SXSW Music Interview: Cindy Wilson
Wilson swirls psychedelia and breathy vocals over electronic beats
By Jim Caligiuri, Fri., March 10, 2017
Anyone who remembers when the New Wave was au courant might be surprised to hear that 2017 marks the 40th anniversary of rock lobsters the B-52s. Equally surprising are the two EPs singer Cindy Wilson released in the past year. One titled Sunrise, and the other, the just-issued Supernatural, represent her first work as a solo artist. Rather than the infectious "let's party" atmosphere and otherworldly goofiness of the B-52s, Wilson swirls near psychedelia and breathy vocals over electronic beats.
"I've never done this before" claims Wilson, from her home in Georgia. "I just started experimenting in a studio with a friend of mine, Ryan Monahan. He's really a friend of the family. We were just doing it for the sake of doing it. I had such a good time and I was getting a lot of good feedback on the songs.
"I just wanted to try different approaches, different styles to things. It's been a learning experience and I'm loving it. I stretch my vocal style, which has been a wonderful thing to do. I just turned 60, but I still want to be creative. I'm still in the music business, so it's not that weird that I'm doing it."
Her show stages a true audiovisual experience, with projections amplifying the music into a continuous flow, all created in conjunction with her fourpiece backing band, also native to Georgia. They're a generation or two younger than Wilson, but she rightly asserts it doesn't matter when it comes to making music.
"They bring different approaches, different influences," says Wilson. "In the studio and onstage, I love that. People say it's out of left field and it's interesting. And it's true. Nobody saw it coming."
