Twenty-Five-year-old (but actually still twenty-four because of Covid) William Hinson hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and his music has completely captured my heart. If you're looking for some soft-sounding, coffee shop playing, beautiful love songs, this is the artist for you. Hinson dropped his album, "Everything Will Be Okay" in October 2020, and the entire album is pure fire. From the title track to welcome you into adventure of the album, all the way to "Spring Flowers" to close it all out, you definitely go through a series of feelings throughout it.
William has been playing music from a young age and has been writing songs since he was in sixth grade, and describes his genre to be "genreful", which is definitely a real thing. For me, this entire album has the same vibe to it, but also each song has different feels to them.
The way that I found this kid (he's literally not a kid, we're the same age so I suppose, we are adults) was through an ad on Instagram, which was the perfect timing because I was in a huge Beatles mood that night. What did the ad feature? A music video for William's song, "George Harrison". From there, I was completely hooked.
Obviously since he is a huge Beatles fan, I of course had to ask him what his favorite Beatles album was, which is either Revolver or Rubber Soul. Now when it came to favorite Beatles songs, he gave me an entire list: Getting Better, Martha My Dear, Michelle, For No One, I Feel Fine, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, You Won't See Me, etc. Apparently he would never be able to create a top list because it changes all the time.
His biggest inspirations are of course The Beatles, John Mayer, The 1975, Bob Dylan and Hall & Oates. Maybe when you put all of those influences together, you get William Hinson. When asked how many guitars he has and which he loves to play most he responded, "I have too many, but I love my Martin OM28 and Fender Mustang."
I asked him what he thought about music that's being produced today and this is what he said: "There's certainly a lot of it! There's a lot of really interesting things going on in music right now because there is an over saturation of it." When I asked him what his goals were as a musician, I don't think I could have asked for a better response. "My goal would be to make a lasting impact on the industry and on the people that listen to my music. To entertain people as often as possible... And a Grammy wouldn't be too bad." More often that not, music fans always hear to be in The Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame, or win a Grammy, or have materialistic things. But William is proving he's more than any of that. He's a true artist, and he wants to make true music for people.
Seeming so down to earth, I also had to ask him what he does for fun besides music. "Well obviously cross-stitch knitting. Kidding. I like to read and play card games. Hang out with friends and family (which is pretty difficult nowadays haha). Golf sometimes, but I'm quite bad at it. And a nice Guiness or two here and there." I also mentioned to him that while I was doing my research, I found an interview (conducted by Anna Snow, of Blaze Radio ASU) where I got to not only learn tons about William, but he also informed me on so many things about The Beatles I had never even heard of before. He was speaking of the very early beginnings and stages of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, very specific about the first session, dates, etc. He was actually talking about how John played "Strawberry Fields Forever" for the first time and there was a long pause and Paul was the first to say something and responded with "That was just bloody brilliant". And since Strawberry Fields is based off of a children's home in Liverpool, Paul wrote Penny Lane the next day. "I would say being a quasi Beatles scholar is also a big hobby of mine."
"The whole album is about being with people and the different types of relationships that we go through and how those affect us differently."
Top Favorite Tracks:
Everything Will Be Okay - The perfect opening to the album
Proximity - Perfectly eases you into the album, sounds like the perfect song for a romance movie
Self Love - A song about a girl loving herself that can make you feel like "everything will be okay"
George Harrison - DUHHHH
Normal Day - Obviously about quarantine, but I think this songs kicks ass honestly.
He gave the best advice to the world, his fans and aspiring musicians:
"Just be yourself and do what comes naturally. Find what works and do that."
I can't wait to actually review this album when I'm not extremely exhausted from life, and possibly interviewing William, who I could probably have a beer with over Zoom. It'd be a great time.
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