Hinds playing the Bristol Trinity (Jessica Bartolini for Live4ever)
When Live4ever spoke to Hinds’ Ana Garcia Perrote at the end of April, the immediate effects of the coronavirus pandemic had been felt close to home: “My parents are both doctors,” she told us. “Ade’s (Martin, bassist) parents both got it and are both fine. Carlotta’s (co-vocalist and guitarist) mum got it, but she didn’t have any symptoms. It’s all good, but it was a lot to take in.”
Amidst this very personal turmoil, the band’s new album The Prettiest Curse felt the effects too, like so many given a later release date which will, finally, come around this Friday (June 5th). Although it was frustrating to delay the album’s release, it was an easy decision; “When we release albums, and for most other people, it’s a very exciting moment that you can celebrate and be happy about,” Perrote said. “A lot of work behind the scenes, which in this case has taken over a year, sees the light. It’s like your birthday party or something. Then, suddenly, it didn’t feel right to talk about it, because everyone was going through a lot. It was very scary.”
Hinds haven’t been idle during the wait. Like many other artists the quartet have taken to the internet to engage with fans, but in addition to performing, they have also delivered a sequence of tutorials, partly for variation but also to inspire their fans: “Obviously the live things we do, where we play it separately then put it all together, that’s really fun but more for people to watch.”
“But my favourite thing has been doing the tutorials because it helps people do stuff. Right now, I think that’s one of the most important things someone can do. We are overloaded with things, like looking at your phone, checking social media. We can become very passive. We did those tutorials so people could actually do stuff and that might help them.”
Now imminent, The Prettiest Curse is brimming with ideas and sounds – which was always in the intention, as Perrote explained to Live4ever: “Now the direction we’ve taken is an open window, especially with this album, which is very colourful and diverse. This album represents to me that we can do a lot more than I thought we could. We can play keyboards, have fun and let other people give us their direction. What we wanted with this album was to get out of the comfort zone. Not to write with each other and then go to the rehearsal space. It was more like, ‘let’s start from a bassline; let’s play this chord but on keyboard; let’s have producers that we can let talk’.”
Perrote is confident that this attitude will hold the band in good stead as they continue to evolve: “I had a weird couple of months when writing this album because I was so anxious and so away from the place where I can try these things. In my head sometimes they sounded like bad ideas.”
“I’m just really happy that we opened that window. Any new direction will be somewhere fun, which is a big step mentally.”
