“M.I.A. and Miike Snow’s Lovechild”
- NY POST
“Based on the initial single’s death-disco guitar scratch, thumping beat and disembodied, echoing vocals, Prynn’s album is one to look for.”
- TIME OUT NEW YORK (re: ‘Can We Go Wrong’)
Take one listen to Hesta Prynn’s brand of electro-hip-hop-art-rock, and you’ll most likely be on your ass begging for more—in the best way possible. In the same manner that Andy Warhol and The RZA artistically tore up the Big Apple, she’s a maverick in the classic “New York” sense of the word. “Woah Woah” and “Recall” ride a thin line between indie elegance and gutter hip hop attitude. The former Northern State MC remains an underground artist with a chic sense of style and a visionary take on all things outside the norm. Flipping her sonic switchblade through cuts like “Seven Sisters,” she shifts from ethereal crooning to raucous ranting on the drop of a dime. She’s constructed an aural enigma that could only come from an old school Nintendo-playing, horror movie fanatic who’s got a keen fashion sense. With a full-length debut on the way, Hesta Prynn is about to be everywhere.
Hesta Prynn’s quixotic charm pipes through each and every note—from rap-laden verses to keyboard-propelled hooks. About her sonic mixology, she explains, “I’m a child of the ’90s. I take all of these different sounds, influences and genres and come up with something cohesive and tangible. We kept calling it ‘post-everything.’ It’s post-hipster, post-genre and post-pop. Everything I do has a hip hop undercurrent. However, the songs have classic structures because I think of them as pop songs, and they all blend electronic and organic live sounds. It’s weird, but it’s accessible.”
After releasing three albums with acclaimed all-girl hip hop triumvirate Northern State, Hesta Prynn knew it was time to go “post-everything” by herself in late 2008. Collaborating with musical partner-in-crime producer Chuck Brody (Wu-Tang Clan), “Seven Sisters” was born.
However, Hesta Prynn’s sound has already extended far beyond those well-trodden NYC streets at shows internationally with everyone from Jay-Z and Andrew W.K to Tegan and Sara and Avi Buffalo. That sound Hesta has conjured defies any and all conventions. She and Brody find the perfect middle ground between natural instrumentation and electronic textures. A surf-style guitar can bend right into a soaring synth melody quickly in one song while Hesta rips through a sharp, sardonic and sultry rhyme. That style has spoke to various crucial musicians who have been immediately struck by Hesta Prynn.
Slipknot artistic visionary and percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan says, “When I was introduced to Hesta Prynn for the first time, I knew the minute the music started playing I was in for something special and different, but I was not prepared for the way Julies’ voice sounded inside her track! Suddenly my imagination was taking me on a journey, a very colorful, sensual story that I did not want to return from. I don’t think I have yet?”
Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara adds, “Hesta Prynn’s album makes me wish I was a dance choreographer or in a dance posse. It’s not just enough to just dance alone to these songs, I actually feel as though I need an entire group of people behind me as a visual representation of how amazing I feel when I’m listening (and dancing) to this music.”
