A garage punk rock law unto themselves, the arrival of Cindy‘s debut album The Way I Do automatically qualifies today as an excellent Friday. Hailed by ourselves as “one of the most magnificent live bands in Aotearoa (maybe the best?) and certainly the wildest”, West Auckland’s force four of Gloria Florence, Scott Brown, James King and Arlo Grey‘s release tour commences tonight at Whammy Bar, before they let rip all across the nation.
A collaborative release between 1:12 Records and Sunreturn, Cindy generously unpacked every tune on their multi-faceted new long player (providing very handy songwriting credits too) — laid down direct to tape by Darren McShane at Earwig Studios with drums by Jordan Lim, then mixed and mastered by Steven Marr. A long awaited insta-classic to these ears, grip the vinyl LP edition at good record stores and / or on a merch table near you, tuck in to The Way I Do, and DON’T miss Cindy live…
Cindy Album Release Tour
Friday 4th September – Whammy Bar, Auckland w/ C.T.O, Slow Rage
Sunday 6th September – Kaipara Tavern, Helensville, Magic Factory, Big Sur
Saturday 12th September – Ōkahukura, Tauranga w/ Skonk, Hemordroid
Friday 18th September – Rosemarys, Taupō w/ Growndownz + guest
Saturday 19th September – Last Place, Hamilton w/ C.T.O + guests
Saturday 26th September – Valhalla, Wellington w/ Homing, Cruelly
Friday 2nd October – Threes& Sevens, Invercargill w/ House Of Leaves, Slur
Saturday 3rd October – The Crown, Dunedin
Tickets on sale HERE via UTR
To Be Free
Gloria wrote this song when she was playing in a shitty country band in high school. She never recorded it and we started jamming it one day. Country and punk have a lot of similar themes (3 chords and the truth). The song uses the same words, the same melody just twice as fast. We liked the idea of starting the album with something soft and slow, subverting expectations. We aren’t just one thing.
2 Star Restaurant
Scott was at Tony’s Steakhouse in Henderson with a bunch of fucked up wastrels. An argument broke out at the table and the words “I love West Auckland, there’s someone more fucked up than you” popped into his brain. Scott usually does a cover version of Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring it on Home to Me’ in the middle of this song live. If he didn’t do that the song would have 14 words total. It is usually the longest song we play.
We decided to re-record it for this album as we can now play it faster (cardio).
All The Nice People
This song is a thank you song to the audience. We love the energy people bring, we can feel it on stage when people fuck with us. We have so much fun playing to a receptive audience. There is nothing like performing for a crowd who vibes with us hard. You’re all very nice people. Thanks.
Powder Blue
James was listening to this one Blaze Foley album over and over again and really wanted to welcome that influence into Cindy. Then he tried to bury the fact that he’d ripped off a Blaze Foley song by adding a bunch of unnecessary chord changes and speeding it up heaps (i.e. it became a completely different song).
Sunsets Don’t Excite Me
Scott and Gloria (who were dating at the time) stopped into the National Trout Centre on the way to play a music festival. They were enthralled by the trout museum and corresponding live fish aquariums. Gloria originally wrote the song with lyrics that Scott said were too visceral and upsetting, so instead he wrote the lyrics about their lovely stop on the way to a gig.
Gloria wrote this song to be a bit of a classic Ramones type belter. The bassline is best played on a ’70s Mosrite with a deep brown finish.
Big Summer Blowout
Gloria wrote this song about Scott’s go to technique for getting cheaper groceries. We love supermarkets. We love that they make a lot of money selling food to people. We love that we get to pay more for less. We love that most of our food that is produced here gets sent overseas. It’s awesome.
This song has 3 chords in it and the solo is one note.
The Way I Do
This song is about empathy. Gloria wrote it because she feels like the world lacks a lot of empathy. “How do I make you feel the same way I do?” This is about the desperate need to have some understanding from other people. No matter how hard you try, no one is ever going to fully understand how you feel. We must be at peace with that, and empathise with others.
The music was intended to be a heartfelt pop ballad, heartbreak and misery in a tinny cacophony.
I Still Miss Your Smile
Scott came up with the vocal melody for ‘I Still Miss Your Smile’ and sent a voice memo of it off to James. Scott told him to write a two minute belter and James sent back the demo for this the same day.
Scott wrote this song about his deep connection with the paranormal and his love of The X-Files.
Sunburn
James loved making the 4th chord a minor in this song — it is apparently a classic trick that shoehorns a chord that is not ‘meant’ to be there, but sounds like it is. The whole song is built around using that cadence to also hike the key up by a 4th. The key changes as the structure repeats.
Lyrically the song is about sunburn, try not to get sunburnt.
10 Hour Love
This was the first ever Cindy song written, originally recorded by Scott Brown and Roy Irwin. When they initially released ’10 Hour Love’ they called it Slo’ Burnin’ and released it anonymously on Bandcamp. It’s a song about slow cooking pork. Cindy swears to continue to re-record this song on every Cindy album they make.
A Knife
‘A Knife’ was written by Gloria inspired by a translation of a Rumi poem. While there is always pain and strife in the world, it feels especially dire with the current state of global warfare, environmental crisis, famine and oppression. All the while billionaires exist. It’s disgusting and it feels like there is nothing that can be done to fix anything or anyone.
This was the first song that James and Gloria wrote together. It is very special because it feels like the project that established James’ and Gloria’s friendship.
‘The Way I Do’ is out today on major streaming platforms via 1:12 Records and Sunreturn.
