Cindy Drummond

Music:

Member Since: 12/2/2006
Band Members: A grandmother at the tender age of 63, Cindy is proof that you’re never too old to start a new career. Sharing genes with Jazz Great John Nicol and ARIA Award Winner Seaman Dan has given her a great start.Ruby Red Lips is a potent and memorable piece of work, showcasing Cindy’s spirited and strikingly innocent vocals over an ever-evolving canvas of vintage jazz, country and blues, with a hint of traditional music from the Torres Strait Islands, her spiritual home and birthplace.The album was produced by acclaimed bass player and all-round jazz maestro Jonathan Zwartz and features some of Australia’s finest musicians including the likes of Reg Mombassa (Mental As Anything), Tina Harrod (Jackie Orszaczky and the Grandmasters), Sean Wayland and Jazz legend John Nicol.Cindy Drummond writes and sings from the heart with child-like innocence and charisma. Whether she is delving into serious Indigenous issues she holds close to her heart or universal tales of unrequited love, her effortless vocals are overwhelmingly positive, engaging listeners with a sense of optimism.
Influences: MY FAMILY HAVE BEEN MAJOR INFLUENCES FOR ME...
Sounds Like: Interview with Rhoda Roberts on Deadly SoundsShow: 606 Week to air: 10/04/2006 Guest: Cindy DrummondDeadly Sounds: Our special guest is, Cindy Drummond, she has a new album out called ‘Ruby Red Lips’, Cindy, thanks for joining us. ‘Ruby Red Lips’ has been a long time coming hasn’t it?Cindy: A really long time. I remember singing it to you once at Stanmore waiting for a bus.Deadly Sounds: I think I do remember.Cindy: That’s how long it’s been, at the time it was just two songs with the, ‘Which Way Project’.Deadly Sounds: And now we have an album, why did you call the album, ‘Ruby Red Lips’?Cindy: That was one of the first songs that I ever wrote, it was a sexy blues kind of jazzy song and I thought, ‘I’ll call it, Ruby Red Lips’. I only know about three people with the name Ruby and I’ve always loved that name, I never called any of my kids Ruby but I just love that name.Deadly Sounds: Just so our listeners know, Cindy is form the Torres Strait, she’s actually a Grandmother and you’re in your sixties.Cindy: I’m 62 Rhoda!Deadly Sounds: I wasn’t going to tell anyone.Cindy: No I don’t mind, on Music NSW, they said I was 63. They got it wrong the poor things.Deadly Sounds: So everyone out there, Aunty here is 62 and she’s been singing virtually her whole life. This just proves that at any age you can get a CD out, and of course one of your great supporters was someone else who put a CD out late in life, Seaman Dan.Cindy: And you know he’s my Uncle. You know how we call our elders, Aunty and Uncle, I didn’t find out till, he was singing at the Deadly Awards two years ago and Ryka, Taryn’s Boy, played the drums for him.Deadly Sounds: That is of course Cindy’s grandson.Cindy: But Uncle had an interview with Marlene Cummins and we went to his hotel and we were talking and every time I used to see him he looked like my Dad and my Uncle and they used to say, ‘Uncle Seaman’s here’, and I’d say, ‘I’m sure he’s related to us’. So I asked him straight up I said, ‘Uncle Seaman, who’s your father’? And it turned out that his father is my Grandad, so we were hugging and crying. That was a funny episode because earlier on Marlene and her manager and I were laughing and carrying on, then he went up to his room and by the time he came back down to Uncle Seaman’s room we were crying. It’s so funny because I said to Marlene, ‘that’s the first time I’ve met Carl’, I said, ‘I’m sure this white fella doesn’t know what us black fella’s are doing’, one minute we’re laughing and carrying on telling jokes and then the next time he comes down to the room we were crying’.Deadly Sounds: And as our listeners can tell, Aunty Cindy can certainly tell a story and she can sing. Now you’ve got a couple of songs on the album that you’re singing in language.Cindy: Yes, Torres Strait Island language, it’s a Torres Strait Island love song, it belongs to everyone you know there’s no sort of ownership, there’s some Torres Strait Island songs that I grew up with when I was really little and you did the hula to or sung to at parties that were always there, you know? I can remember Aunty Rita Mills and Aunty Iona singing the, ‘Why Oh Why’, and Harrison George singing that, so I put them together, not that they actually go together and, ‘Why Oh Why’, is sort of Creole, well you can hear the English words and Torres Strait Island language like Creole languageDeadly Sounds: Cindy, you’ve been in Sydney for quite a while now, how hard was it for you to move away from country?Cindy: No it wasn’t really hard because I already had a daughter living down here attending NAISDA. When I left at the end of 1995 there was just myself and another Grandson living up in Cairns, and when my Dad died I thought I’ll go down and stay with Karen because I knew that there were a lot of good musicians down here that I wanted to hook up with. There’s also a lot of arts, like in dance and music and all the different arts in general down here, and Uncle George, Johnny Nicol and I did your, ‘Dreaming Festival’ at the Power House, and talking to Uncle Vic Simms and meeting up with Uncle Cole Hardy, and even with Christine Anu being here and some of the NAISDA dancers, they’ve just sort of given me the inspiration to do something with my songs, well not so much my songs but entertaining and that’s what I love doing. I used to hook up with Karen on the weekends with her dance group and I used to get up there and perform Island or Aboriginal dancing. I loved doing that, promoting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture. I might have told you when I worked at the Coogee Post Office, if ever I caught the bus or the taxi, well, they’d know all about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture. Because I used to have NAIDOC and reconciliation awareness at the Post Office, people used to come and they’d want to buy the artefacts that were on display for NAIDOC.Deadly Sounds: Did many of those customers know?Cindy: No, I bought my son in and they were dancing with group at the time and I even made coconut curry chicken, I got some taro and the sweet potato and pumpkin.Deadly Sounds: Gee, they did alright at the Post Office!Cindy: Yes, see I brought it in for the workers there and the majority of them were all different nationalities, I think we had a couple of white Australians there. The rest were not from Australia, and it was funny to hear them say, ‘I’ve never met an Aboriginal person’, and I’d say ‘well you’re meeting them today’! And they’d say, ‘we’ve never seen Aboriginal dancers’, and I’d say, ‘well, you’re getting them first hand today’, because they danced in the Post Office. In 96 they let me put the television up because Taryn performed at the closing ceremony with Bangara over in Atlanta and they let me watch it, there was Tayn and few other dancers with them. Russell was there too, darling heart, and Djakapurra, and I’m screaming out their names and they’re looking at me and I’m saying, ‘that’s my daughter’! And from there they got to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and wanted to know where the Torres Strait Islands were and I told them, ‘it’s Queensland’, and it’s very much part of Australia and they didn’t know, Christmas Island is too, and they looked at me because some of these people, they thought I wasn’t from Australia. They’d say, ‘what country are you from’? And I’d look at them and I’d say, ‘I’m from here darling’, in a nice way of course. But then every now and then I’d break out in broken English and us Queenslanders, we’ve got our little slangs too.Deadly Sounds: You should go back to the Coogee Post Office and stock them up with all your CD’sCindy: Oh don’t worry, I want to!Deadly Sounds: As we said before, it’s taken quite a long time for this album to get out, as Aunty Cindy said she’s met lots of people in the industry over the years, not just Indigenous but also a lot of Australian musicians who have assisted. People like, Reg Mombassa from, ‘Mental as Anything’. Did he help you out with the album?Cindy: No, Jonathan Shwartz, a bass player helped get all the musicians together.Deadly Sounds: And one of them was Reg Mombassa?Cindy: Yes, and his brother Peter Dougherty, and I tell you they’re two of the best singer/song writers. I did a gig with them at the Bondi Icebergs just recently on a Monday night. I didn’t realise, I just thought I was going to do a couple of songs but Jonathan says, ‘oh no Aunty Cindy, you’re the headline act’! I said, ‘lookout’! It just spun me out. Even seeing my name up there at the Vanguard, I couldn’t find the vanguard, I’m looking and thinking it’s got to be here somewhere.Deadly Sounds: It’s a very trendy the vanguard.Cindy: I know, but people out here, because I live out Penrith way, they asked, ‘where’s the Vanguard’? And I said, ‘oh, it’s at 42 King St Newtown,’ but I didn’t really know, I just said the address. But I was walking and I couldn’t find it, so I told my daughter and my friend to stay in the car and I’ll just walk to find it, I know it’s in this block somewhere.Deadly Sounds: She’s the headline act and she’s walking to her act.Cindy: Yes, my name was on that big board and I asked this fella,’ can you tell me where the Vanguard is’? And as I said it I went, ‘wow! Hey look that’s my name’! And he turned around I don’t know whether he believed me, I said, ‘that’s me’! This has got to be it because it’s got a big ‘V’ on the door and it was.Deadly Sounds: We’ve been talking to Cindy Drummond, she has a new album out called ‘Ruby Red Lips’, there’s a bit of flavour of the Torres Strait, there’s a bit of jazz, blues a bit of everything actually. Now do you tell a lot of stories on the album as well?Cindy: Yes there’s a gospel one, I call it gospel there’s, ‘You Are’, it was a sad time when I was writing that particular song, I sort of changed the words around and the next minute I come up with, ‘you are’ meaning god. He’s everywhere as the lyrics of the chorus would say, he’s in our smile, our touch and sense so I just wrote those words. The other night I was thinking of my Dad and I got some words and a tune in my head at three or four o’clock in the morning. I thought I’d better write it down, I ended up writing just those four lines down for a verse but the melody part escaped me I should have had a little recorder, that’s what my uncle does, he gets a little cassette player and records it straight away, that’s what I should have done.Deadly Sounds: Yes, keep the music in your head.Cindy: Once I see the words ill get the melody back.Deadly Sounds: Congratulations Aunty Cindy on your album. We’ll certainly keep our audience updated on when your touring and of course for all of our Deadly Sounds listeners do tune in next week, our special guest is Aaron Pederson, he’ll be joining us to talk about his latest theatre production, ‘The Accidental Death of an Anarchist’. So tune into Deadly Sounds again, thank you to Aunty Cindy and keep an eye out for ‘Ruby Red lips’, see you all nest week.
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None