With the personality of a switched-on Tinkerbell, the charm of an appealing blind date and the pop sensibility of someone who knows the difference between servitude and sovereignty, Nina Hynes talks to Tony Clayton-Lea
EVER get the feeling that radio programmers are cheating you out of what is rightfully yours? Or that music supervisors of glossy pop/youth/soap operas should know about a piece of music that would make a perfect fit for a particular scene? Listening to the new Nina Hynes album, Really Really Do, you get the impression that where Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie or Snow Patrol have gone then so should Hynes.
Nina Hynes could be the last of a dying breed - she's got the personality of a switched-on Tinkerbell, the charm of an appealing blind date and the pop sensibility of someone who knows the difference between servitude and sovereignty. She is, we can safely say, the queen of Irish indie pop, and it is a crying shame that she continues to worry about vans breaking down, scoring bank loans and gigging when she really should be sleeping on a bed of soft, silky cheques.
Really Really Do might be the record to prove to people that Hynes is something special; yes, she can occasionally come across as a person whose organisational skills might need a proper spanking, but she can write dreamy pop songs like few others.
Despite this, she has been unlucky enough to have been sidelined, particularly by radio, yet she soldiers on, older, wiser and ready to leave Ireland for pastures new and somewhat more inviting.
In the meantime, though, there is Really Really Do to see to. Hynes's previous album, Staros, was released five years ago. It was then - and still is - a wholly underrated Irish indie-pop classic. It's lost now, of course, between management and record company screw-ups, although you might just find copies of it on various websites. Buy it, however, and Hynes gets nothing. Buy the new one, and she'll at least be able to put the money back into her life, her career, her van.
"Basically, I spent the last five years waiting for money; I'm not very good at attaining it, somehow, but I found a way to do it. Gigging is how I make ends meet. Eventually, I took out a bank loan. Another reason why I took my time was that I wanted Really Really Do to sound good. I didn't want it to be a home recording, so I waited until I was able to get a budget together, and went and recorded three album's worth of material."
The next two albums will come out quicker, says Hynes. "I'm planning to flood the market - like Prince," she quips. "With this one, I slipped the songs that sounded best together. The next two albums will be different - one is rockier, loud and aggressive, and the other is more spaced-out piano, very mellow."
With the passage of time, Hynes has discovered that her sense of adventure stems from her parents allowing her to experiment with aspects of her life. "I was encouraged to be me. They let me be my own person."
It's there in her music, this sense of freedom; whether they are dark, brooding, emotional, melancholic or full of the joys of spring, the songs are invested with an instinctual, acutely directed level of playfulness. The improvement from Hynes's debut, Creation, to the present day is seen in the confidence of the music, which is no longer hesitant, whimsical, scatter-brained.
The most important thing Hynes says she has learned about herself, her modus operandi and her music in the past five years is that it's possible to improve. "I feel like I'm getting better as a musician all the time. I know that work pays off, that a positive attitude is really important, and that you get things done if you do it yourself.
"I used to feel a bit scared about meeting industry people, but I'm more comfortable with talking to them now. For quite a while I thought it was an unbalanced relationship - that they might want to change me, or they might feel that I needed them.
Now it's different - my attitude is, 'here's my music, I'm really happy with it, you either like it or you don't'. I can do it on my own, anyway, so they're no longer such a big deal. I'm really happy with where I'm at right now. I have the control, and the internet has been crucial for that."
The following few months will be important for Hynes. She would like to get booked into as many venues as possible. She wants a cheap van that will not break down. She wishes to remain a viable proposition for anyone astute enough who wants to assist in making her more than just a national below-the-radar figure. The important things in her life are few but precious: "Love. That's about it." She pauses. "Happiness; real cliched things. I want to be happy, and it's important to me to be able to make a living from things that I find pleasurable and what I enjoy spending my time doing. I don't like being really poor - not that I am - but my aim is to continue to sustain myself by continuing to do what I do best."
See/Hear
Listen to a track from Really Really Do and other Nina Hynes songs on www.ninahynes.com (click Menu)
Really Really Do will be released and launched on April 13 in Dublin's Sugar Club
