{"id":455213,"date":"2026-03-03T11:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/455213\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:21:13","slug":"dev-hynes-talks-working-with-dear-friend-lorde-his-rally-festival-and-any-plans-for-a-test-icicles-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/455213\/","title":{"rendered":"Dev Hynes talks working with \u201cdear friend\u201d Lorde, his Rally Festival and any plans for a Test Icicles reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dev Hynes<\/a> \u2013 also known as Blood Orange<\/a> \u2013 has spoken to NME about hopes of a Test Icicles<\/a> reunion, and how it felt to work with Lorde<\/a>. Check out the interview above.<\/p>\n

The singer, songwriter and producer caught up with us on the red carpet for this year\u2019s BRIT Awards<\/a>, where he was nominated in the Alternative\/Rock category alongside Lola Young<\/a>, Wet Leg<\/a>, Wolf Alice<\/a>, and Sam Fender<\/a> \u2013 with the latter taking home the trophy on the night.<\/p>\n

\"Devont\u00e9Devont\u00e9 Hynes attends The BRIT Awards 2026. CREDIT: JMEnternational\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The nod came following the release of Blood Orange\u2019s latest acclaimed album \u2018Essex Honey<\/a>\u2019; which NME praised as being rife with \u201cstunning reflections on the meaning of home\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was his first new album in seven years \u2013 following on from since 2018\u2019s \u2018Negro Swan<\/a>\u2019 \u2013 and featured an impressive list of guest features, including from Lorde<\/a>, Caroline Polachek<\/a>, Daniel Caesar<\/a>, Mustafa<\/a>, Turnstile<\/a>\u2019s Brendan Yates and Tariq Al-Sabir.<\/p>\n

When asked if he expected the album to go down so well with fans and earn him a BRITs nod, the artist shared that he was purely focused on \u201ctrying to do what felt good, and just put it out when I felt like it was time for it to escape me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of working with Lorde, he shared that he views the Kiwi pop icon as a \u201cdear friend\u201d, but still felt \u201chonoured\u201d to have her take part in the record.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the best. She\u2019s a dear friend of mine and we lived pretty close to each other in New York and we were both working on our albums at the same time, so it was very easy,\u201d he shared. \u201cI did a little bit on her [album \u2018Virgin<\/a>\u2019] and she did a little bit on mine.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just very smooth and casual, but I was honoured that she put vocals down on it still because she doesn\u2019t really do that often. I feel very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hynes went on to add that while they are quite different in their approach to songwriting, the collaborations came naturally to them due to their similar outlook on life. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t so much in the technicalities of how we write, but we\u2019re both people that occupy the space of thinking a lot,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like taking in the world and thinking about it, but then when we actually decide it\u2019s time to make music, we, it\u2019s quite loose and very open. I think we\u2019re quite similar in those regards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hynes also went on to look back at his time in \u201900s dance-punk heroes Test Icicles \u2013 who split in 2006 after just two years and one cult favourite album together \u2013 saying that he hasn\u2019t planned on doing a reunion, but would \u201clove to\u201d consider it for the future as he is constantly \u201ctrying to excavate from the past\u201d.<\/p>\n

He then reflected on his work under his Lightspeed Champion<\/a> alias \u2013 having released two acclaimed albums in 2008 and 2010 \u2013 and dismissed any hopes of a 20th anniversary tour in the coming years as he sees Blood Orange as \u201can extension of it\u201d. He did, however, add that he thinks he \u201cshould play those songs again\u201d live for fans at some point.<\/p>\n

Last year, it was confirmed that the artist will be headlining and curating the main stage at this year\u2019s edition of the RALLY Festival in London\u2019s Southwark Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The community-driven music and arts event will return on Saturday August 29, and will see the artist joined by <\/a>Daniel Avery, Smerz<\/a> and James K, as well as Jump Source<\/a> \u2013 the live electronic project of Montr\u00e9al-based DJs and producers Priori and Patrick Holland. Visit\u00a0 here<\/a> for tickets and more information.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt\u2019s gonna be so good, and the line-up is amazing,\u201d added Hynes. \u201cI like helped out finding artists to play it, so I\u2019m excited. It\u2019s also the last stop on this tour, basically. So I\u2019m going to end it in London. It\u2019s gonna be very fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 BRITs were held in Manchester for the first time<\/a> this year, and hosted by comedian and actor Jack Whitehall<\/a>, who returned to the slot for the sixth time.<\/p>\n

Performers included Harry Styles, who opened the evening with his first public performance in three years<\/a>, as well as Bjork and Rosal\u00eda<\/a>, Olivia Dean<\/a>, Sombr, HUNTR\/X\u2019s EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI<\/a>, Wolf Alice, <\/a>Mark Ronson<\/a>, Robbie Williams<\/a>, Alex Warren<\/a>, and RAYE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jacob Alon was named as Critic\u2019s Choice winner<\/a>, Noel Gallagher<\/a> was awarded the Songwriter Of The Year award<\/a>, PinkPantheress won Producer Of The Year<\/a>, Ozzy Osbourne got the BRITs Lifetime Achievement Award, and Mark Ronson <\/a>took home the trophy for Outstanding Contribution<\/a>. See the full list of winners from the night here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dev Hynes \u2013 also known as Blood Orange \u2013 has spoken to NME about hopes of a Test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[25065,99776,96,3583,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-455213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alternative","tag-brit-awards","tag-entertainment","tag-indie","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}