Warming up with Annie Crummer

Veteran songstress Annie Crummer is back in Nelson this weekend. She talks to Alice Cowdrey about her place in the music industry.

Annie Crummer reckons Nelson audiences must be the best in the country.

"Nelson is always rocking. Do you think you get different things from the vitamin D there? I think so, because you guys are on a totally different buzz then the rest of New Zealand, I am telling you!" she hollers down the phone from her Auckland home.

Crummer has always been known for her positivity. She was glowing with it back in the 1980s video clips when she performed with the likes of When the Cat's Away and the Netherworld Dancing Toys, and in songs penned since with happy titles such as Love Not War, U Soul Me and State of Grace.

During the years, Crummer has performed with all sorts of New Zealand groups, released two solo albums – Language and Seventh Wave, and most recently performed in stage shows such as the Queen musical We Will Rock You and Rent.

Now, she is working on a third album, which has a working title of Project Annie C.

On the new album, she wants to hold on to the distinctive pop style from her past –the one that Kiwis "know and love".

"I am bringing that warmth forward to the now and just mixing it up. But the difference will be that there is a fatter bottom end," she says, laughing. "You know, P-H-A-T, a fatter bottom end than what it used to be. That to me has a depth and a warmth," she says.

At Sunday's Brightwater Wine and Food Festival, Crummer says she will be a "good girl" and play her classics such as See What Love Can Do, Language and Seven Waters as well as some of the new tracks.

"Just a little sprinkling of new stuff that I am allowed to grow into,"she hoots.

Crummer, who has a Tahitian mother and Cook Islands father, says she has music in her "cells" and last year found out that her grandmother was also a gifted singer.

"She was the loudest singer at the back of the church, she was a massive woman too, but she unfortunately passed away when my dad was seven."

Throughout her life, she has been strongly influenced by her father, Will Crummer.

"His voice is pristine now and in fact he has just got a grant from Creative New Zealand to record his album – so you better look out.

"His voice is the star of his project. When you hear my dad, what will happen is that ... it will make sense as to why I am the way I am in terms of a singer.

"Honestly, I am hypnotised by his voice.

"Don't forget we had this conversation, because I am telling you dad is going to make a lot of noise."

Crummer is critical of the radio-friendly formula of music often heard on the airwaves in New Zealand, which she describes as too often "unwarm".

"I can't really explain it, but there is a difference in the warmth of yesteryear and the industrial sound today, whether they are cranking up the treble or something.

"In terms of the actual round sound, that's what I am going for. Let's bring happy back, too. We are getting all a bit fricking miserable, eh?"

While Crummer has plenty of opinions on the direction of the movie industry, she admits it can be a tough place for "older women".

"I am not political, but there seems to be a grey area just for women in the industry as they get older.

"We get to be shunted aside to let the new kids on the block in.

"I love them and support local artists, but I am at that age or time where I am really quite fully seasoned and there are advantages to that.

"I have to crack the code and cut this nonsense and these prejudices out, and I should just do what I do."

• Annie Crummer plays at the Brightwater Food and Wine Festival this Sunday, along with Christchurch band The Eastern, Lipstick, Trent De L'Amour and the Subcommittee and Chill Factor. The festival runs from 11am to 6pm. Tickets are $20, or $25 on the gate. (Children 12 and under free.) Tickets available from Everyman, Nelson or SpecSavers in the Richmond Mall. The location will be signposted on Bryant Rd, Brightwater.

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