Your new album ‘I Don’t Run’ is out at the beginning of April – what did you learn in the process of making this new album?
I think, doing the first record, we learned how to make an album and during this second record we’ve learned how to do an album that we’ve chosen ourselves, down to every single detail. For the first one, we were so innocent and everything was so new, from the studio to the mixing. A lot of the choices that were made were because of the limited amount of resources that we had.
Were you nervous about making it? A lot of artists feel a lot of pressure when making their second album…
Making an album is a very stressful process, but at the same time we were so happy with what we’ve created that it was pretty exciting and refreshing. Every song we recorded felt like we were doing something big.
What was it like working with Gordon Raphael (The Strokes, Regina Spektor) to produce this record?
He was pretty respectful with the band, he really wanted us to just be ourselves, that was cool. I play my own guitar on almost all of the songs on this new album, he was genuine and wanted Hinds to be Hinds.
Your debut was pretty care-free and full of joy, can we expect a darker tone on this record?
I don’t think so… I wouldn’t like it if people expected that from us. We have pretty fun songs, I think the ones on this album are funnier than the first record. But the truth is that we have some pretty sad songs on it too, sadder than the first album, so I guess everything went in more extreme and intense directions.
So with everything that’s been going on politically in recent years, that’s not influenced this record at all?
I like art to be free of that, you’re exposed to that every single day, all over social media and being told how shitty the world is. Art should be an area of safety away from all of that stuff.
Being a Spanish band, do you feel proud to be leading the way?
We definitely opened a door and it does feel good, mostly because all of the bands from Madrid are friends. It feels so good to see our friends succeeding too. We feel proud.
Do you think that the Spanish government is doing enough to encourage arts & culture?
No. Absolutely zero. We have zero culture in terms of music. The government have been trying to remove music from schools as a subject. In the UK, music is for real in your lives and it’s part of your education, we don’t have that in Spain. It’s not considered useful. The music industry in Spain can feel like a bit of a fishbowl, it’s not very international.
I’ve never been to Madrid – what are some places I should check out when I eventually visit?
You should no doubt go to La Vía Láctea (The Milky Way), it’s in the downtown and it’s a bar with a pool and a pool table, it’s where we all meet. I could go there alone and be pretty sure that I’ll see someone I know without having to call anyone.
You’re playing some major festivals in summer such as Primavera, Latitude and Reading & Leeds – how excited are you for summer?
I’m so excited, I really can’t wait to start playing the new songs live! We’ve been rehearsing for a whole month and been messing around with the setlist, we’re really happy with it now. It’s so much better than the old one. After touring with Albert Hammond Jr. around the U.S, we’ll be heading to Europe almost straight away in April and back to the U.S in May, so we’ll be touring pretty much non-stop this year.
Finally, is there any new music that you’re loving at the moment?
Tommy Cash just played a show in Madrid and it was beyond awesome, so so good. We loved it. He’s gonna be big for sure.
‘I Don’t Run’ will be released on 6th April, via Lucky Number.