20 Years of Splendour

HINDS

INTERVIEW: ZAC BAYLY

HINDS is a Spanish indie rock quartet renowned for their high-energy performances, chaotic and colourful music videos and, of course, their three acclaimed albums: Leave Me Alone (2016), I Don’t Run (2018) and The Prettiest Curse (2020). NME described their latest as ‘a break-neck 30 minutes of glorious chaos’, which is a pretty good way to sum them up generally. I had the pleasure of interrupting vocalist and guitarist Carlotta Cosials’ weekend away in Portugal for a rapid-fire 10-minute Zoom call in which I felt like the tortoise trying to keep up with the hare.

Hello Carlotta! Where are you? I’m in Portugal at the moment! All the HINDS girls are off doing things this weekend—one went to Majorca with their boyfriend, the other went to whatever with their boyfriend—so everyone went on vacation and this weekend was the only weekend I could escape because I’m doing another job in Madrid, so I had to get away too. So, you’re on holiday? Well... I hope so, but not really. I am doing the Skype with you right now and then another Skype in the evening and... I like it here because you can work. I really like that I can do both, rest and work. I came here on my own and the days are definitely longer when you’re alone. But it’s not just a vacation, don’t you worry. Do you go away to write? Actually, I would love to write while I’m here. We have a lot to... ‘Manage band’ is one of the things that always has to be done, but one of my goals of these five days is also to write a little bit. I was feeling the need, so that’s why also I came to a place outside of distractions. Too many friends in Madrid! Do you often write alone or as a band? I actually prefer to write all together, to be honest, but lately it has been very busy and we are a little bit overwhelmed. So, I’ve always been the one that doesn’t get stressed. I like to be the one who anti-stresses the other ones. So, I come here and I do a plan and make some little ideas so that it can make the rest of the band feel like, ‘Oh, it’s not so difficult—we wouldn’t be so far from making an album’ or something like that. You’re holding it all together! I’ll try! I remember reading a quote from Ana saying ‘When everyone else is exhausted, Carlotta is the energy in the band.’ That’s so beautiful! A lot of reviews describe you guys as super energetic on stage too. Where does that energy come from, 50 coffees a day? No, I think it’s an attitude. And to be honest, I cannot avoid it. The other day I was telling the girls that my brother got married and I was so happy—like, so, so happy—and I was telling the girls everything we did at the wedding. I was telling them it’s one of those days where I feel like I’m so happy I could explode. Sometimes alcohol, I need it to chill me down! That’s why I will never in my life do cocaine. You probably don’t need it! If I eat sugar, I’m like a kid. I get too crazy! No red cordial for you! Cordial? What is that? Flavouring that you add to water! The red one you don’t give to kids—I don’t know why! I should do the same precautions with myself. How do you get energised before you go on stage? Maybe you don’t need to get energised before you go on stage! No, I do! I do! I need to be focused. I like to have some quiet time. I like to focus, to know where I am, to know what kind of audience we’re going to have, things I would love to say or remember or comment about on the mic. We warm up the vocal, the voice... And we for sure give ourselves a huge hug and we say, ‘We are the best! We are the best! We can do it!’ It’s like going into a game of soccer or something. You need to be focused and energised and ready to do good team work. How do you feel afterwards? I love it. It’s like I made it to the top, and I’m chillin’, but I feel like a boss. The sweat is not wet anymore but the hair is different... The energy after a show is very special and to me, very sexy. I find it very difficult to compare it to anything else. It’s not only working out like jogging or rehearsing even... It’s unique. It’s very unique. And you only can get it by playing a good show. It’s an exchange of energy with the crowd—everyone screaming and communicating in one room. What’s a bad show like? Now, when we’re playing festivals you can really tell if people don’t know us so well... Sometimes it can be colder so we have to transform the way we do the show. You definitely become more of an entertainer. I’m here to entertain you, instead of feeling like a rock star with fans. You know people know you if they came to your show rather than seeing you at a festival, but if you think nobody knows you, it’s a humbling thing. It’s like going back to your roots, and you have to convince people that may not know you that they made the right choice watching your performance. Is this your first time in Australia? No! We’ve been there before, many years ago. I loved it. LOVED it! We played Melbourne, Sydney, Manly, and we did Perth. It was so nice. We spent some days in between in Sydney. We loved it. We love the people. I was so excited — I’ve always loved the stars and the constellations — and I was so excited to see a different sky to the one I see here. The last day was in Sydney and we went to the beach with friends and we drink there on the beach, on the sand and the rocks with a little speaker and I was completely hypnotised by the stars. Stars are so cool, man! Were these friends from Spain? I feel like so many people live in Spain from Australia and vice versa. Really? I don’t know any! Why? I don’t know! I guess they’re both sunny and Spain is so close to the rest of Europe but it’s still cheap, right? So cheap! It’s so cheap. The more I travel to Paris, London, New York, I become poor! In London I lose so much money. I want to buy a beer in New York: 10 dollars! It’s so expensive. We make so many jokes about it. Whenever I go back to Madrid and it’s €1.50 at a café... Soy milk latte? €1.50. I don’t want to pay more in those other cities. I love instant coffee though. That saves me so much money. I do too. Who are you excited to see at Splendour? The Strokes! It’s gonna be fun. Gorillaz! I’ve never seen Gorillaz. I’m so excited. Nice, nice, nice! And Wet Leg! They’re two girls from London. Wet Leg. Like a leg that is wet. If you like HINDS, you’re going to love them. What’s something you can’t live without on tour? Okay. One thing I cannot live without when I’m on tour... The passport! Things like that. And coffee. And apples! I love apples. They wake up your face. So, coffee and apples. Wait, no—beer! Beer is more important.

One thing I cannot live without when I’m on tour... The passport! Coffee and apples. Wait, no—beer! Beer is more important.

Genesis Owusu

INTERVIEW: ZAC BAYLY

Genesis Owusu is—wait, where have you been and why do I need to tell you who Genesis Owusu is? He has too many well-known accomplishments to list, so I’m not even gonna try. Don’t ask me. I won’t do it. I’m not going to tell you, for example, that his debut album Smiling With No Teeth won him, like, one million ARIAs (and a bunch of other awards) that same year, or that he was included in sexy Mr President Obama’s music picks for 2021, and I definitely don’t need to remind you that the audience at one of his gigs earlier this year danced so hard that they actually caved in the floor of Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. I’m not going to tell you that or all the other things he’s achieved so quit badgering me. Anyway, seriously, how is he doing so well? Has he, like, done a deal with the devil or is he just super insanely talented? I don’t remember doing any deals with him, so...

Mr Genesis! How are you? I’m not bad, how are you? I’m good! Do you know who this is? Yes, it’s Zac! It’s been a while. You wrote the first real article about me. I actually completely forgot about that! God, you’re a nice guy. But unfortunately, things have not been going too well for you since then. [Laughs] Yeah, it’s tough. It’s difficult to see you struggling so much. Yeah, you know, you gotta get by... Did you just get back from Europe yesterday? I think like two days ago maybe... Time is like a void right now. I have no idea how long I’ve been awake or when I should sleep. Jet lag is brutal. When I got back I couldn’t work out where jet lag started and long covid finished. Have you had it yet? I have, I have, in December. It was actually like a much-needed break. I take what I can get! Well, seeing all the things you did last year, I’m guessing you haven’t had too many holidays. Nah, but life is a holiday. It’s a dream! Do you like being busy? It’s like half-half. I feel like I’m naturally a person who can do nothing for an insane amount of time. I just do nothing for however long. But at the same time, I know that it’s really good to be busy. It’s a great thing. And it means that great things are happening and are yet to happen. So, I’m trying to grab all the cool opportunities I can and make the best out of it, but yeah, sometimes it can be a lot, for sure. You’re pretty famous right now! I can walk into places without getting recognised. I’m cherishing that! Are you still living in Canberra? Yeah, I’m in Canberra. Surely you can go somewhere else now? [Laughs] Yeah, I guess I can... I live here officially but I think I’ve been out of Canberra for a lot longer than I’ve been in Canberra this year, just with travelling. As far as the government knows I live here! Is there a really distinct music scene in Canberra or are you an anomaly or... Do you know what I mean? I know what you mean. I feel like in Canberra there’s a lot of very talented artists but I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a ‘scene’. It definitely lacks industry. But I feel like that’s one of its strengths. All the really talented artists here are really doing their own thing. They’re not being shaped by a scene, you mean? Yeah, exactly. Everyone’s just doing their own thing. It’s not like Perth with that scene having a distinct sound. There’s not an expectation of how you’d sound. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Like Perth you can really hear that sound or Western Sydney you can hear that sound but in Canberra it just sounds like that individual’s music. Maybe there’ll be a lot of young ‘you’s coming out of Canberra one day! [Laughs] Well imitation is the highest form of flattery. I feel like you’d be a hard one to imitate— it’s hard to pin down your sound. If someone asked me to write what your music is like I’d find it very hard. Yeah, I feel that. A lot of people have tried to pin down the sound. I like reading people’s articles about where they think this or that sound comes from andYou like watching them struggle. Yeah! [Laughs] No, no... Sometimes they’re pinning major influences on me that I’ve never heard of in my life. It’s really fun, because then I get to go and listen to those people and be like, ‘Oh yeah, I can see why they mentioned this one.’ It’s cool. But it’s something that’s not meant for definition. Are you consciously trying to create something that feels like you haven’t heard it before—is that the goal? I’m just creating stuff that feels true to me. And for the listener I guess I want to create an experience they haven’t heard before. I don’t try to impose any kind of... Like, when I make music I don’t make it necessarily to make the audience feel this one specific way generally, but if a person listens to my music and feels confused then I’m like ‘Yeah, I’ve done my job.’ Confused, scared, out of their element... That’s really cool to me. And then for them to slowly ease into it. That’s how you know you’re creating something original, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I did love—there was one interview I read where someone asked your music influences and you said Jet Set Radio Future—the video game from 2002—which I completely forgot existed. You know about it? Yeah, I played it when I was a kid! Same, same. Yeah, that’s 100% my biggest influence. I’m trying to remember the music in it and thinking about that game I’m not like, ‘Oh yeah, Genesis Owusu...’ [Laughs] I think that’s the coolest part about it. When I think about that game and the music in it, it feels very undefined and kind of, er... I don’t want to say ‘random’ but it’s all over the place in the best kind of way. Are you a big video game person? Uh, yeah! I stopped playing games for a long time but I’ve gotten back into it. Xbox sent me an Xbox with my face on it. What! Are you joking? [Laughing] No, well, they sent me an Xbox with the album cover on it, but the album cover’s my face, so I’ve just got this Xbox with my face on it. It’s so ridiculous and great! I’ve been playing a lot of Xbox. It reminds me of this time I went to a very famous musician’s house for an interview and they just had gilded gold framed glamour pictures of themselves around the house. That’s amazing. I gotta get on that level. Starting with the Xbox. With Smiling With No Teeth going so insane last year... Did you kind of expect it was going to go gangbusters? Like I’m guessing you have to have a certain amount of confidence in a record to put it out there, but were you thinking, ‘This is going to change the game.’ Yeah, um... I knew that it was good, by my standards. I had no idea whether it would be accepted in Australia. I think me and the whole band during the creation were very well aware that this could go nowhere, because I personally haven’t seen an album like that get validated, in the Australian music scene especially. I did think that if this got out of Australia it would find some people that it resonated with, but I hadn’t been out of Australia yet, so it was a gamble. I was very conscious of the fact that this could fall flat on its face. But creating the music to me felt so good that regardless, I wanted to put it out. Yeah, when I think about what I expect to go well in Australia, it’s like four-piece white boys making nice indie rock music, you know? Yeah, I know what you mean. But to be able to have it validated on the level that it was validated... I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect that kind of fanfare. So, it’s been cool. It was shocking in the best way. What was the most insane moment or reaction or thing that happened? If you google your name there’s so many random crazy accomplishments, like ‘Obama’s playlist’ or ‘played this and this late-night show... ’ It’s just generally been the compounding of all these things in such a short space of time that’s crazy.