While he does not have the manners you're accustomed to, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu can sing, writes Scott Kara
KEY POINTS:
Blind Aboriginal musician Gurrumul can talk, it's just that he chooses not to. Especially not to prying "balanda" - the Aboriginal word for non-indigenous people.
This is not some prima donna rock star behaviour, nor is it P-Diddy-like pretension. As Gurrumul's spokesman Michael Hohnen points out, the singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has no interest in talking to strangers about his life and music career.
Hohnen, who is bass player in Gurrumul's band and co-owner of Darwin-based Skinny Fish record label which specialises in indigenous music, admits it is frustrating he doesn't speak to media but he's had some bad experiences in the past.
"It made him feel really uncomfortable, like him being in prison or something, and he just wanted out of there."
But, insists Hohnen: "I don't speak for him, I speak about my experiences with him."
And if you do get the chance to meet Gurrumul, perhaps when he visits here in March for Womad in New Plymouth, he may even come across a little rude.
But Hohnen explains: "Yolngu [Gurrumul's people] are so different from other cultures around the world. We have these English-style manners; Yolngu don't, and are not brought up with them at all, so there is no please or thank you, and often when people meet Yolngu they can seem quite rude. It's just a completely different society."
Although, Gurrumul is what Hohnen describes as "two ways". "He's so strongly Yolngu, but at the same time he knows so much about how balanda work as well."
So while he may not do interviews and does not have the manners you're accustomed to, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu can sing.
The 12 songs on his self-titled debut solo album are tender, passionate, and at times, intensely sad. The album is him introducing himself to the world - similar to a Maori whakapapa. So Bapa (which means father) is about one of his uncles who raised him and Gurrumul History (I Was Born Blind) tracks the 38-year-old's life so far.
He was born on Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land, at the very top of Australia. From an early age his musical talent was noticed and as an 18-year-old he toured the world with popular Aboriginal band Yothu Yindi, then joined the Saltwater Band in 1999, and while he is still a member of the band he also performs as Gurrumul.
Hohnen met him when he was running a music industry training course in Arnhem Land in 1996 and they recorded a demo together.
"I knew it [his talent] was special, and one song, Djarimirri, stuck in my head more than anything when he played it to me back in '96.
"He didn't play it again for 10 years. But Yolngu do things in their own time and then for the solo album, he said, 'Yeah, lets bring it out'. There are often things that happen like that and you're just like, 'Oh well, whatever'," he laughs.
So far the album has sold more than 140,000 copies, which is not quite Coldplay proportions but twice as many as our boy Scribe whose first album was a top seller in Australia. And because Gurrumul doesn't do press or videos the popularity comes down to word of mouth, rave reviews, and, most importantly, a performance of Bapa at last year's Australian music awards.
"It's a curious one this album," says Hohnen, "because it broke a lot of rules in terms of what you do for an album, in Australia at least, which in some ways is a racist country. But that has not been evident on this record at all, because the take-up on this record has been incredible.
"Gurrumul's voice is compelling, and the amount of emotion he is able to express in his voice, it almost surpasses the need for lyrical understanding, and that's one of the reasons it has been so popular."
And the record has played an important part in raising the profile of Aborigines in Australia.
"He's making an impression on the national psyche," says Hohnen with pride.
"There is something in Australia where people do feel that it's difficult to get to know or have an indigenous connection, but I think that's secondary and primarily what touches people about this album is the music and the voice. I wonder if a lot of people hear this album as an indigenous album. I really do because most people who buy it love it because it sounds beautiful and his voice is beautiful and it creates some emotion.
"I think in the next couple of years there will be a lot of people who will have been listening to that album for a while and want to know what he's singing about and maybe then there will be a discovery of the Yolngu people and the language and all that. I can even imagine it [Gurrumul] being put into school curriculums because he has been taken up so widely."
LOWDOWN
Who: Gurrumul
What: Aboriginal singer/songwriter
Album: Gurrumul, out now
Where & when: WOMAD, Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth, March 13-15
