The End: Hinds

Interviews
All
Music
Cinema
TV
Comic Books

The End: Hinds

To Haunt or Not to Haunt

Sep 06, 2024 Web Exclusive By Mark Redfern Photography by Dario Vazquez

To end the week, we ask Hinds some questions about endings and death.

The Madrid-based band have released a new album, VIVA HINDS, today via Lucky Number. VIVA HINDS is the band’s first album since becoming a duo again. Hinds were founded by co-vocalists and co-guitarists Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote in 2011, but for most of their career they’ve been a four-piece. Ade Martin and Amber Grimbergen left the band in 2022, returning them to a duo.

Pete Robertson (The Vaccines, beabadoobee) produced the album, which was mixed by Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg) and engineered by Tom Roach. It was recorded in rural France.

“This isn’t a rational album, this is made with emotions, in no specific order,” Cosials said in a press release announcing the album. “We never sat down to think what we should write about, we sat down to write about what we were going through. We didn’t choose a ‘new look,’ we didn’t wanna pretend to be mature, or appear as a more sophisticated band. To me it is cohesive, but it’s not a fairy tale or a brainy narrative. It’s heart-driven.”

Of keeping the band going despite the line-up change and other challenges (the pandemic, no label), Cosials said: “We started the band because we are so safe and comfortable with each other. Our relationship is unbreakable. This connection between us hasn’t changed since the very beginning. We still finish each other’s ideas, laugh at each other’s jokes and rhyme each other’s lines. Maintaining that enthusiasm for music and for Hinds through the years may seem extremely difficult to find, but it’s something that only can happen with your very best friend.”

Read on as Cosials and Perrote discuss a nonsensical last meal, inspiring young girls, whether or not they will end up as ghosts or not, and the Hinds song they expect to be played in hell.

What song would you like to be playing at your deathbed?

Ana Perrote: “Falling” by Nora Jones and Rodrigo Amarante. Last night we got back from a weekend out playing some festivals and I was exhausted. We’ve slept like three hours each night. When I went to bed, with the windows open because it’s 38 degrees [100.4 in Fahrenheit] in Madrid, my drunk neighbor started playing heavy metal songs and cursing. Instead of calling the police, I put my speaker next to my bed and this song came up. I truly felt in heaven.

What’s your favorite ending to a movie?

Carlotta Cosials: Sorry, not an ending, but “Jenny, I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is” [from Forest Gump]. I’m about to cry only because of typing it. It breaks me, ‘cause he knows! He is aware of how he is perceived. Even though his input of reality is absolutely different, he knows who he is and what he is saying when proposing to Jenny. He knows, and still bets for love to win.

Whose passing has most affected you?

Ana: Her’s members death hit us pretty hard. I remember the whole industry being in absolute shock after the news of their van accident came out. We only got to meet them a couple of times, but they were so so so sweet. And so young. It makes you think how much bands, musicians, and crew put into live shows and touring. It’s not easy, and it’s not always safe. Knowing they passed away on tour still makes me want to cry. It could happen to any band.

If you were on death row, what would you like your last meal to be?

Ana: You know what, I literally ask this question to everyone I know. Mostly tour managers and sound engineers, it’s the best starting conversation question ever in a van. I love food so much. My last meal would be a very big mix of my favorite dishes, which don’t make any sense together but if i’m gonna die I don’t have to make sense anymore I guess. For starters I would have mushroom croquetas. As a main, it would be a Malaysian Laksa, which is a very strong and brothy noodle soup. I think I’d also have veggie Moroccan couscous from my mum (it takes ages to make it so she only does it for my birthdays). And a green Thai curry. For dessert I would have lemon pie and French tartelettes. And pistachio ice-cream. Dying doesn’t seem that bad now.

What’s your concept of the afterlife?

Carlotta: I still haven’t decided if I wanna become a ghost. Probably because I’m not very sure of where I’d haunt. I don’t know if they’re gonna let me choose but I got a feeling I’ll be punished with eternity. And I’ll enjoy it.

What would be your own personal version of heaven if it exists?

Carlotta: You’ll have a personal space with intimacy. You’ll have something similar to a bar to meet your friends. You’ll have something similar to a window to catch up with reality and alive people. Your memory won’t work as in the world, you will have a strange perception of time. It will be confusing if you’ve been there for one week or for a million years.

What would be the worst punishment the devil could devise for you in hell, if he exists?

Ana: Making me watch videos of myself. Carlotta told me the other day that apparently us humans are always sending music to outer space, in case someone or something is listening. We’re sending “Across the Universe” by The Beatles. That made us think of which Hinds song would play in hell, and we agreed it would be “Castigadas en el Granero” (single version). So maybe put that in the background while you play me videos of myself and it will be the death of me.

What role or achievement would you most like to be remembered for?

Ana: The thing I’m most proud about in my life is Hinds. It gives me goosebumps when younger girls come to us after the shows and tell us they’ve started a band with their best friends because of us. We never started the band to change the world, we did it because we genuinely enjoy playing music so much. But to think that everything we’ve worked for has a little or big impact in other girls’ lives, and that it gives them strength and representation is huge to me.

hinds.os.fan