Hynes sight

The word ‘ethereal’ tends to get thrown at female vocalists with angelic voices quite a lot, but it’s hard to avoid when describing both the music and manner of Dublin singer-songwriter Nina Hynes.

It’s the otherwordly quality in her voice, writing, general style and attitude that draws comparisons with greats like Bjork and Stina Nordenstam.
I’d met Hynes twice before this interview. Once was at a friend’s flat 10 years ago, where Nina ­– clearly a character – was sitting at a keyboard picking out these sparkly fairy dust harmonies with her spidery piano-player’s fingers. The other time was just six months back, when Hot Press sent me to Galway for an on-the-road story with The Frames.
From the stage of the Town Hall Theatre, Glen Hansard told the Galway audience that they’d bumped into a very special musician who’d decided she could do with a flit to Galway and accepted the offer of a lift with the band. Hansard introduced the singer as one of the great unheralded talents in Irish music, deserving of much more attention than she was getting. Then Hynes sang the wonderfully bizarre song ‘Fitness’, one of the tracks on her beautiful new album called Really Really Do.
“That was really nice of Glen to say,” laughs Hynes. “People are always telling me that!”
The album Really Really Do, which showcases the indie-pop side of Hynes’ multifaceted talent, should go a long way to attracting the kind of serious limelight that has eluded this creative up to now. Tracks like ‘Flutter And Wow’ and ‘Avalanche’ really do bring the kind of listeners who love Stereolab and their ilk on a magical, multi-textured journey into sound which is a joy to experience.
“I’ve actually recorded about 30 songs,” says Hynes, “but I chose the 11 on Really Really Do because they just went well together. I’m putting together two other albums, one which is very loud and dirty sounding and one with just me on my own with piano, which is kind of spaced out and mellow.”
Are there recurrent personal themes in Really Really Do?
“I’m sure there are, because it’s still me,” says Hynes, “but there’s probably new angles on how I deal with the same things that everyone else deals with in life: daily experiences, and love, and having you heart broken and disappointment. Joy and hope, all those things. And then the world and how crazy it is – that inspires me a lot. Observation and eavesdropping and consumerism and human nature.”
Alongside Hynes’ characteristic attention to musical nuance and sound detail, there’s a sense of gentle wonder and childlike amazement in the album which is very endearing.
“Is there? Well I’m probably like that in my daily life,” says Hynes. “I’m pretty much like a child in that I have a lot of fun and I find a lot of joy in little things. I tend to look for wonder in the world… I’d probably get depressed otherwise.
“As for the sense of joy. If I see something on the street that’s a little bit crazy I get very excited. If the wind is blowing really strongly I can’t stop laughing. Simple, stupid things – I laugh at them a lot.
“But there’s also a downside to that which goes into the music too. I think we’re always being challenged. I’ve had a lot of challenges – I haven’t had an easy ride. But I think it’s how you deal with things is what matters, not actually what happens.”
Recently Hynes has been touring with the French musician, Sabien Leseure.
“Sabien and I love the sound we make when it’s just the two of us,” she says. “We’re thinking we’ll probably get our own band together called Nina and Sabien, because he’s writing songs too.
“I’m enjoying touring as a duo because it’s easier than being on your own, and the logistics of taking a band out at my ground level hasn’t been worth it for me up to now. I toured Staros, my album from 2002, for the first year on my own, and I was getting public transport with two guitars and an amp and a bag of pedals and a bag, and it was just too much. Emotionally draining.
“I’d arrive in some country,” remembers Hynes, “at a festival the size of Oxegen, and I’d be there for two days on my own wandering. And it’s quite a weird reality when you’re on your own all the time, surrounded by people. So it’s nice that I’ve found someone who can actually do that with me, and it makes the sound much better as well, because Sabien plays enough for two people and I play enough for two people, so it’s a big sound.”
Hynes has spent four years waiting to record; frustrating for her at times.
“I took out a bank loan to record Really Really Do,” she says. “I’d waited too long for somebody to give me money, and nobody gave me money. I’d no record to promote – I don’t even own a copy of Staros or my first album Creation, and I only did gigs that I was invited to do, I never went looking for them. I just really wanted to record.”
Like many other musicians, Hynes is relishing the control that the internet has given back to artists.
“I’m pretty much hands on everything,” she says. “Promoting yourself is so much easier with things like MySpace. I think the industry has kind of copped on that they can’t be this all powerful wall of control anymore, and the kind of industry people I’m meeting now are just nice people who are into music. They’re open. I didn’t feel any separation. I used to get freaked out by people in the industry, whether it would be people working for labels or managers or journalists, or DJs on radio. I used to feel that they had all the power and I had to behave a certain way for them. Now I feel they’re just people doing their job, and I’m doing mine, and once you feel you’re doing your job properly then you can be happy with yourself in the day.”b
Nina Hynes and The Husbands launch Really Really Do on April 13 at The Sugar Club, Dublin. For other gigs around the country see www. ninahynes.com.