After wowing with the power, ferocity and passion of their debut Leave Me Alone, Spanish foursome Hinds have returned with a little more polish, but as just as much passion on their new LP I Don’t Run. As the album, which was made with The Strokes/Regina Spektor producer Gordon Raphael, drops onto shelves, we spoke to the band’s vocalist/guitarist Ana Perrote about working with Raphael and taking their time with this new album...
After wowing with the power, ferocity and passion of their debut Leave Me Alone, Spanish foursome Hinds have returned with a little more polish, but as just as much passion on their new LP I Don’t Run.
As the album, which was made with The Strokes/Regina Spektor producer Gordon Raphael, drops onto shelves, we spoke to the band’s vocalist/guitarist Ana Perrote about working with Raphael and taking their time with this new album...
How did you want this album to be different from Leave Me Alone?
“Everything. We wanted to write differently, to record differently, all of it. We wanted to be more thoughtful, this time we had the time to do that. With Leave Me Alone, we had to rush, we were writing while touring and then we recorded in 10 days. We wanted to use our experience and we knew what we wanted this time. We were a lot more sure of ourselves.”
How was working with Gordon Raphael? He must have produced records you grew up loving, like The Strokes’ Is This It…
“It was great. We were a little bit scared of working with a producer that we didn’t know. Our creative world is very private. We chose him because we knew he was a fan. He’d written to us three years ago, back when we only had a few songs, so it was nice to have someone who’d been a fan since the beginning and liked how we sound. We wanted to do it live and fast and we wanted someone who would appreciate that. He’s the kind of producer who makes you sound the way you are, we chose everything. It was nice having someone who's an English speaker too, he told us quickly which words he didn’t understand!”
Did he tell you any good stories about The Strokes?
“So many. That was one of the best things. We would have these dinners and he would make us laugh so much. We made the album in Southern Spain in this big house and we’d have dinner every night. He’s had the craziest life. Never mind The Strokes. He got asked to play in Nirvana and he said no. He was going to get drugs and he was in a rush!"
Which song on the album took the longest to get right?
“I would say ‘The Club’ and ‘Tester’. ‘The Club’, we came up with the verses really quickly, but we couldn’t find a chorus for the longest time, we almost put it out without one! ‘Tester’, we couldn’t get the drums right and we took out the guitar solo and put it back in. We threw away a lot of music for that song, we stripped it back. Getting it right was a nightmare.”
Conversely, was there a song that came together most quickly?
“‘Linda’ was so fast. Some songs struggle to be born and some are so smooth. We wrote the music and the melodies in the same day. That never happens, our songs take years!”
What kind of album is this lyrically? Do you think there’s a theme to the lyrics?
“There is a theme. Leave Me Alone, that record was 12 different faces of love, this one is all about the other side. This is a record about falling out of love.”
When did you settle on I Don’t Run for the title?
“We liked the way it sounded. It’s how the band is at the moment. I Don’t Run is about having time, having time to think about what we want to do. Not running around, not rushing anything. We liked playing with the rock and roll cliche, we don’t go for live fast, die young..”
Finally, are you looking forward to getting back on tour?
“We’re ready for it. Finally. We had some time off last year. I was so excited to have a break and then we got bored. I know what it’s like to sleep in the same bed for a month, I liked it, but I’m ready to go on tour again!”
Hinds’ new album I Don’t Run is out now and available here in hmv’s online store.
