Artist Profile: Hue Hinton
Photo Credit: Mily Ward
Hue Hinton, the Philadelphia-born producer and singer-songwriter, has been entranced by the feeling of creative productivity since he was a child playing piano on his father’s lap. Between his two formally-issued EPs, Out Loud and Starfish, this fact is more than clear. A distinct bent towards experimentation and an abundant adaptability peek their heads through every track of his young discography and, in many ways, are the defining features of Hinton’s infectious and tantalizing body of work.
As a child, Hinton was introduced to music initially through his father, who was a member of an acapella group and taught him his first touches on the piano. Hinton has a distinct memory of his father teaching him to play piano around the age of 3 or 4, and this is a series of images that has stuck with him throughout his life.
“My dad, he was a musician; he still is. He sat me down at a piano and showed me how to play ‘Heart & Soul’. This is probably like my earliest or one of the earliest memories, he was like, ‘Just play the black keys. Watch as my hands go like this, and you just play these notes.’ But then I started improvising. And I just remember that feeling…”
His father was heavily into the indie artists of the 2000s and 2010s; he was the first person in Hinton’s life to discover Tame Impala, and his expansive and eclectic music taste was fundamental in the forming of Hinton’s own musical consciousness. So, in fact, was his mother’s taste; her love for hip-hop was his earliest exposure to the art form that came to dominate his adolescence.
Hip-hop, and electronic music at large, was actually his first entry-point to music from a perspective of actual output. When he was in middle school, he began experimenting with GarageBand on his iPad, crafting bass-laden hip-hop and EDM instrumentals that he would proudly show to his mother upon their completion— much to her polite confusion at the time. But Hinton continued to work, eventually taking up Logic, and in the course of doing so, began routinely freestyling and singing as a social activity with his group of friends.
As he learned more and more about who he wanted to be as an artist and what he could become as a songwriter, his output began to reflect his growing confidence. Relatively quickly, he had learned to implement his experience as a classical pianist into the nooks and crannies of the pop-inspired hip-hop and R&B sound he was cultivating. His first EP, Out Loud, and the other preceding singles from that creative era showcase this understanding extensively.
The project was entirely produced, performed, and written in isolation apart from the select artists he brought on as features.
But shortly after the release of that project, his high school friend Mark, who was playing as a drummer in a band called Greydyent, asked Hinton if he would have any interest in performing his tracks with a live band. Hinton gave it a shot, and the rest is history. Since that time, Greydyent’s presence in both Hinton’s live performances and recording process has transformed his sound and overall approach to songwriting.
“They just add this huge sound to it that helps me realize the songs a lot more. I think I fell in love with music again, when I started playing with the band.”
Once he began playing with Greydyent, Hinton truly entered the Philly DIY scene for the first time. They began playing pop-up shows in front of the local art museum and got involved in the local house-show scene– both of which are, in a way, staples of Philadelphia’s underground musical current.
“Coming up in this Philly scene has had such an impact on me. There's this huge kind of ‘work your f*cking *ss off’ culture here. I think it reflects in the music; there's a lot of emo, shoegaze, hardcore bands coming out of Philly.I was making a more pop-esque style of music, but I think when I started playing with the band, hearing these other bands play as well, that's what got me into a little bit harder, kind of more emotive, almost like a grunge-esque kind of feel to it.”
His newest EP, Starfish, is clear evidence of the transformation Hinton’s artistry has undergone over the years he’s spent playing with Greydyent. From the surf-rock, fuzzed-out tones of the opener, “I Crashed My Car”, to the more classically-constructed ballad, “Fountain of the Sea Horses”, Hinton does not leave his R&B and melodic roots behind but instead expands their territories outwards, taking his swelling and collapsing harmonies and arrangements to new heights.
As Hinton continues to work on his next project, it has become clear to him that, as long as he continues down this path, he must intentionally cultivate and seek out that spark he felt as a child playing piano next to his father. Starfish, and its entrancing complexities, are an affirmation of the fact that continued to find that purpose even as his sound has transformed.
“I think there's a feeling that I get when I make music, and it's this good kind of natural, healing feeling that makes me feel like I have a purpose. It makes me feel proud of myself in that sense– like I'm able to create something that I enjoy and sounds good to me… I feel like I've been chasing that feeling since the start. And it's really blossomed into this beautiful flower that I can't wait to see where it goes.”
