Music

Coming Up Rosy

Barcelona duo the Pinker Tones lets the sunshine in.

By Arielle Castillo 

During an increasingly rare moment at home in Barcelona, Mr. Furia, half of the pop-disco-smashup outfit the Pinker Tones, is expounding on the importance of sunshine. Where the recording industry is notorious for starting the workday around the bewitching hour and finishing it with breakfast, Furia and musical partner Prof. Manso do the opposite. "We have our own little studio, Pinkerland, so we kind of built it with the idea of it being a very day studio, with a lot of light and windows all around it," Furia says. "Daylight is a very basic, energetic element. You just flow with the natural rhythm of things."

Indeed that sunshiny, communion-with-nature vibe bursts forth on the group's latest full-length, Wild Animals, which will be out on Nacional Records May 6. Like the band's previous efforts, it's a collection of multilingual, zippy blends of soul, organ-driven pop, and dashes of rock, all anchored by a techy disco swing. The 12 tracks practically dare you not to dance, or at least to sprout an embarrassingly large grin. And with this collision of elements, the band has always attracted a surprisingly mixed-up crowd, from world-fusion hippies to razor-sharp art hipsters.

And this summer, the Pinker Tones aim to conquer yet another substrata of the music scene: The haircut kiddies of the punk-and-hard-rock-heavy Warped Tour. "The big issue is not whether the Pinker Tones are on the event or not. It's a complete turn of the whole Vans Warped Tour conception. Just the fact that they are thinking about us to be in it," says Furia. "We played a really big rock festival in Argentina last week ... and we went down with the same audience really well. So it's not a big issue."

But in support of Wild Animals, they've retooled their live show. DJ Niño, the group's trusty third live member, will return, manning the live loops and the visuals the band commissions for each show. And the entire production has taken on a more organic feel, more like a rock band, says Furia. "We are adding a bit more instrumentation, and there will be live bass and live guitar, bits and pieces of acoustic and electric drumming. We're just going to have a lot more running around to do."

Click here to read the full Q&A with Mr. Furia.