It’s been a busy year for Dev Hynes. He’s not only made a cameo in Beyonce‘s video for Party and ‘played ‘ Super Mario in the surrealist film The Wrong Ferrari by Moldy Peaches main man Adam Green (see below), but more importantly he’s reincarnatedhimself from the indie leaning Lightspeed Champion into the Prince-infused Blood Orange. With a series of UK dates planed for early next month (1-3 December in London, Brighton and London respectively), Hynes tells Q why he’s now feeling fruity.
Hi Dev, how the devil are you?
“I’m okay thank you.”
Can you talk us through Blood Orange? How did it come about and who else is involved?
“No one else is involved. It’s all just me. Just a collection of songs I wrote over the last couple of years while I worked mainly on other people’s music.”
We detect a bit of a Prince influence on these songs, would you say you were a Sexy MF yourself?
“Definitely not.”
Seriously, what drew you to the sound for Blood Orange?
“I’m not too sure. Movies… childhood… drugs… alcohol… girls… love… the usual!”
Lightspeed Champion? Blood Orange? Lest we Test Icicles… how many different names do you reckon you’ve done music under? Are you bothered by band names or is it a way of put tingyour music into context for your audience?
“I just hate connotations. I also hate being the face behind the music, I just want it to exist in it’s own contact which I know is a stupid thought, but it’s what I want. I put different masks on to hide myself but if you wear a mask for too long it becomes your face anyway.”
Will you ever release a record under your own name?
“Maybe.”
Tell us a bit about your spell earlier this year in a Weezer’s cover band with We Are Scientists. Keith ‘Keith’ Murray told Q a lot of the crowd were just Weezer fans who had no idea who you guys were…
“We did The Green Album and for one show we decided to do. The practices were so fun. I’m sure everyone knew We Are Scientists, those boys are being too modest. But yeah, it was extremely fun.”
Blood Orange – Dinner from Blood Orange on Vimeo.
Any plans to cover more classic albums?
“I used to do it a lot more than I do now, it’s been a while. I tend not to tell anyone though. It’s mainly for myself and my friends. It’s impossible not to be hated and insulted if you told people you’re covering Nirvana’s In Utero for fun. I gain no satisfaction from sharing my music with people. It’s something I had to work towards, because otherwise you take every dickhead behind a keyboards insult to heart, which is retarded. So I’ve cut all of that out. It took me a year to bring myself to release this Blood Orange album, and I’ve not read a single review of it, and I feel pretty happy about that.”
See if you can spot Dev hanging out with Beyonce in the video above
We also saw your acting ‘debut’ in Adam Green’s surrealist film The Wrong Ferarri, A Screwball Tradgedy. It’s pretty out there, can you explain what was going on?
“I kind of knew what was going on. I got to witness a lot of the other business in the movie. I asked Adam if he’d write in my favourite joke from a movie for me to say, and he did. The joke is from Aladdin, when the genie say’s to Aladdin: Mind if I smoke? and then turns into a puff of smoke.”
Blood Orange are playing live soon, can we expect costumes?
“Maybe. A white T-shirt.”
Can you tell us a joke?
“Mind if I smoke?”
Head to Bloodorangeforever.tumblr.com for more.
