British songwriter Dev Hynes is the subject of a new academic paper which claims he has developed synethesia.
Dev Hynes has always been a busy man. From being the drummer in (fairly awful) nu rave group Test Icicles the singer has developed a solo career that has branched off into a myriad of side projects.
Now it seems that there is a psychological reason behind his work ethic, and of course his inventive songwriting. A new academic paper by Dr Leah Kelly of The Rockerfeller University has claimed that Dev Hynes has synesthesia – a condition where one sense evokes another.
The article has been published on Lightspeed Champion’s official website, and contains a number of insights into the singer’s working methods.
Speaking to Dr Kelly the songwriter claimed that listening to music was like “staring at moving pictures”.
The condition first exposed itself when the young Hynes was watching Rocky Horror Show. “It blew my mind… It was a brutal assault – but a good one”.
The singer describes the experiences as like staring at ‘moving pictures’ with rhythm, pitch and so on having different qualities.
Continuing, Dev Hynes reveals that he writes by “trying to get to the colour. I can play anything because I see it, because I just recreate it. I don’t have to think. I’m just reading it.”
However the condition does have its drawbacks. Dev Hynes is full of energy and is continually embarking on new projects, but this doesn’t leave time for sleep. “My girlfriend worries that I do too much. I fill myself up with tasks and projects and there are so many – I get them done but it’s never enough.”
