For all those naysayers who tell artsy kids to “get a real job”, musical trio Hindsight provides a prime example of Bermudians making a successful and full-time career in the music industry — with a few sacrifices.

The trio, consisting of Stefan Hinds, wife Lauretta and twin brother Rupert have spent several years playing from Las Vegas, Nevada to Israel to Japan, and many other places in between. Hindsight is based in Atlanta, Georgia, but this summer they are back at home playing in The Cellar at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel, six nights a week.

“There were always those who will tell you, ‘this is a waste of time, you need to get yourself a real job’,” said Stefan Hinds in an interview with The Royal Gazette.

“I wasn’t incapable of doing that, but I wanted to follow my heart and do what I loved to do.”

However, Mr. Hinds warned that a career in the music industry was an honourable pursuit, but could be a wretched profession.

“I say that tongue in cheek, because it hasn’t been wretched for me, but I have seen the difficulties that result in trying to make it,” he said.

“I know that we have been blessed, because this is something we have done all of our lives. Preparation, determination and discipline helped to shape me to be a little bit more resilient and to have more emotional fortitude.

“We have worked very hard and our product has always been exemplary.”

Hindsight plays cover music and some original stuff. Because they play all over the world, to audiences that speak many different languages, they have had to develop a huge repertoire of music.

“At certain places original stuff is more accepted,” he said. “I think the European and Middle Eastern audiences have a little bit more of a tolerance for more expressive and original material, than American audiences, or in the Caribbean.

“That is not to say that there aren’t Americans and people in the Caribbean who love that type of music.

“But in Europe and the Middle East they listen to everything and soak up all sorts of music. That allowed us to have a huge repertoire when we were over there, because we enjoyed doing all the different types of music.”

Hindsight has had to learn songs people songs in a range of languages including Japanese and Cantonese; not always an easy task.

“The Middle Eastern songs were a little bit more challenging because of the quarter tones and things like that,” Mr. Hinds said. “The Arabic was harder for us to get our tongues around. I think we did have a flirtation with some Israeli stuff.”

Mr. Hinds and his band have also played during inaugural trips for Princess Cruises, including some of their more prestigious ships such as Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess.

“The Princess Cruises pursued us for two years,” said Mr. Hinds. “We told them we did not want to work for cruise ships because we heard that they didn’t treat musicians right.”

When the Hinds family finally accepted an offer from Princess Cruises, they found this to be far from the case.

“We were guest musicians on the inaugural cruise of the>Dawn Princess,” said Mr. Hinds. “They flew us to Los Angeles. We got on the Dawn Princess, sailed down the Mexican Riviera, down to Acapulco, spent three days down there, then traversed the Panama Canal and went into the Caribbean for the winter season.”

What was supposed to be a three week gig turned into a six week gig for the Hinds musicians.

“They were tremendous to us,” said Mr. Hinds. “We thought it was because they were just courting us,” he said. “We went to thI>Grand Princess the next year, and did the Mediterranean for four months. It was the most incredible time that we had. We were guest musicians so we were allowed all of the same liberties as the guests. We were allowed to eat in the dining rooms and everything like that.”

Mr. Hinds has run bands in several different incarnations, and player configurations. In 1986, for example he helped to form Electronic Symphony with brother Rupert, Vernon Tucker, Lauretta Augustus, and Damio McLuen who has since passed away.

“We were quite a successful band,” he said. “We worked all the hotels. We also opened for major acts that came to Bermuda. It was an amazing seven years. We decided to leave in 1992. We changed our name from the Electronic Symphony to Exotique.”

For the last 15 years, he and other band members have been working and playing music throughout the world. For ten years his group was based in Las Vegas, and worked conventions and hotels there. Recently, though home base moved to Atlanta.

He has been married to wife Lauretta for eight years, but actually started playing music with her when he was just 11 years old and she was eight.

While attending the Berkeley Institute, he and his brother were part of a high school group called the N.T.s which included many now well-known entertainers including Wendall (Shine) Hayward and now retired Bermuda Regiment director of music Major Barrett Dill.

Mr. Hinds also partly credits his success to being a part of the Bermuda Regiment Band at a young age.

Although he is now is pianist, he learned how to play and write for horns with the Regiment. He said being in the Regiment gave him a sense of discipline that has carried well into his adult life.

“It has been a very interesting career,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know what we have done in the last 15 years, because we didn’t have a public relations person following us around. A lot of Bermudians knew we were in Vegas because a lot of them came out there.

“Wherever we went we found Bermudians. We were in Oman, Jordan and we ran into an expatriate who used to work in Bermuda at the hospital. In Taipei, China and we met a guy who used to work at the Sonesta Hotel as a chef. You run into Bermudians every time.”

Mr. Hinds said he was always careful to make sure people knew they were Bermudian, wherever they worked.

“The first thing they asked us was why were we over here working.” he said. “‘Shouldn’t you be in Bermuda?’ At the time we couldn’t work in Bermuda. They weren’t hiring. This was something we do full-time, and unless you do something else, you can’t make a living as a musician.”

He said the opportunities are now getting better in Bermuda for Bermudian musicians, but local musicians still need the community’s support.

“I think that the psyche of a lot of the employers is that entertainers are part-time anyway,” he said. “That is how you are perceived. What we do is not looked at as a profession.”

Mr. Hinds said ironically, his original training was in the hotel industry, and he has worked in hotels from the front to the back of the house.

“I do understand all things hotels, besides entertainment,” he said. “I understand food and beverage and I understand conventions. I was conventions manager and director of entertainment at the Marriott, and also director of entertainment at Sonesta for a number of years. I do understand all of that, but sometimes employers don’t look at you like that, when you choose to do this.”

Mr. Hinds said he has chosen to do what he loves, because he is able to offer people more that way.

“That is translated to your audience when you enjoy what you do,” he said. “My father told me a long time ago, find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. So said, so done. It has proven to be true to me. I think that I wouldn’t have lived my life any other way. I don’t feel like I am taking advantage of anyone when I do what I do.”

Because of their popularity, Hindsight have just released their first CD called ‘There’s no Place Like Bermuda’. It features eight songs with the title track written and arranged by Mr. Hinds.

“We have never released a recording before, because we are really a working band and travelling,” said Mr. Hinds.

The CD is now available locally. For more information go to www.hindsightmusic.info .