Hinds will never give up

ONE
you take a massage?” asks Carlotta Cosials. “You should, baby! It's the Hinds band, baby!'

It's spring in midtown Manhattan and I'm at a nail salon with the happiest duo in indie rock. Cosials sits in a pedicure chair on one side of me, while her partner, Ana Perrote, is on the other. Their trip got off to a rough start yesterday when their bags went missing and they were stuck at JFK until 3am. “It either breaks you or makes you.” Perrote exclaims, “He's cracking me up right now.”

Considering this accident – and the fact that the Madrid band have just completed 18 shows in a single week – a massage is certainly warranted. Fifteen of those shows took place at this year's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, often with several crammed into one day. But Cosials and Perrote's energy never wavered, and they deftly covered their exhaustion with happy dancing, serious guitar shredding and hilarious commentary. The latter of which, they prove within minutes at the salon, is not a performance hit. These women are a really, really fun bunch.

Cosials: That fashion trend of pop artists having really, really long nails? I thought, “You're making life so difficult. You can't play the guitar. You can't plant a tree.”

Perrot: You never know when you will plant a tree.

Cosials and Perrote are here to discuss their new album, Viva Hinds, out September 6 via Lucky Number. Like that long night at JFK, there were a few hurdles to overcome first, enough to warrant a whole year of massage. Their bassist and drummer both quit, parted ways with their management and record label and – like many new bands – struggled financially in the pandemic. For the first time since forming over a decade ago, Hinds considered calling it quits.

“We were very testy about how much we wanted to continue and why,” says Perrote. “We just looked at each other and said, 'Look, nothing else can go wrong. So let's do what we can with what we have. Let's stop waiting for things to change and get easier, because it clearly isn't going to get any easier.' Once we had that mindset, things started to happen.”

Adds Cosials: “The big story behind the album is that we just have to do it. It's more like instinct. We have to make music or we'll disappear.”

But right now, the Hinds are focusing on some self-care. Cosials slathers on clear polish for her hands and feet, while Perrote goes with a sleek black. Their look is impeccably cool, with Perrote wearing sky earrings and a lavender mesh long sleeve and Cosial in a red hoodie and white pants. These are styles on tour, with Cosial often wearing tennis skirts.

“Sometimes I accidentally embarrass myself on stage, and I hate it when it happens,” Cosials admits. “Because you're already in front of a lot of people dressed like that… with that fucking ponytail!”

THE HINDS DESCRIBE THEMSELVES as “friendship millionaires”, but the duo are more like sisters, finishing each other's sentences and bursting into belly-aching laughs every few minutes. They rarely spend a day apart (though Perrote notes that technically it was “this Sunday”), and they can't remember a single match. If they ever get into a disagreement, they play a game called “Persuade Me” to diffuse the tension, where one tries to convince the other of their argument.

“We really take care of each other and love each other,” says Perrote. “I can say to CC, 'I have to cancel the biggest show that will make you a millionaire because I'm sad,' and I really think she wouldn't hate me for it. We both feel like we are doing something much bigger together than apart. Especially as women in music, the world is so tough out there that it's important to have each other. I think it's important for girls to see two women working together and being friends and supporting each other. I think it's beautiful.”

Their unbreakable bond is felt everywhere Viva Hinds, from the playful, riff-heavy opener “Hi, How Are You” (“I've been better tbh,” Cosials sings in response) to the soulful rocker “En Forma,” Hinds' first song entirely in Spanish. Cosials wrote the track after breaking up with her the week of her 30th birthday. “This guy isn't worth more than a song,” he says. “One is good, but two is obscene.”

But there is another level to the meaning of the piece. Perrote says it's basically about “trying to survive and get through the day” as a woman. “When I chat with my girlfriends, we talk about the most superficial, stupid thing, like, 'Oh yeah, my nails keep breaking.' And then you change with politics and social problems. I like to melt all of these together. I don't have it with any friends. Not even with my friend.” (When I ask Cosials if she's currently dating, she smiles broadly and says, “I have a lot of friends. Who do you want to meet?”)

There is no skippable track Viva Hinds. Each of the 10 songs are gems in their own right, including Hinds' soon-to-be classic “Superstar” — a furious kiss-off to a selfish musician back in Madrid — and summer standout “Boom Boom Back,” which features Nod. They met their hero by chance at a documentary screening in Los Angeles and on a whim asked him to collaborate. “We just texted him today asking if he wants to do a Taco Tuesday,” says Perrote.

The band originally envisioned “Superstar” as their lead single, but their team urged them to preview the new record with “Coffee,” which was released in February. It's a simple, sugary piece, paired with a video that featured the real-life brothers Cosials and Perrote. “I like black coffee and cigarettes,” they sing. “And flowers from boys I don't sleep with.”

“It's not that smart,” says Perrote. “I like black coffee and cigarettes. Can you be more honest than that? We are now 10 years as a band and we want to prove it [we’re] interesting and deep. Because there are many layers to Hinds, we're not just fun and games. But we realized that we don't need to prove it. We don't need to show depth and layers. If you see them, you see them. In fact, that's one thing we don't like about other bands: Stop playing it cool.”

“Stop trying to be more interesting!” adds Cosials. “Fine with who you are!”

They cut Viva Hinds last summer during two trips to rural France, recorded by two Airbnbs. They loaded equipment and several rugs into Cosials' mom's old van – dubbed the Death Wagon – and drove from Madrid. (It was this very van that Cosials and Perrote took to the coast of Spain in 2011 when they were on holiday in Dénia and decided to form Hinds.)

Recording in the relaxing outdoors was a necessary change for the band. Their previous album, 2020 The most beautiful curse, gathered in a studio in New York, which they remember as expensive and stressful. It proved a fitting album title given the dark spell that followed.

“Our management was really struggling to get us a record deal, and we'd already spent all our savings because of Covid, so we didn't really have any money,” says Perrote. Obviously that's what got us done with this coach. We decided, “Let's take a fresh look at everything.” They were without a team for two months — a period Cosials jokingly calls “Carlotta Productions” — until they found a good fit.

Then, in December 2022, bassist Ade Martin and drummer Amber Grimbergen announced their departure at a band meeting. Cosials remembers arriving and feeling upbeat, drinking a beer and ready to go to work. “We thought we were meeting to organize and reconnect,” she says. Perrote also remembers feeling motivated: “It was like, 'We've got to start working on the new album!' What music were you listening to? What do we have to do? Shall we go somewhere to write?” It was the biggest failure we've ever had.”

Perrote is thinking about that moment now, sitting in the pedicure chair getting her black polish applied. “To be fair, it was very difficult,” he says. “Anyone who is a musician affected by Covid…. over a long period of time, it just becomes exhausting. Being in a band is no joke, especially our size — where there's a lot of work and not much in return, other than the happiness it brings us. We knew it was worth it, no matter what.”

Hinds assembled a new touring band next spring when they opened for Coldplay for two nights in Barcelona in May 2023. “You don't say no to Coldplay,” says Perrote. They sat down with drummer María Lázaro and bassist Paula Ruiz to ask if they would do the gig. “After it happened, they both told us we were close to saying no,” says Perrote. “Just because of how petrified they were, being in front of 50,000 people [for] two nights. They were scared, but honestly, it's so punk. I can't believe it – it's so Hinds. Like, if we had a school or if we were a culture, it's been there all these years.”

The title Viva Hinds it marks a full-circle moment for the duo, who first formed under the name Deers and were forced to change it after another band with the same name threatened to sue. Cosials and Perrote did not like their new name and the fans started chanting “¡Viva Hinds!” to show their support.

All these years later, in this period of struggle, the same words were repeated by their loved ones. “We're used to hearing it on stage, and this time it was being said by our very close friends and family,” says Perrote. “[Who] they were there no matter what, seeing us cry, day after day, offering help, money, whatever they had. It's a perfect title.”

We're sitting at the manicure bar now, as Perrote's hands dry and Cosials finally gives that massage. “For us, music wasn't a phase,” says Cosials. “Music belongs to our souls and our bones and our personality and our passion. And we don't get tired of it. We just did 18 fucking shows!”