Hinako Omori: Abbey Road Amplify x Pitchfork London Sessions

[piano playing and vocalizing]

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Ah ♪

[Hinako Omori] Today we are at

the Beautiful Gatehouse in Abbey Road.

I brought in a demo of a track

I was working on for maybe a next record

and we've been, yeah, layering it with sounds.

They've got some beautiful synthesizers here.

[mysterious synthesizer music]

♪ In the solitude ♪

♪ So quiet I can hear my breath ♪

Don't really know how I fell into making this kind of music.

I think it's largely maybe

down to the instruments I use.

A lot of the time, it comes from just experimenting

with synthesizers and seeing what kind of sounds

come out from that head space

or wherever I'm at that day, I just sort of sit

and press record and see what comes out.

Almost like a sound patch whip quilt or something.

♪ May you grow ♪

The synth I mainly used, for everything really,

for live, for studio, for everything,

is a Prophet 08 by Sequential and I love it.

I love it dearly.

It's the first synth that I ever bought.

[synthesizer intensifies]

♪ Ooh ♪

So the Abbey Road equipment we've used today

is this beautiful Yamaha upright piano.

I love Yamaha Pianos.

There's something about the clarity when you play

and it's a piano I grew up learning on as well.

So I'm really, really happy to see this one here.

[dramatic piano music]

And also I love the front being off it.

Also using these beautiful mics, which we also use

on my voice as well.

It's a real treat to use the U67s.

Yeah, very far away from the mics I use at home,

So it's very, it's a real honor.

♪ Waiting for the spring ♪

♪ To watch the lilies all lay ♪

♪ In fall bloom ♪

I think the vocals to me, maybe because I've been shy

of using my voice as a lead voice

'cause I've never, before this, thought of my voice

as a lead instrument in the music I make.

But I think I always treated them more as a synth, actually

and adding lots of effects on it.

[vocalizing and synthesizer playing]

It's quite a solitary process

which is why today has been really lovely actually

because most of the time I'm in the studio by myself.

[laughs]

So it's been so nice to work with Matt and Calum

and be in a room with other people creating together.

I went to university with Matt actually

so it's been really nice to hang out and catch up.

And it's probably been about five years

since we've probably seen each other.

The thing I cherish the most about working in music

I think is the community.

Finding and surrounding yourself with people that you love

and that inspire you to do what you want to do

I think is really important.

[vocalizing and synthesizer playing]

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ In fall bloom ♪

♪ In fall ♪