He explains the reasons behind Test Icicles decision to part ways. If I make a piece of music and its rubbish, it’s not the end of the world.” “I enjoy music to the extent that I don’t take it seriously. His is incredibly likeable, his musical ethos largely contributing to this fact. His guise may seem gregarious but really Hynes is a self-effacing guy who draws comics in his room and is allergic to everything (pizza, alcohol, fizzy and cheese to name a few). Today his hair is tamed by a wide-brimmed fedora, the glasses are still there and so he comfortably blends into his surroundings, although he is far less pretentious than his appearance suggests. ![]() Adopting the habitual Hackney uniform he is known for his trademark think-rimmed glasses, wayward hair and primary coloured cardigans. It would come as no surprise if most people knew what Hynes looked like before they ever heard his music. But he’s actually “really into hip-hop,” and even wrote the Tupac entry on Wikipedia. It’s a surprising comment to come from the Texas born singer who, while growing up in Barking, east London, listened to Chopin, musical theatre and Dionne Warwick. “This song is awesome,” he says without irony. For a while he seems lost him in the African-American vernacular of Fiddy. He switches to an odd state of solemnity, then back to a grin again all whilst drumming his fingers on the edge of the table. Hynes nods his head to the proverbial intro: “Go Shorty, it’s your birthday…” he grins, eyes twinkling with youthful enthusiasm. As the east London art kids bustle around Hoxton Square, 50 Cent‘s ‘In Da Club’ begins to play on the jukebox. We’re at the Breakfast Club, an aesthetically retro eatery in Shoreditch, looking out and observing the scenesters. Hynes has made the move from new-wave trailblazer to alternative anti-folk troubadour with incredible ease. It was a stylistic sea-change from Test Icicles scene-hugging art rock, successfully merged thrash-metal, electronic noise and funk. Debut album Falling Off Lavender Bridge, with its alternative-country nod to mid-west America, was an instant classic. Elsewhere, tracks like the melancholy ballad "Smooth Day (At the Library)" and "Middle of the Dark" mix analog-sounding synths, plinky piano, sizzlingly mournful guitar solos, and Hynes' blissed-out soulman-meets- ELO's Jeff Lynne-vibe with superb results.Since emerging from the ashes of dance-punk trio Test Icicles in 2006, Dev Hynes has been flying solo under the alias Lightspeed Champion. This newfound, angsty swagger and urbane, chic persona fits Hynes well and rubs brilliantly against such yearning and epic pop numbers as "Faculty of Fears" and "I Don't Want to Wake Up Alone." These are huge, Motown-sounding set pieces that frame Hynes as a male Dusty Springfield backed by symphonic strings, jangly guitars, and urgent, driving percussion. In that sense, Hynes has developed nicely as a vocalist since Lavender Bridge, and where he was once a pleasant, if somewhat lo-fi presence as a singer, he now splits the difference between the earnest, literate ache of Ed Harcourt and the theatrical croon of Rufus Wainwright. Conceptual conceits aside, Lightspeed Champion's 2010 sophomore effort Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You finds Hynes and producer Ben Allen ( Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, Christina Aguilera) delivering a robust, melodically rich, and lyrically complex album that goes well beyond the bedroom Baroque pop of his 2007 debut Falling Off the Lavender Bridge. ![]() With a track listing that is split into four sides like a vinyl double-album, two instrumental "Intermission" tracks, a cover shot designed to look like it was placed in an old-timey photo album - not to mention the video for "Marlene," which centers around singer/songwriter Devonte Hynes getting dragged around the desert in a tragi-comic, Harold Lloyd kind of way - Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You seems at first like a concept album soundtrack for an imagined Lightspeed Champion film.
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