Hindle's passion

A young singer/songwriter talks about music, life and Michael Jackson :

by Heshan Perera

Delvin Hindle loves the sound of music. He has since he was a kid. "Music was basically everywhere. No matter where or what I was doing I always heard a song playing on the radio. And I loved it. I wanted to sing," he says.

Hindle would sing along or sing alone whenever he remembered the songs. Modest enough to say he doesn't know how good he sang in those early days, he say he never practiced or trained his voice, but just sang the songs that were stuck in his head time. And really enjoyed doing it. "And I still do," he admits.

Drum

Hindle used to drum on his desk, which singing in the classroom and would very often get punished by the teachers for doing so. But it never actually stopped him from doing it again and again. Once he got home from school, he would sing really loud as there was no one else in the house.

Even though he was into music he never actually played for anyone. Quite an introvert he feared facing a large crowd, even family or friends. Hindle used to spend a lot of time with his uncle who used to repair guitars. He also owned a few. Fascinated by the guitars, Hindle recalls strumming the smallest guitar for long lengths of time, until his uncle would say "Leave that guitar alone, you're going to break it".

That was the start of Hindle's love story with the guitar and the determination to learn how to play it properly.

It was fortunate that his uncle eventually showed him how to actually play two or three chords.

In 2008 Hindle got his first guitar as a Christmas present from his aunt. "I started classes early 2009.

That year was the turning point in my life," he says, explaining that he caught up really fast and just couldn't stop playing his guitar. 2009 was also the year Hindle's idol, inspiration and mentor, Michael Jackson passed away. "He showed us that no matter where you're from or what you do, you have to love one another. I wanted to be Michael Jackson.

I would turn on his music, dress like him and just dance for hours," says Hindle, adding as a side not that he impersonated Jackson, singing every one of his songs.

When Hindle started writing his own songs he realized, this was what he want to do for the rest of his life. "Nothing else.

I want to write and tell stories through my music. So I started writing more and more. The feeling of singing my own song was and is amazing" he says, acknowledging that it was the realisation that gave birth to his music career.

But realising something and actually making it happen are two different things.

And the happening bit didn't come easy. Hindle kept posting videos of him singing and playing his own songs on YouTube.

But he wasn't actually getting anywhere except for a few beautiful comments from his family and friends. He did this for about the years until he actually got a breakthrough.

A friend of cousin saw one of Hindle's videos and said he should speak to a professional producer he knew. The man was Azlan Sheriffdeen, and as it transpires, is now Hindle's Manager and Producer.

The two met for the first time and spoke about doing the first single which was called 'Wish You Were Here', and ended up doing a Music Video for. The song was released about three weeks ago and got very good responses and Hindle was named as one of the youngest artiste in the YES Home Grown music scene.

Now he is a songwriter and a producer. Not only does he write all his songs by himself, and he also them all together by himself.

"To me music is like my closest friend. I would even say it's my best friend. It has the answer to all the questions we have in life. You just have to listen, carefully. Music has played a huge part in my life.

I literally cannot recall a time I wasn't around music," he said, explaining that music has given him the strength and courage to chase him dreams no matter who or what people say.

Times

He likens music to a global language which everyone speaks despite who they are or where they are from. He says music has always helped him through bad times and sad times.

"It's like whenever I need help and advice, music gives me much more to hope for and look forward too," he says, adding on a cheeky not that music is his therapist and it is the only kind of therapist he needs.

He says, some people like to sleep to forget their troubles and worries for a while, he just listen to some music and his troubles and worries are nowhere near to be found. "There's not a day that goes by where I'll not have my headphones in my ears and my iPod in my pocket listening to a song," he confesses.

Having got one video out of the way, Hindle says his next big challenge will be producing his second music video for his second single titled 'Forget It All'.

The song was originally released on YouTube 8 months ago, but didn't really get much attention or get into the Yes Home Grown charts ,as it wasn't really promoted very well.

The plan was to release the song on YouTube to see how the feedback would be, release a better version of it with the music video on a later date. The video has of course been taking ages to put together.

"I am sad about the long time its taking to get this together but I guess everything happens for a reason and once everything is done it might be a video to definitely check out. It's going to be something very different from my first," he says.

Hindle doesn't like to niche place his music, his only place is to make good music that everyone could listen too, music with meaning and a nice tune to it.

Hindle, who is at present following a diploma course in Computer Science at the NIBM, believes that everything happens for a reason and that each and every one have been given this life we live today for a good reason.

"You just need to find your reason for being here. Find it, it isn't that hard. Find it and make it the life you always dreamt of, that's the hard part," he says philosophically.