Dev Hynes was one of the guests at the New Yorker Festival and sat down with Hua Hsu to discuss topics ranging from his early career, his move to New York and his politically charged album, Freetown Sound.
While there he also took some time to give details on his upcoming album, telling Hsu that the project is "78 percent done." Hynes also stated that the album will focus more on his upbringing in Essex County, just outside of London. “A lot of the new songs on the new album deal with growing up and childhood in England,” he said. “Looking at the country that made me.”
Growing up as a child of two immigrant parents in Essex County was not easy by any means and Hynes went into detail on the racism and challenges he faced, saying, “It’s one of the only places in England where the BNP, which is the British National Party, aka the racist party – “Keep Britain white” was one of their campaigns – were constantly elected in power,” he said. Hynes' father is from Sierra Leone and his mother is from Guyana so the genre bending artist stood out and was bullied to the point where he used to cross the street whenever he came across a Union Jack in the window of a pub.
