We recently connected with Austin Ford From Big Fun and have shared our conversation below.
Austin Ford, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
being misundertood
I think as a band Big Fun is partly misunderstood because we have so many different sides to our sound people have never heard before.
We’ve fallen into being labelled a “synth-punk” band which puts us in the trenches of the DIY punk world. We’ve found out from experience that existing as a band in the “DIY punk world” reduces your chances of making a stable living off of your music even more. The upside is that it is a subculture that gives you the possibility of getting an amazing grassroots fanbase of open minded listeners of all ages.
I’m really looking forward to introducing completely new sounds and styles in the next couple of albums we release, so we can step out of the DIY world we’ve been living in for a change. A lot of people dont know we can play our instruments as well as we do because the songs we play live are really simple haha. We originally started making music in the 2nd grade and played everything from Funk to No-Wave to Psychedelic. I’m hoping to show new sides of what we can do. This will also hopefully give us the opportunity to play with new artists. Someone we’ve been wanting to play with forever is Egyptian Lover a big time pioneer of hiphop music in the 80’s who still plays in LA today.
Austin Ford, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We all met originally in the 2nd grade and formed a really strong bond through music. Through the years we’ve gone through different phases (and band names) but the one thats stuck the most is Big Fun. We’re an electronic rock (or synth-punk) three peice from the greater Los Angeles area and we released our first album Happy Scary in 2019. Since then we’ve released 3 full length albums and a handfull of music videos with our longtime collaborator Gold Finger. I’d probably say our biggest aconplishment is playing at the Echo in Los Angeles, a venue i’ve been dreaming to play since before we were a band. We also went on three tours last year including one that spanned almost the entire country.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Although we allways talk about how we can make a stable living off of our creative work-I know the band and I talk about it all the time, I’ve been pushed to reconcile with the core reasons we do this. The reason why I wanted to do this since I was in 2nd grade. One half of it is the deep deisre to get the true meaning of what it is to be me out into the world, to fully express my self in the most effective way I know how-through my music. I’ve allways felt partially misunderstood and music gives me the gift of atleast being understood by some people-maybe not all the way, but more than if I never created anything at all. There is a very liberating feeling in letting those enclosed emotions and thoughts out-it feels like your purging something. The other reward is being of service to the people listening. I’ve gone throygh some tough times in the past and music really feels like medicine at your low points.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
During covid we were really stressed out about what to do next as a band. Everyone was telling us we would never be able to play a live show again and we’d all be living a bubble boy like existance for ever. We took the opportunity of not being able to play and turned into a time to write and record the 2nd part of our 2nd album Oogley Boogley (the first part of which was recorded at Jazz Cats Studios in Longbeach pre covid) and the entirety if our third album Riser at a fully fleshed out recording studio we started renting in Downtown LA that was nestled inside of a sewing factory. For the duration of covid we taught ourselves the ins and outs of the studio-how mics worked and all that. Then our drummer Nick learned how to mix and master the songs. We realized we didnt need anybody to do this stuff for us anymore. We became a fully independant production team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/Bigxfun?fbclid=PAAaax6aYteBSC82H60LGxdbBh08N4FkOTCt-LawWtc6oePIBfh6tj14FzWtQ_aem_AdAvO8UVzoehnEVXXV44GF5y6s_VWzdILQTzKTsixmiFYrTj7UPmY4AZXuniEmPr3qM
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/b.i.g.f.u.n
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigfungang
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BigFunTinyWurld
- Other: Bandcamp: (where we sell our merch) https://bigfun.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
Photo taken by @talkloudericanthearyou on instagram