Hinds Makes A Playlist Of Their Biggest Influences
The band cites the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and Amy Winehouse as major inspiration.
In the past year, the women of Hinds have gone from relative obscurity to worldwide recognition thanks to the group’s lo-fi debut, Leave Me Alone, released in January. The garage rock band sold out 23 shows on their most recent European tour and were the first Spanish group to play one of the main stages at the famed Glastonbury music festival last June.
Genius recently sat down with the Madrid quartet to talk about what sort of music inspires them. Hinds were quick to cite their influences and give credit where credit is due—they used to mine Arctic Monkeys lyrics for English words to include in their own songs. Check out their handwritten playlist below.
Click below to listen to the playlist on Spotify:
1. Juan Waters, “Todo Terminó”
We love the way he writes lyrics—it’s so primitive. It’s incredibly pure and without any bullshit. He’s like the Beatles but rougher. He writes about the most basic things in life. It’s beautiful.”
2. The Velvet Underground, “After Hours”
Rock and roll is historically made by boys, which is too bad. Over the years we’ve noticed that so many songs performed by women weren’t actually written by them. This song is sung by the Velvet Underground drummer, Maureen Tucker, but was written by Lou Reed. It’s still a great song.”
3. Amy Winehouse, “Fuck Me Pumps”
We were in Hong Kong a couple of months ago and we watched the Amy Winehouse documentary on the flight over—it was really cool to realize that she was writing lyrics about what was literally happening right in front of her. No fiction. We realized if she could be that honest then we should be, too.”
4. Bob Dylan, “Mama, You Been On My Mind”
We discovered this song recently. He has so many songs. The lyrics are just so pure—he’s always very truthful to what he feels. When we first started playing music we used to cover him.”
Rock and roll made by a girl talking about a girl. It’s cool, cool, cool. We saw her at Glastonbury, and she was incredible. She’s such a legend.”
6. Arctic Monkeys, “Mardy Bum”</h1
Carlotta had a book of Arctic Monkeys’ lyrics. Whenever we found words we liked the sound of we would include them in our own lyrics. We only have one that ended up on the album: ‘mysticism.’”
Los Nastys are one of the bands from Madrid that have been with us from the beginning. They were the first band to open our minds to rock and roll, punk, live shows, and sweat. They inspire us not to feel ashamed about writing about love. They are the most punk dudes ever, and they still talk about love.”
8. Courtney Barnett, “No One Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party”
9. Almighty Defenders, “Bow Down And Die”
There’s a video of the Black Lips playing this song outside and clapping their hands. It’s amazing. The song is so simple and so strong at the same time. It’s a fucking anthem.”
Mujéres were one of the first bands from Spain that were part of the garage rock genre.”
