In the current sociopolitical climate of discord and dread, it’s a challenge to remain upbeat. Against all odds, EDM/Synth Pop/Soul duo Big Gigantic is striving to steer its fans away from despair and back toward the light of hopefulness. The twosome’s message is blazingly apparent in the title of its latest album, last year’s Brighter Future.
“Everything is so crazy right now, we’re trying to do what we can. We’re just trying to stay positive and spread the love,” drummer Jeremy Salken says. “With everything going on in the world and the country, everyone’s divided, and with the election, it’s even more relevant. We’re just hoping people can find some peace and understanding within themselves and that we can figure out a way to get everyone on the same page — which seems almost impossible at this point — but we’re trying to stay positive. If everybody does that, that positivity is contagious and hopefully will spread.”
That feeling starts with Big Gigantic’s infectious soundtrack, a brilliant mix of contemporary Electronic pulse, ’60s Soul bounce and ’70s Funk thump that grooves at a molecular level.
Like a perfect gumbo, the distinct sonic flavor that Boulder, Col.-based Big Gigantic has cooked up over its half-dozen full-length and EP releases (all available for free at biggigantic.net) is sourced from a variety of influences but takes on its singular form through the creative filters of Salken and multi-instrumentalist Dominic Lalli.
“Man, that’s really tough,” Salken says when asked about the duo’s direct influences. “We both kind of have Jazz backgrounds, so Herbie Hancock has always been an influence, synth-wise and in forms, but literally we’re drawing on everything. Dom listens to a ton of Classical music, so who knows where it comes from? It’s hard to pinpoint the inspiration, it’s such a conglomeration of all these different things.”
The big difference between Brighter Future and the rest of Big Gigantic’s catalog to date is the presence of vocals on the new album, provided by a variety of hyper-talented featured artists including GRiZ, Naaz, Logic & Rozes, Cherub and Waka Flocka Flame, who took the opportunity to address his recent marital woes on the track “Highly Possible.”
“This is the first album where all the tracks have vocals, and we’re super psyched about that. It was really fun to work with all the different folks who are on the album,” Salken says. “Originally, the tunes started as instrumentals and then it was like, ‘Who can we find to do this or that and make it work right?’ It was a fun journey figuring that out. We found some of them through our manager, some of it was through the scene or old friends.
“(Trey Anastasio Band members) Jennifer Hartswick and Natalie Cressman are friends of ours that we’ve played with a million times,” he continues. “They’re talented trombone and trumpet players and they can both sing, so that was easy. They were in town and Dom was like, ‘Hey, why don’t you come over and record some stuff?’ We had seen Waka Flocka at a bunch of festivals and became like homies, and then Dom had this track and he was like, ‘Dude, I think you could spit over this Hip Hop track, and get back to your roots a little bit,’ which is different from what he’s been doing, and that lined up with what was going on with him and his wife, and he essentially rapped about her. It was just really cool.”
Given the schedules of everyone involved on the vocal end, it’s difficult to facilitate guest appearances on the road, so Big Gigantic relies on the recorded vocals in a live setting.
Brighter Future dropped last summer and the duo has already been out on the road with the new album.
But if you witnessed Big Gigantic’s largely sold-out tour last fall, rest assured that the latest circuit offers a new experience.
“We have a brand-new light rig that we took out for this tour,” Salken says. “We had our first show in Charleston last night and it was crazy, super fun. There’s a ton of new music we’re playing. We have a track with (EDM artist) Snails that we’ve been playing, there’s a bunch of remixes out there of some of the Brighter Future tracks that we’re throwing in and Dom’s mixing the set up. Of course, we’re playing a bunch of the stuff from the album, but we’re trying to mix the sets up each night and keep it fresh for us and for the kids. It won’t be the same show you would have seen three or four months ago.”
From Big Gigantic’s start nearly a decade ago, charitable outreach has been almost as important to the duo as making music. The pair met when Salken, also a graphic designer, was doing work for Lalli’s band Motet and they became friends and eventually roommates.
Lalli acquired a computer and began crafting beats, which sparked the formation of Big Gigantic. The project’s genesis was quickly followed by the musicians’ association with Boulder-based hunger-fighting charity Conscious Alliance.
Last year, the pair decided to diversify their fundraising efforts by starting their own organization, A Big Gigantic Difference Foundation, directing funds to a range of charities.
On last fall’s leg of the Brighter Future tour, Big Gigantic chose a different local charity in each city it played to receive a show-generated donation. This time out, the duo is funneling a dollar from each ticket directly into its foundation with the intent of collecting a large sum by the end of the tour in order to pursue a larger overall goal.
“Last tour went really well and we were super psyched about it, but this tour, we’re going to do a larger project, either over (the course of) the tour or over the year,” Salken says. “We’re going to try to directly effect people or kids in some way, rather than just, ‘Oh, we raised $800 or $1,000 and we’re going to donate it to a local charity.’ We’re seeing what’s going on in the world and how things are changing, and if there are different causes, we can help out as more and more comes to light with what’s going on. There’s so much craziness, we’re just trying to focus it in the right direction to see if we can do something really cool.”
BIG GIGANTIC performs Thursday at Bogart’s. Tickets/more info: bogarts.com.
This article appears in Feb 22 – Mar 1, 2017.
