Music, Style & Culture

Blood Orange: ‘I Didn’t Want To Put Out An Album’

We catch up with Dev to find out where the new sound has come from.

It’s been two years since Dev Hynes (better known as Lightspeed Champion, or Test Icicles guitar-shredder, Dev Met) last released an album with his name on it. It seemed he had officially made the switch from artist to producer, as he concentrated on making music for everyone from Basement Jaxx to Diana Vickers. But a new project was emerging in his new home city of New York, and its name was Blood Orange. DIY caught up with Dev to find out where the new sound has come from.

Your first London show as Blood Orange was supporting Spector at their single launch. How did it feel to be back?
It was the first time I’d seen people in years, so it was intense. Fred [Macpherson, Spector frontman] let me stay on his couch, so I kind of had to play as my payback. I’ve been playing Blood Orange shows in New York for the last two years, but people perceive it differently [in London] because there’s attention on it now. It takes away the factor of enjoyment a little. That’s why I never want to play London.

After the first Lightspeed Champion album you completely lost your voice. How did you cope with that?
I just stayed indoors. At that time I was doing a lot of classical things, so I spent lots of time doing that. And then when I did the vocals for the last Lightspeed album it was the first time I’d sung the songs, because I wrote them all when I was losing my voice. Throughout that year [2009] was when I wrote the songs that are on this album, and I was really paying attention to certain vocals and was trying to work out how to sing.

So was the change in your vocal style a conscious decision?
No, this is really how I sing.

You’ve been involved in so many different projects over the years. Do you have commitment issues?
I do, but I don’t think it’s weird. Everyone listens to different stuff, I just do it. It’s released in a linear timeline so it comes across as a calculated change, but I wrote these songs in 2009 at the same time as I was working on the Solange [Knowles, Beyonce’s younger sister] record. I love music so much that I just don’t take it seriously. I feel like, why not just try stuff? The worst thing that can happen is you write a bad song. The world doesn’t end, your life doesn’t stop.

Does Blood Orange feel like something you can stick with?
I still listen to the album and I’ve had a couple of years of the songs existing, but before it was always difficult to talk about albums afterwards because the goals had changed. With the Lightspeed stuff I had goals in my mind, in writing terms, so it was like, I wonder if I could do this? And then once it was done it was done, but with this I was only writing songs to put on mixes to listen to, and there was no other thought process than wanting to please myself.

It sounds like this album is quite a personal one. Has it been difficult to put out there?
With these songs I didn’t want to put out an album. A couple of years ago Lawrence from Domino [Records] came over and heard it and asked if I would. I said I’d have to wait and see because originally I didn’t want to put out anything ever again. It was mainly jadedness because I take things really personally, and the only way to get over that was to not put myself out there. I told Domino that I don’t wanna read any reviews because I know how I feel about it. The only two things that are gonna happen are that someone will agree or someone will not agree, so it’s kind of pointless.

There’s a bit of a transgender theme going on with the album’s artwork. Where did that idea come from?
I was trying to find content and peace with myself, and I was looking at how people express themselves in the most beautiful way. I kept thinking about when I was young and I was bullied as if I was gay. I was spat on and I was in hospital twice from being beaten up so badly. So I kept thinking about that and then there were the gay teen suicides happening a year or so ago and it really upset me. I kept thinking about role models and Octavia St Laurent, the transgender model. I kept looking at her interviews and finding her really inspirational, and it really threw me back to being in Romford and trying to work out if there’s anything outside of this and, if there is, will I ever get outside of it?

Do you think there’ll be more different projects in the future?
I wrote an album last year that’s kind of acoustic-y, but it’s a zombies-type-thing. I don’t know if I’m gonna do anything with it. I’ve given it to a couple of people that I thought would enjoy it, but I don’t know. I’ve got no idea what I’m gonna do.

Blood Orange's debut album 'Coastal Grooves' will be released on 8th August via Domino. Single ‘Sutphin Boulevard’ is out now.