Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes is an endlessly, ebulliently creative soul. On his most recent album, Negro Swan, the multidimensional singer/songwriter-producer thoughtfully addresses the joys and sorrows of black and queer identities and finding beauty within and without. He joins gender-bending French chanteuse Christine and the Queens at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Thursday, April 18. I talked to Hynes about the new album, his childhood, and why he loves Santa Barbara.
How has life changed since releasing Negro Swan? I don’t know; [I’m] maybe a little more despondent. I’m unsure if it’s related. Is it that the more exposure you get, the more despondent you feel? Possibly. I don’t think it’s as direct as that. I don’t know; I’m chill, but …it’s kind of strange to me. This time around was maybe a little different because of a couple factors. I’ve actively played more shows than the last few times I’ve released albums; and also, because how the landscape of music changes so quickly and is so different from even just a few years ago, since Freeform Sound. For me, this is the first time I’ve released music in a landscape where you kind of feel it existed straight away; it never really was a thing even when I was younger, since Lightspeed Champion. Things are so different now, so heightened, that you kind of, regardless of the size of your fanbase, whether you like it or not, you’ll notice a reaction when you release something. That’s kind of been a difference to everything as a whole.
Do you have any especially early memories of making soundscapes or musical landscapes in your head? I’m unsure, but I think it’s a very slow process of everything just slowly forming. I’ve always kind of just tried to work through things. It’s all very selfish, very singular; it’s kind of the reason why I use the Blood Orange moniker when I’m doing certain things. To me, that’s just when I’m singly trying to work through things and ideas and see where it could go. There’s been various points, I don’t know if I’d call them breakthroughs or not — whether that’s in various places, in something just as simple as drum mixing or melodically or visually — that have just been different kind of points throughout the albums where I was like, “Oh okay, I get it.” I kind of know that now, and then you kind of notice those things again and again.
