Big Gigantic
is on a mission
Electronic dance music duo wants to unite the divided
Dominic Lalli, the producer and saxophonist of the Colorado electronic dance music duo Big Gigantic, is the type of optimist who believes music can unite the divided. That's why he named his group's new album, released in August, “Brighter Future” and included a mission statement with it.
“We can express so many emotions through the language of music, and I feel like it's a neutral place in our world,” he wrote on Big Gigantic's website, “where people can come together and get on the same level emotionally no matter what their background is.”
Calling on the phone from a tour stop in Memphis, Tenn., recently, Lalli described the divisiveness in the country — amplified by the election season — as “sad” and “embarrassing,” without indicating which presidential candidate he supported. If anything, the current climate reinforces for Lalli the value of the communal release Big Gigantic's vibrant live shows are known for. The duo's deep bass grooves, rap-influenced beats, Jeremy Salken's drumming, and touches of Lalli's saxophone create a positive, dance-inducing environment, heightened by a colorful and surreal light-and-screen show.
Taken as a whole, Big Gigantic — which plays Rams Head Live tonight — offers the uplifting escapism that's drawn so many to the vast world of EDM.
“That's why we make art, and try to persevere and be some sort of light in the world,” said Lalli.
Big Gigantic's brand of livetronica — the mixing of electronic elements and live instruments — began in 2008, when Lalli moved to Boulder, Colo. He had just earned a master's degree in jazz from the Manhattan School of Music, and soon began playing with Salken. Since then, Big Gigantic has become a familiar name on summer festival bills, including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and many others.
Lalli said he was motivated to make “Brighter Future” the group's most cohesive full-length album to date partly because of what he sees as the music industry's uncertain future. In his genre, singles are increasingly the focus, and he wonders if the full-length format will one day become obsolete.
“People listen to music differently now,” Lalli said. “I really wanted to, before it was too late, get out the full-length I always wanted to put out.”
A lifelong hip-hop fan, Lalli wanted “Brighter Future” to be a dynamic listening experience, with a clear start and finish. This mindset is illustrated in the album's pacing and sequencing, with jubilant opener “Odyssey Pt. 1” eventually leading to “Long Time Coming,” a decisive, sax-heavy denouement.
“I used to listen to a ton of '90s hip-hop,” he said, citing Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and the Beastie Boys. “[Their albums] always felt like real, complete ideas.”
The modern-day influence of rap is even more explicit, given guest appearances on the album by rappers Waka Flocka Flame and Logic, the Gaithersburg native signed to Def Jam Records.
Lalli called Logic, whom he met through a mutual friend, “the best guy ever.” Lalli wasn't familiar with the street rap that first made Waka a rap star at the turn of the decade, but he liked what he heard after discovering the Atlanta rapper's 2014 freestyle over the J. Cole song “Fire Squad.” He later met Waka when the two shared a festival bill together, after which a collaboration came easily.
“I sent him this beat, and two days later, he went in and recorded it. I was like, ‘Man, this is perfect!' ” Lalli said. “I'm, like, giddy about it, getting to work with these guys. I hope to do that a lot more.”
As usual, “Brighter Future” gives Lalli and his saxophone plenty of room to operate. A day doesn't go by where he doesn't play what he calls “an amazing instrument.”
“It's like my fifth limb. I hear music and I just grab my horn,” he said. “It's neat to see it expand, and people have done so much with it. It's just a single-melody-note instrument,” Lalli said with a laugh.
The tour feels refreshing because of the new material, he said. Club shows, like tonight's at Rams Head Live, afford Big Gigantic more time to perform than festival appearances.
“It's just more intimate because we can play a lot more music, like older stuff,” Lalli said.
Big Gigantic wraps this tour Saturday in Port Chester, N.Y., but already has performances scheduled for what will likely be a busy 2017. Lalli is excited about the future, and predicts the continued overlapping of electronic music and other genres like pop, rap and more.
“There's so many producers out there making music,” Lalli said. “The electronic DJ scene is just going to keep getting stronger, and keep developing.”
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