Samuel Hindes | musician

"I limit myself on purpose, I am big into restraint. Your website says 'less is more'...it's the same thing with performing on stage. If you are not comfortable with the way that you look...you are going to feel awkward on stage...you want people to be able to relate to you." Samuel Hindes

Samuel Hindes is a musician from New York City. He says, "I give [my style] a lot of thought. I limit myself on purpose. I'm big into restraint. Less is definitely more for me."
"We started this collective, downtown New York scene for our studio called Heavy Roc Music. We are all of these artists and creative people who are doing all their own stuff within New York. Our label compared it to Andy Warhol’s Factory. I have a lot of faith, considering I got signed off of practically nothing. I got signed with a couple demos, no buzz, nothing. " Club Monaco Cardigan, Rogan Hooded Scarf, Uniqlo Vest
"[My room] is one constantly growing and changing piece of art. It’s a landscape in itself. I’ve been working on it for years and years. It used to be completely covered in graffiti that my friends and I did. Around the middle of High School I went through a big change after getting kicked out and wanting to get my life together. So, I decided to paint and start from scratch."
"I think that every guy should own at least one thing that's sort of nice. So, you can go out to dinner and not feel like the guy at the wedding with a suit and sneakers on." Uniqlo Vest
"A big thing that I love is that I wrote most of my album, so lyrically it’s really important that people pay attention to it. If people can hear it and take something away from them [it means something]. A lot of the songs on the album are true stories."
"Most of my initial influences came from music that my mom was playing in the house or the car when I was growing up. There was a lot of James Taylor, Bob Dylan, some jazz, some classical music, but mostly the Beatles and U2."
"It's easier to be in your own head when it comes to writing because you can get out what you really want to say without feeling like other people are going to say, 'Ehh, don’t do that!'”
"My favorite thing about fashion is that it's completely personal, no need to consult a handbook or get a PHD, you do what you like and wear what makes you comfortable, appropriating others sensibilities into your own whenever you like, much like music."
"You want people to feel that connection with you, you want people to be able to relate to you."
"Something I’ve never understood about fashion is the need to keep things clean. I was always that weird kid who when I spilled something on myself, would never clean it off. I always felt like it gave a little more personality." American Apparel Jeans, Vans
"My goals are simply to be happy and challenge myself with new things. Someone once told me, 'It's not about being better than anyone else, it's about being better than you were yesterday.' Also, make an entire album with Jay-Z. No big deal."
"This is the only wife beater that I own. I think every dude should own one wife beater at least. It's the most comfortable thing I wear. I'm a big fan of comfort." Club Monaco Cardigan, Rogan Hooded Scarf, Uniqlo Vest, Black Vans
"This is just an American Apparel sweater and white jeans that I wore to a show in Brooklyn. Before we performed I walked around and asked people if they wanted to draw on me. By the time I went on stage I was completely covered. It was cool because there were people in the audience who could see their work on me. It was a connection between them and me."
"I'm hopeful about [succeeding] in Europe. The UK's whole system for the music industry is totally different than America. The government runs the radio. So if you’re on the radio it means the people like you, it doesn’t have anything to do with the commercial aspect."
"I have a song called 'Safety Off.' It’s about an ex-girlfriend of mine and it's probably the saddest song on the album. It is so hyper personal that other people who listen to it say, 'If you just change the hair color of the girl in the video, the song would be about my ex-girlfriend.'” American Apparel Jeans
"I feel like music and books really just describe the human condition in a way that not many other media formats can, especially if you’re a good writer. I love Franz Kafka, Ray Bradbury and Hunter S. Thompson."
"We live in a very small bubble in New York. It's a gift and a curse, I think, to be this exposed to culture, but also at the same time to not be able to see the rest of the world the way it really is." Club Monaco Cardigan, Rogan Hooded Scarf, Uniqlo Vest
"That’s why people invented clothing right? It was for a purpose, for a use. If you’re not going to wear them down a little bit there's not really a point to it." Black Vans
On performing: "It’s all about comfort and if you’re not comfortable with the way that you look or the way that you’re presenting yourself then you’re going to feel awkward on stage in front of people who you want to be comfortable with." Uniqlo Vest
On his necklaces: "These, just like my room and my music, have been growing, changing and evolving over time. It started with one small necklace."
"My least favorite thing about fashion is the fine line between conviction and when people take it too seriously and it becomes constrictive and not fun. I still don't understand why runway models look so unhappy/angry all the time."

Samuel’s first single, I Heart NY, is blowing up. When I went to the apartment where he grew up to interview him, he was still in the perfecting stages of tweaking the most recent mixes. He told me that the songs won’t be done until he can go out to the store and buy the album or download it on itunes, “because then everyone else will be hearing it.” So, I guess they must be “done” now. This is really the story of the “underdog” rising. Unlike high school, where Samuel was kicked out, music is not an obligation, but comes from a love of storytelling and singing (“alot of the songs on the album are true” and are written by Samuel.) I love how he was “discovered”, kind of the old fashioned way. The label, “respected the fact that we started ourselves..It’s actually a pretty cool thing that everyone on our label has been like, ‘your collective… it’s very grassroots, it’s very us.’ We never had anybody tell us something that we couldn’t do.” Like his music, which is clean, simple and understated, so is his style. There is not an ounce of pretension, clothes are meant to be worn, get dirty, be comfortable and most of all, to be relatable. Samuel is “not a big fan of going over the top.”

If like Samuel, you may also enjoy Max Vernon, Lexie or Rachel Smith, and Justin Giunta.

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