The Homecoming of Dev Hynes (Blood Orange)
Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Higher Ground
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the long holiday weekend, Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) released his latest album, Essex Honey. To celebrate, we return to our 2022 conversation with the visionary musician.
At the top, we dive into his EP Four Songs (3:15), performing at Madison Square Garden with Harry Styles (4:40), and the process that guides much of his music (6:39). Then, Dev describes growing up in Essex, England (7:04), falling in love with music at his sister’s piano lessons (11:00), his dreams of entering the New York punk culture of Please Kill Me (20:30), early performances with the band Test Icicles (22:08), and how he’s been inspired by the late Octavia Saint Laurent (30:10).
In the back half, we unpack Dev’s gift for collaboration (34:22), the 2013 night that changed everything (38:50), a surreal, full-circle performance of Delancey at the Apollo Theater (46:17), music’s unique ability to express emotions (49:50), and where he hopes to go in his art next (54:20).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone, it's Sam. If you like Talk Easy, there's another podcast I think you'll really enjoy. |
| 0:05.2 | It's called Death, Sex, and Money from the Good People at Slate, hosted by my friend and mentor, Anna Sale. |
| 0:12.2 | It's a show about all the things we think about a lot, but don't talk about enough. |
| 0:16.7 | From debt to breakups to grief, and it gets people to open up about the parts of life that can |
| 0:22.0 | feel really isolating and confusing. So my personal favorites include Jane Fonda, Miranda July, |
| 0:29.5 | Celine Song, which we dropped in this feed, and the late great Bill Withers. It's that episode |
| 0:35.3 | with Withers called How to Be a Man that served as a real true inspiration for Talk Easy. |
| 0:42.2 | I've said it before, but I'll say it again. |
| 0:44.2 | Without that episode, How to Be a Man with Bill Withers, just even now thinking about it, it gets me emotional. |
| 0:50.6 | Without that episode, I don't know. |
| 0:53.0 | I don't think Talk Easy would be what it is today. |
| 0:56.9 | And so before I get any more emotional than I already am, you can follow and listen to death, |
| 1:01.5 | sex, and money, wherever you listen to Easy. I'm Sando |
| 1:26.6 | This is Talk Easy. I'm San Francisco. Welcome to the show. |
| 1:48.7 | Today, musician and composer, Dev Hines. |
| 1:54.1 | You may know him under the moniker Blood Orange, where he's released four celebrated albums, |
| 1:55.9 | along with a few EPs. |
| 2:00.3 | When he's not making records, he's creating scores for films and TV shows. |
| 2:05.2 | In recent years, he's composed for movies like Passing, Master Gardner, and Mainstream, |
| 2:08.9 | as well as television programs like rap shit and in-treatment. |
| 2:11.1 | He's also written for the concert hall. |
| 2:18.5 | His 2019 classical composition fields, performed by the Third Coast percussion, earned him a Grammy nomination. |
... |
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