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Lightspeed Champion geeks out on “LOST”
Dev Hynes wants fans to feel the same way about his next album as he does about the ABC show.
Published June 11, 2008
By all accounts the last two weeks have been pretty glorious for Dev Hynes. Not only did Weezer, his favorite band, release its third self-titled record, but the season four finale of “LOST” effectively blew the Lightspeed Champion front man’s mind. Now on tour supporting his latest record, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, the genre-shifting darling from England-by-way-of-Houston is prepping his band and songs for a second album that will undoubtedly turn some more heads (and possibly move some islands).
MOVE: I’m also a huge Weezer fan, so I wanted to know what you thought about the new album. Hynes: I love it so much. I really do. I was thinking about it earlier today. Did you buy the deluxe edition? You know the song “Miss Sweeney?”
MOVE: Yeah, I listened to that song like 10 times today. Hynes: Yeah! I really think that should have gone on the album.
MOVE: I know you’re really into “LOST” as well. What did you think of the finale? Hynes: Oh, wow. I can’t even... It put me through so many emotions I never felt in my life. I even cried at one bit.
MOVE: In an interview you said you want people to feel the way about your music that you do about “LOST.” Hynes: When I watch “LOST,” I’m in such a state of ‘nothing else matters ever in the world,’ and I have no idea what’s coming next but I have a longing for what’s coming next. It makes you a bit like, “What the fuck?” On the next album I want people to feel those emotions.
MOVE: You’re made out to be this incredibly prolific songwriter. How often do you actually write songs? Hynes: This is the first time in my life where I’ve decided to work on songs. I usually write them and leave them - that’s it, they’re done. Now I actually work on them and stuff. Lately it’s been a couple of weeks on a song. I actually finished a song an hour or two ago. It’s like calypso/Queen.
MOVE: Do you demo every song you write for the new album? Hynes: Nowadays I’m not recording or demoing each one because the ideas are getting a bit weirder or it’s getting a lot harder to do it. I explained this to the label. We had this weird meeting where I basically sang them the album. Like, if I demo it, I might as well just do it because it’s such a ballbreak. I really don’t want to record it twice. What’s cool is that I kind of have a band. We can kind of get rough, rough demos of the songs to get the point across. Like if we’re in Germany doing a radio station we play some of these songs just to have them recorded.
MOVE: Do you know where you want to record it? Hynes: I think I might be doing it in Scandinavia. There’s like some pop guys. They worked on like really crazy number-one Swedish records. All their minds are so technical and crazy. I want a really clear sound. I want each single part to be as completely heard on this one.
MOVE: How does it compare to Falling Off? Hynes: It’s a lot more scattery. It kinda goes all over the place. There’s dark stuff. It’s a bit weird.
MOVE: Thematically, what is it about? Hynes: Trying to tell stories now. I’m trying to create characters and tell stories about them, but it’s all really just obvious that I’m referring to myself.
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