By John-Luke Boddy
The female-powered, four-piece, kickass rock group HINDS hailing from Barcelona, Spain, finished a worldwide tour this past summer. Luckily they made a stop in Seattle for the 2016 Bumbershoot Festival. KDUP had a chance to sit down and chat with the band the morning after a long night of fun. Although Ana, Hinds’ guitarist, couldn’t be present, here’s our interview with Ade (bass), Carlotta (vocals/guitar), and Amber (drums).
What is your favorite thing about Madrid?
Carlotta – The lifestyle. Everything is so easy and so nice.
Ade – It’s chill.
Carlotta – It’s cheap!
Amber – The weather! *swoons
Carlotta – The sky is beautiful in Madrid.
Ade – It is famous.
Carlotta – Yes. Seriously painters from all over come to Madrid just to draw the sky.
Because of the sunsets?
Ade – No, because of the color, it is so blue.
Carlotta – Yeah I believe they are called the Goya clouds. Goya after the painter.
You are all coming from a worldwide tour, did you have a favorite country you visited?
Ade – Mexico. *All agree
Carlotta – Yes, Mexico was the nicest to us.
Care to share some stories from the road?
Carlotta – Yes, last night! (giggles) Here you tell it (Amber)
Amber – Should I? No, I couldn’t.
Carlotta – We are all very hungover.
Ade – Well yesterday we were driving up from Portland, and we crossed a van. It was clearly the van of a band. So we wrote on paper “Which band are you?!” and then we had this conversation via paper messages. We ended up giving merchandise to them through the window.
While on the road?
Ade – Yes. Just passing paper through windows while driving along.
So Carlotta, you DJed recently at Reading.
Carlotta – Ah yes we love DJing.
What kind of music do you like to spin on the ones and twos?
Carlotta – Well it depends… that night it happened we DJed twice. (laughs) We forgot we had accepted two slots. The first was like a-
Amber – A silent disco.
Ade – Yes we were competing with this other DJ. People in the crowd had two different headphones and then could choose between the DJ’s. So we were trying to make them choose our channel over theirs. We lost.
Carlotta – We didn’t want to compete anyways. They did like five songs in a row of Kanye West so we did the exact opposite… We played music like Smashmouth and Oasis.
Did you know there is a silent disco here at Bumbershoot?
Carlotta – Really? Then we will be staying away. I don’t know who invented it… A silent disco? So dumb.
Highs and lows of touring?
Amber – This hangover is pretty low.
So being hungover?
Amber – So hungover! *laughs
Carlotta – The highlight is…
Amber – Yesterday night
Carlotta – Yesterday night was amazing.
Could you elaborate? What did you all do?
Amber – We went to the Crocodile. It was full of activities… So we did them all! I don’t know why but they had free drinks.
Ade – Our friend knows the owner.
Carlotta – I think it was free drinks for everyone?
Ade – No you had to have a wristband.
Carlotta – I didn’t have a wristband.
Ade – Me neither but you needed it.
Amber – Those nights where all these funny things happen are the best. We have been talking about last night all morning.
Carlotta – Lowlight is our tour manager almost died in Glastonbury!
Could you elaborate?
Carlotta – Well his appendix exploded. So first he was hurting a lot and we took him to the medical center and they said “He is alright, it doesn’t look like appendicitis.” So they gave him painkillers. The next day he was so white he looked already dead. So we took him to another medical center. Glastonbury is very… spread out and muddy, so the conditions were terrible-it took forever to get anywhere. When we finally took him to the hospital he had surgery. It had turned out, obviously, that his appendix had exploded.
Dream venue?
Amber – I would love to play again in The Midland Theater in Kansas where we played with Glass Animals.
Ade – Yes remember the ceiling? You were taking photos of the ceiling.
Carlotta – Ahh yes so beautiful. It had a lot of red velvet.
What were you in a past life?
Carlotta – I don’t know. I think this is my first life… Perhaps I was a boy in India.
Ade – A tree in Italy.
Amber – A starfish.
If not music, then what?
Carlotta – I would be a teacher. Or cinema-I love cinema.
Ade – I would be in radio.
Amber – Photography.
What should we be listening to right now?
Carlotta – Sunflower Bean. Also HINDS is always nice.
Ade – Anderson. Paak and Skepta.
What is your message to the youth?
Carlotta – Don’t be lazy. If you are not lazy you can be what you want… for something more poetic… Art is free.
What is the biggest lie in the world today?
Carlotta – Donald Trump