In conversation with Tinlicker’s Hero Baldwin
“‘God In You’ came from that feeling that what we’re searching for externally already exists within us, but we’re taught to look everywhere else first.”
- Tinlicker’s Hero Baldwin
Tinlicker. ShotByMeesterwerk
Hero Baldwin is a British singer and songwriter and a full-time member of all-live melodic/electronic trio Tinlicker (formed of NL’s Jordi and Micha, and UK’s Hero). Known for her emotionally charged writing and distinct, unprocessed vocal style, she brings a human core to the band’s expansive electronic sound. Alongside her work with Tinlicker, she runs London-based art business Green & Stone, balancing two creative worlds focusing on community and storytelling.
While touring thousands of miles across Europe for their fourth album Dreams Of The Machine and new live show with producer/longtime friend & collaborator Helsloot, the 4 artists co-composed gorgeously haunting yet danceable new collab single Edge of Forever, out July 24th.
From September, the four artists will cover 9000 miles in their faithful bus together with their 250-piece live show set-up and full crew (dates here).
Tinlicker just released their fourth studio album, but the first written with you as a collaborator and now full band member. How has bringing a new voice into the core of Tinlicker changed the creative process?
I think it’s made everything more human. Because we work in quite condensed periods, especially with me being based in London, when we are together, we really go deep. It gives us the space to explore things both sonically and emotionally in a much more focused way.
It’s also less about adding a vocal, Tinlicker has always had incredible vocal tracks… it’s become more about shaping a song from the inside out together. Starting from feeling something real, and building it outward. We challenge each other more now, not just on sound design, but on meaning. Nothing really gets to hide anymore. It’s just the beginning and we’re learning how we each operate. I’m excited for our future together.
Tinlicker Exhibition JakeDavis @jakephilipdavis
Tinlicker’s music often moves between moments of euphoria and melancholy. Is that emotional contrast something you deliberately shape when creating a track, or does it happen naturally?
That contrast is basically where I live. I don’t think we sit down and say let’s make this part sad and this part euphoric, it’s more that both things are always present. Real life isn’t one or the other. The best moments usually carry both. There’s something powerful about dancing through something that hurts, or finding release inside tension. That’s where the music feels most honest to me.
One of the tracks we love is God In You. It draws inspiration from Rumi. What was it about his ideas on love and the human spirit that resonated with you when creating the track?
Rumi writes about love in a way that dissolves the idea of separation, between people, between self and something greater. ‘God In You’ came from that feeling that what we’re searching for externally already exists within us, but we’re taught to look everywhere else first. It’s not religious in a traditional sense, it’s more about recognising your own depth, your own worth.
Tinlicker EUTour OsloSentralen, 27.03.2026. ShotByMeesterwerk
You’ve followed the album up with new single ‘Edge of Forever’, a collaboration with Helsloot. The track, dropping just before you kick off your NA tour, was written on the bus on tour across Europe, can you tell us a little more about how it came together?
Jordi, Micha, and Thomas [Helsloot] were upstairs on the bus noodling around with sounds and textures. I was looking through the great sweep of glass at the front of the bus as the landscape passed almost imperceptibly beneath us. There is something oddly contemplative about travelling in that way. You can’t just get off, so around you you watch as cities, towns and villages drift past, fields give way to forests, and before long you find yourself looking less at the places themselves than at the quiet passage of time between them. Some days later Thomas and I listened back to what had been started on the bus, pressed record and the lyric and melody emerged intact in a single take.
People have asked me what the song means, and I find myself returning less to its lyrics than to the feeling that gave rise to them. Touring has a curious way of enlarging one’s world. Every week offers another city, another audience, another horizon. It encourages the comforting illusion that fulfilment is always waiting just beyond the next arrival. We become remarkably good at imagining happiness in the future tense.
Yet I found the opposite taking place. As life became larger, the things that nourished me became increasingly modest. A close conversation, ridiculous card games. The unexpected appearance of dawn after working through the night. Silently looking out of the front of a bus with people who, over time, have become family. These moments scarcely register beside the scale of our ambitions, and yet they possess a curious completeness. They ask nothing of us except our attention.
Looking back, your previous album Cold Enough For Snow pushed your sound into more expansive and collaborative territory. What lessons from that record shaped the direction of this new one?
Micha (Tinlicker original band member): It’s not really a lesson from the previous album, that made us change direction. It was the urge to keep challenging ourselves in combination with the energy and charisma Hero added to the live show as a guest singer on the last show of our previous live tour. We had the feeling she added the “thing” that would separate/distinguish our live show from our DJperformances in the right way. And it was/is a nice new challenge to create a body of work with just one singer instead of single songs with different people. This way you can add different layers of depth with just one soul.
Tinlicker London
Tinlicker in the Park at Crystal Palace Bowl last year was widely hailed as an unforgettable live experience. Now performing as a trio, how has that shaped the way you bring your music to life on stage?
Micha: We have an extra front-woman with a great personality on stage and she creates different chapters to the show. It allows us to have multiple blocks in one show in which we can change the mood and dynamic. And she adds a lot of tears and laughter.
You returned to London on your extensive UK/EU album tour for a special show at Exhibition London. What is it about playing this city that always feels special?
London has a certain honesty to it. People won’t give you anything for free here, you have to earn it. But when you do, it feels incredible. There’s also something about playing in your home city… you feel more exposed, in a good way. The London show was a homecoming and a half. I didn’t want it to end.
TinlickerTour Cologne. ShotByMeesterwerk.
The Quick #FLODown with Hero Baldwin
Last book you read?
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, it’s saved in my phone as a pdf and something I return to often.
First track you ever fell in love with?
ABBA, ‘The winner takes it all’. When I was about 5, blew my little mind.
Best advice you’ve ever been given?
Don’t abandon yourself to be understood.
One item you can’t live without?
A piano. Even a broken one.
Dream collaboration you haven’t done yet?
That’s hard, in truth it’s always been Tinlicker and I’ll choose them every day.
Tinlicker & Helsloot Edge of Forever is out now on Remember The Future/[PIAS], get it HERE.
Tinlicker’s fourth album Dreams of the Machine is also out now, get it HERE.
