It’s not the best time to have an album planned, is it? For Hinds, the outbreak of COVID-19 has got right in the way of their imminent third full-length, but they’re not letting that stop them: ‘The Prettiest Curse’ was originally due in April, but will now arrive on 5th June. Ana tells us more about what they’ve got going on ahead of their participation in Homeschool this weekend, which will see them give further insight into the album.
Hello! How’s it going? Are you okay amid all this virus madness?
Hi! I’m okay thanks! I hope you are too. Every member of the band is healthy, so can’t complain too much!
What’s the feeling like in Spain at the moment?
It’s pretty bad. We have a very very high number of affected people.
You’re on lockdown too, right? What does that mean for your day-to-day living?
Yeah, sure are. We were the second country to be on official lock-down in Europe, shortly after Italy. It’s been 15 days today since the government declared state alarm making illegal to go out for anything that’s not going to the supermarket or pharmacy.
It’s not been too bad, I have a weird feeling that time is passing faster than ever. I guess its cause every day is the same: record some stuff, interview, work out home etc., so time is passing without me realising! I hope at least I can clean my closet before this is over, haha.
What’s your favourite ‘can do at home’ hobby that isn’t music?
Painting, cooking and house-gardening! We have spent four years touring all around the globe, so spending time home feels actually nice! Obviously, it’s a bitter-sweet feeling don’t me get wrong, but I feel like I can catch up on a lot of things I never have time to do.
How has the situation impacted the band so far – your album’s going back, isn’t it?
Oh yeah… it has massively affected us. We were supposed to go on the road right after releasing the album in April until summer festival season. So we had to re-schedule three months of touring! We will do Europe and UK in September and the US in November now.
We decided to push back the album a week ago. Even though we could have still done a “digital release” (no physical copy could have made it anywhere), we thought it was best to push it back a bit. We are all going through a lot now, and a lot of our friends and families are getting sick with the virus. It doesn’t feel like the right time to be promoting our album, we didn’t even feel like posting about it social media. It’s the record we have invested on the most, monetarily and emotionally; it’s been a very big and exciting challenge that came with a lot of changes. We are very proud of it and don’t want this stupid virus to ruin it for the listeners or us. The new date now is 5th June. We’ve always wanted to release an album in the summer anyways!
You’ve been doing some nice and fun things online to boost morale, can you tell us about them?
Haha, thanks! We’ve been working hard on that content! When we realised we were gonna be locked down for a bit, we thought we had to start thinking out of the box! We’ve been learning how to record ourselves, and how to play together in the distance so Carlotta can edit all it up and make a pretty piece together. It’s been fun!
We also put up a couple of tutorials, and they have done great too. I think right now a lot of people is in a “passive” position; watching Netflix, staring at our phones, with music in the background etc. and things like tutorials are great cause they make you DO things! Learn a song, an instrument, whatever that’s productive and fun. Being busy and creative has been helping me a lot personally, so I’m glad to see fans enjoying our videos. Even our old booking agent is learning hinds songs.
Do you have more in the works?
Yep! Doing a bunch of new songs this week that will probably be ready next!
Is there anything you’ve seen someone else do around this that you thought was a great idea?
Mmmm I’ve been trying to stay away from social media a little bit. It’s easy for me to get lost on it and waste a whole hour, haha; now more than ever.
What do the next few months look like for you?
Release new music, new videos and the best damn album we’ve ever written!!
Hinds are taking part in new online festival Homeschool, which runs from 8th-10th May – visit homeschoolfest.com for details.
