Dev Hynes Quotes

#1. I like to blur the line between remix and cover version and new song.

Dev Hynes

#2. 'Chamalkay' is an old Guyanese slang word. It means a 'young mischievous girl.' It's not derogatory, but it isn't over complimentary, either. It was probably a word I just Googled one day, and the song kind of played into the feel of that.

Dev Hynes

#3. I've been kind of listening to the composer Britten and his rendition of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' The opening track is a choral section where all the weird fairies, who are played by kids in the production, sing. It's a crazy opening melody and chord sequence - really amazing.

Dev Hynes

#4. I don't want to say I hate remixes, because I don't, but I hate what instantly comes to mind now when people say 'remixes.'

Dev Hynes

#5. When I was recording music, I'd record all the parts myself, and I wouldn't let other people in; that's essentially what Blood Orange is the result of; me trying to find the most comfortable I can be with everything.

Dev Hynes

#6. Personally, I always just want people to enjoy themselves and experience something that they wouldn't normally experience.

Dev Hynes

#7. I try to take it as it comes. I'm constantly trying to please myself. That's why I've basically realised now, that nothing else in the world matters at all, just please yourself and the people you love and that's it.

Dev Hynes

#8. I don't really care about audio quality. If people saw some of the ways that I record stuff, they'd see I don't care in that respect. I obviously care about things sounding good, but I think quality exists through other things like emotionally connecting with a lyric or a feeling, or whatever.

Dev Hynes

#9. If I like something, I then have to study every single aspect of it to find out if there's more things that I would like, and it's just this weird hunger to want more. I always feel like there's so much that exists.

Dev Hynes

#10. Everything I do, I build a kind of confidence net - 'I'm able to execute this; it's fine.'

Dev Hynes

#11. I see no kind of reason to not just try everything. I mean, I feel like we all have such varied tastes, and to not just try our tastes is a crime.

Dev Hynes

#12. I know a lot of people feel like they get eaten alive by New York, but I feel it more as a father figure or something - this huge presence watching over me. I definitely feel better and work freer here.

Dev Hynes

#13. Cello is my first instrument, then piano, drums, bass, violin, recorder, saxophone, but I'd never play them live!

Dev Hynes

#14. I approach every single thing I do as a fan. It's the only way I can do things. That way, I never let myself down.

Dev Hynes

#15. Sometimes that's the only way I exist, talking to people through pop culture.

Dev Hynes

#16. I'm pretty much fully digital. I've basically spent a few painstaking days putting sounds into my laptop, just banking them, because I love playing, and I love visually seeing it on my screen and being able to change the sounds more, with different plug-ins. I've created my own synth sounds.

Dev Hynes

#17. I'm such a strong believer in making yourself happy. Almost in a selfish way. There are a lot of trends, and obviously you can get swept up into them. But I feel like if you just write songs you love, it can have trap beats in it or whatever's going on in the moment, but you don't stop loving songs.

Dev Hynes

#18. Radio voices have a solid, even texture.

Dev Hynes

#19. I'm pretty strict with videos, at least the imagery stuff.

Dev Hynes

#20. A lot of my friends were gay, so I was spat on on the bus daily, and I ended up in hospital a couple of times from being beaten up so badly.

Dev Hynes

#21. Yeah, I associate every sound with a color and vice versa.

Dev Hynes

#22. I avoid falling into a trap of doing work solely to impress people. I always ask myself, "What don't I ever see?"

Dev Hynes