live show or having singers come out etc but now we are seeing people with drum pads and samplers etc and playing the different parts of their songs however they can.
In what ways do do you see the industry changing moving forward?
Hard to say to be honest because just when u think u got it figured out something brand new comes along and it becomes something new we've never heard before and it changes the whole game. But I think for the most part we are just gonna be seeing some more unique electronic acts coming forward along with the groups that are writing really amazing songs.
What does five years of your annual Rowdytown shows at Red Rocks mean to you?
Wow man. It's so crazy. Just unbelievable because I remember us thinking of playing The Fox theatre in Boulder as being 'the ultimate show' and if we ever got to that point we would be so stoked etc.. So now being our 5th year of Rowdytown and our 3rd year doing 2 nights each year is pretty unbelievable. I think it shows how amazing of a fanbase we have, how supportive the kids in Colorado are, and just how.. hard work, determination and believing in yourself or something can really take you in life. Beyond your wildest dreams.
When did you first begin working on Brighter Future, and how would you describe the evolution of Big Gigantic’s sound on this latest project?
I probably started on this record a couple years ago. At that time I was just working on a lot of new music, had just finished our tune 'Get On Up' and was just writing different stuff for the live show and different tunes I've always wanted to make as artist in general. So I was making some downtempo songs, some hip hop head nodders and some funkier more bass music type of songs all at the same time.
I think the evolution for us on this album is the features. We've never really worked with singers or rappers much before but I really wanted to take a more 'songwriting' approach to this record because honestly I just love it. I love writing songs and I think when your doing what you love, your gonna get the best results because your just enjoying every moment of the process of what your doing. In terms of evolution of the Big G sound, I think this record is just a lot more melodic in general, which is our forte in the first place so it all makes sense.
This album is by far one of the most diverse projects we have heard from you guys. What has inspired you on this journey and how does that reflect in the album?
I think what inspired me is just music itself and just the simple fact to make music that I just really love. That turned out to be quite a few different styles of songs but that what I came up on, a whole melting pot of different kind of music, all of which, was so dope.
What inspired you to work with such a diverse cast of collaborators and what has been your greatest takeaway or learning experience from collaborating with so many different artists?
I mostly wanted to make an album that played thru and/or felt like my favorite album growing up as a kid (which happened to be west coast rap albums). There were like these intros and outro's and skits and funky tunes and really a bunch of different songs that really spoke to you in different ways. So I wanted to make an album like that, but a Big G album in 2016 so I tried to go about it like that.
As far as the personnel that we collaborated with.. I feel like if an artist has a deep thing going or like a soulful thing going (although it doesn't have to be soul music if you know what I mean) and are just great at what they do.. That's when really incredible different music can be made.
One thing I can take away from working with all of these artists is that, you can really make the music itself bigger by working with other artists and batting ideas around etc. It was so fun to watch all these people do their thing in the studio and bring these songs to a new level.
You've already begun bringing out some of the featured artists in your live shows like Waka Flocka Flame, Pell and Jennifer Hartswick at Lollapalooza, can you describe that experience?
Well there is just nothing like performing the song you wrote with someone live. Just too good! Hahaha hard to explain in any other way than.. The best feeling ever.
What is the goal or statement you want to get across with Brighter Future?
Essentially. I feel like we are in the middle of some very turbulent times as humans on this earth. Right here at home in the US as well as all across the globe. Sometimes it feels like a big balloon waiting to pop and honestly it's frightening to think about sometimes. Especially when, at the core, we are all human beings. We all have to wake up. We all have to sleep. We all need to drink water lolol!! Because we are humans!! We all bleed the same color blood. But for some reason there is a lot of negative attitudes and actions taking place around us. It's obviously a very large and complex discussion but at the end of the day, I think every person wants to wake up and think that, what lies ahead for them will be better, and that's the core of the idea of a Brighter Future. Is to wake up every day and want to be better, and to help people and bring people together to bring out the brighter side of things in life.
What can fans expect from your Brighter Future tour and how will it be different from your previous shows? Special guests, stage setup, etc.
Well we are gonna be playing all of this music from our new album which is incredible so that will be super special for us and really bring a fresh feel musically to our live show. We are still tweaking our live setup for this part of the Brighter Future tour but we always go really deep trying to make something fresh visually for our tour so we'll have some really dope when everyone comes out to see us. We'll have some guests here and there throughout the tour too!!
Can you tell us more about A Big Gigantic Difference Foundation?
A few years ago we wanted to take the idea of A Big Gigantic Family and the concept of family and spreading positivity and turn it into something that could help others. A Big Gigantic Difference (ABGD) was formed. Thru the ABGD we encouraged our fans to do everything they could to make a positive difference in other people's lives. We've worked together with many different nonprofit groups to collect food & clothing, organize & pack toys for toddlers, raise funds for learning gardens to teach children to grow their own food and also encouraged our fans and volunteers to do good deeds in their own towns. After we saw the way people reacted to ABGD we wanted to find a way to take it one step further and started A Big Gigantic Difference Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit that will be a place we can raise & distribute funds to organizations doing good for others. On the Brighter Future Tour a percentage of every ticket sold will be collected and donated by the ABGDFoundation to a local charity so the fans are helping to enact positive change in their own towns!
What’s next for Big G?
I think as far as the music goes, more collaborating with other great artists as well as some more soul searching for music that really resonates within us and creating a sound that's something fresh and new to move forward with.