Musical duo A Great Big World, composed of Ian Axel and Chad King, formed back when they were students at NYU's Steinhardt Music Business program. The pair spoke with Odyssey about their formation, their new album and their future before heading home for the holidays.
Axel and King met in a music publishing class when paired in a group together for an assignment. "I had just transferred into the program and Chad already had his friends in the group and was closed off to being friends with me, so I found out when he was going to be practicing at the Kimmel Center and I stalked him down ... and forced him to listen to the music I was writing. And he was like, 'Dude, let's be friends,'" Axel said.
During their time at NYU, they also enjoyed going to a lot of small venues such as Sidewalk Cafe and The Knitting Factory when it was still in TriBeCa. From these shows, they began to appreciate the special quality of performing in New York. "I think there's a sense of community in New York you don't get elsewhere," King said, which he initially experienced when the duo began performing in the city. "There's something about New York that's very different from anywhere else in the world."
Initially, the pair worked on Axel's solo career with King acting as manager before deciding to collaborate as a duo musical act to create their "honest, theatrical, piano-driven, harmony-based pop music" sound.
The duo continues to be open to collaborating with other artists after the big success of their single "Say Something," which was originally recorded by Axel as a solo artist then rerecorded for A Great Big World's debut album. The track took flight after Christina Aguilera heard the song on an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" and wanted to record a version with the band.
The recording process of their most recent album "When the Morning Comes" was vastly different from last year's "Is There Anybody Out There?" which took five to eight years to compile. "It was very focused," Axel said. "I think the album is more cohesive as a result. It's more mature."
Their favorite songs off the record are the ones they perform solo on the record and also the ones they find most personal. For King, it's "Won't Stop Running," which is a response to his struggle with Multiple Sclerosis. Axels' favorite, "One Step Ahead," was used to propose to his fiancé and discusses his journey from a bad relationship into falling in love.
Up next for the band is the release of their next single, "Oasis," a tour, and working on a Broadway musical which they are currently building a team for. "We've been working on this for about three years now and we're actually still early in the process which is crazy and frustrating and amazing at the same time," Axel said.
You can listen to the full interview with the guys over at WNYU.
