Thus far, The Pinker Tones saga is as much about a good story as it is about good songs. It goes like this: the two Tones, Mr. Furia and Professor Manso, met at university, where they were both enrolled in – and failed to complete – a humanities course. Some years later, having lost contact, they had a series of chance meetings (three in as many days) on the sunny streets of Barcelona.
When, on the fourth day, Mr. Furia got a call inviting him to soundtrack a documentary hosted by film legend Christopher Lee he thought of his prodigal friend, Professor Manso. Despite being in separate bands, the two took on the project together. As Professor Manso, AKA Alex (“We don’t usually tell anyone our names,” he says, politely refusing to reveal more) explains: “When we met it was, like, wow, so much fun! He was so easy to work with. With bands there are so many problems, you are in a box. You must fit into what the band is supposed to do, no? It is difficult to explore. With The Pinker Tones we’re free to do whatever we want.”
“When we met it was, like, wow, so much fun! He was so easy to work with.”
They’ve made enthusiastic use of their freedom, releasing debut ‘Pinkerland’ (later re-released as ‘The BCN Connection’), in 2003, and getting stuck into a whirl of musical projects. “We work every day in the studio, for eight, nine hours. Preparing shows, composing, making remixes, and doing soundtracks. It’s like if we went to a business. Do we have a uniform? To play live yes, to go to the studio, not yet. Just naked feet. The studio is a little house in the woods outside Barcelona, so we like to have bare feet,” Alex says, with a charming little chuckle that makes you wish you, too, could hang out, shoeless, in a tree-scented Spanish studio.
For all it is a kaleidoscopic spiral of pop, electronica, disco, indie, camp and cabaret the latest album, ‘The Million Colour Revolution’, feels less like a message than a messenger. The intent lies not so much in the music itself, but in its mood. When asked if there’s an overriding theme to the album Alex thinks for a moment. “Maybe it’s the idea of being able to have a laugh about yourself. Not to take yourself too seriously. To have an optimistic point of view. We are living in very bad times, worldwide, with politics, wars… we always wanted to be a little bit of light.”
So they put in the hours in their studio, which is split between a collection of vintage synths and battered old un-tuned instruments, and shiny Mac computers; history rubbing shoulders gently with the future. Old boundaries – like politics and language – exist only to be crossed. “We mix English, Spanish, French, German, Catalan… every language has its own personality. Every language has a different colour.”
And what language is pink?
“Pink would be a kind of Esperanto language. A universal language, a Utopian thing. It would be the language of music, without words,” Alex replies joyfully.
