Meet Hinds, the coolest girl band evah

Viva la Hinds.

If you like pasta, playing air guitar to The Strokes and sharing secrets with your soul sisters, you might just like Hinds.

And if you shower every day and judge a successful gig by whether or not the crowd crawled on stage, the girls from this Spanish four-piece might even ask you to join their band.

Haven’t heard of them? You’re about to. Because this May, after jamming their way through sold-out shows in Europe, the UK and the USA, Hinds is jumping on a flight bound Down Under.

And according to vocalist and lead guitarist Carlotta Cosials, they’re “excited as fuck” about it.

“Australians are very cheerful and very crazy!” Carlotta says, her voice travelling to me via Skype from a hotel room in Birmingham. It’s 8am in the UK, and she’s just woken up. Cradling a cup of coffee, she tells me she’s got seven interviews this morning. I get the impression she’s a pretty popular gal.

I ask if she likes doing interviews after rolling out of bed. “It’s not so bad,” she tells me, her voice husky – either with sleep or her native Spanish twang.

“I just don’t like it when people ask how Hinds met. It’s so hard to explain because it was through ex- boyfriends. It’s too complicated and messy to answer first thing in the morning, and I always get asked that,” she laughs.

Tonight, Carlotta and fellow band members (and
best friends) Ade Martin, Ana Perrote and Amber Grimbergen are playing another sold out show. An astonishing feat for a band that played live for the first time only two years ago.

“You know that thing Facebook is doing at the moment, when it reminds you where you were two years ago?” Carlotta asks. “I got one of those the other day and I was like shit… two years ago I was an actress working in a Karaoke bar. My life is totally different today.”

Today, Carlotta is fronting Hinds’ first ever world tour, which coincides with the release of their debut album, Leave Me Alone. Described by the band as a twelve- track tour of the different faces of love they experienced while writing the record, Leave Me Alone is a jingly journey through heartbreak, happiness and gritty, girly adolescence.

Their lo-fi/garage sound is seriously contagious and their songs are anthems you want to break-up and make-up to. But Hinds’ rickety rock ‘n’ roll and perfect lack of pretension defies everything we know about the traditional girl band. In fact, there isn’t one all-girl band these four Señoritas idolise.

“But this means we can create our own code of girl band,” Carlotta says.

And with beers in hand and guitars in tow, this is exactly what they’re doing. Opening shows for Mac DeMarco, the Black Lips and fellow Spaniards The Parrots, Hinds are proving girls can do grunge just as well as guys.

udging by their sold-out schedule and troupe of barrier-breaking fans (their gigs are known to rouse regular stage invasions), Hinds might be doing grunge even better than the boys. Play ‘San Diego’ at high volume and you’ll know exactly what we mean.These girls might be cute but they’re tougher and rougher than they seem.

So as we prepare ourselves to jump up and down
to their gutsy sing-alongs when they unleash on Australian soil, I ask Carlotta what advice she would give to a girl attending her first rock concert.

“Wear a little backpack, and shoes that will protect your feet. I got stood on at so many concerts before learning closed-toe shoes are a must!” She giggles, before disappearing from the Skype screen.

She returns with a collection of clothes: skinny black jeans, a pair of beaten sneakers and a vintage band tee. “It’s our uniform,” she explains, “it’s what I wore to my first ever gig, and I still wear it today.”

And what advice would she give a girl falling in love for the first time? “Don’t date a musician!” Carlotta almost yells. “They will break your heart for sure.”

Catch Hinds in Australia live this May, when they catapult their way into a handful of local music haunts. And be sure to secure your tickets quick. If their Aussie shows are anything like their Northern Hemisphere cameo, they’ll be #soldout pronto.

Viva La Hinds.

Leave Me Alone is out now through Inertia.

hindsband.com