Lynda Wehipeihana (pronounced
wee-pee-hahn-a), like so many of her compatriots, had to cross the ditch
to pursue her life-long dream of being a fashion designer. While following that
dream she was brought to realise that her calling was from elsewhere; a change
in course which is now paying quite handsome dividends almost ten years on.
We’re at Longueville on Sydney’s affluent
lower-North Shore. On either side of the leafy avenues, federation designs
intermingle with nouvelle decor. The views are of rivers, harbours and
skylines, and the lounge-cum-music room in which we’re enjoying champagne and a
welcome summer breeze is testimony to Lynda’s success. Murray
Bennett, Lynda’s life and business partner, has joined us – the
two of them very much enamoured with each other and what life has been dealing
them over the last year or two. Conversation flows as easily as the wine and
naturally starts with the question, “Why music?”
“I didn’t wake up as a little girl and go ‘I
want to be a singer’. I always wanted to be famous or successful at something.
I was always into design – I did interior design, I did a lot of design-type
work, I was very good with materials. But I had a voice and I liked to sing and
never took it seriously until someone heard me sing one day and said, ‘You’re a
very good singer’. So I went and trained and developed and then I started doing
sessions and it just built up from there. The better I got the more I wanted
it; I got really hungry for it.”
After the release of her debut album “Your So
Beautiful” on her and Murray’s own My Label last year, the hunger still
grows at an ever-exponential rate! But she hasn’t always considered herself a
songwriter. The move from fashion design to song design didn’t come easily, nor
was it as enjoyable as it is for her now. “Since leaving fashion design I
haven’t drawn. I haven’t painted since I got into music,” Lynda
admits. This begged the question, “Wouldn’t that form of expression help in the
creation of music?”
“Creativity is a feeling. You get a high and you
go and design something,” Lynda answers. “But song writing works
in reverse for me. I’m very reflective, I’m sometimes sad. Generally I haven’t
written songs in a great mood. When I was writing this album I was overpowered
and overwhelmed by things but now I’m empowered by them. I have been told that
I should thank my ex-husband for our relationship. If he had not been so
controlling I may not have the life I have now. I would sing and write songs to
get away from it all. But I would only sing my own songs or songs written for
me.”
Going through the process of finding other
people to write songs for her proved to be too difficult. An ad in the Drum
Media brought 112 responses over the next two months. Wading through all the
submissions proved to be too enormous a task. “It can’t be that hard to write
songs,” she thought. Her decision to go it
alone as a singer/song writer resulted in two songs; one of which is the
title track to the album she so happily promotes on the t-shirt she is wearing
around the house tonight.
“Your So Beautiful” (not a
typo or grammatical error, but an expression of a mother’s love and an artist’s
license), was written over a long period, as most debut albums are. There is
the impression that the record has been around for quite a while. Lynda
reflects: “There was a lot I had to do. When you decide that that’s what you
want to do as a profession then you really have to work at it. I am very
impatient and wanted everything now like a spoiled girl! Over the
years I worked on my craft, worked on my talent (worked out whether or not I had
a talent for a start), in and out of studios, worked around town, wrote and
worked with other artists. As time grew mud started to stick and you start
branding.” Being surrounded by negative people saying that it couldn’t be done
just egged her on more. She always wanted to work with Mark Williams,
a hero of hers since childhood. But the doubters said it couldn’t be done. “All
I did was ring him! I said who I was, where I’m from, we chatted for a half
hour and he said, ‘I’d love to do it’. I wanted him for all the male vocals on
the album but he wasn’t available all the time.”
The debut single was released in August 1999 and
was supported by Sydney’s MIX 106.5FM. This in itself is a rarity in Australia:
a nationally-networked radio station supporting an unknown artist! This spurred
on the album release and launch in October, but time soon came to take Lynda
to the rest of the world. A singing engagement over the Christmas break took
her back to the hills overlooking her home south of Christchurch. Next stop:
Paris, and MIDEM 2000.
“It’s a good vehicle for people starting out in
the business because of the workshops they run, to learn about structure for
song writing.” Lynda admits. “Being a member of an organisation
like Songsalive! has its uses for artists, but the most important aspect of my
career so far was definitely MIDEM. You get to meet people, find out what other
artists are doing, it’s good to keep your finger on the pulse. Out of it came
some wonderful feedback.”
Lynda and Murray spent two
weeks with the International Music Movers and Shakers. They enjoyed best of all
being treated like a pop star. “We must have this look, because the whole hotel
staff were after autographed copies of the CD and we were handing out postcards
and were busy signing. I would move there in a second!
“It’s really important for artists to go
overseas, just to compare. You have this perception just because your friends
tell you you’re good or the audience appreciate you when you’re up there. When
you’re mixing it up with the decision makers, you get a great response. We went
in cold, too. We met with CEOs of the top music companies in the world and were
placed in the top 1% of the music industry. You couldn’t be told that in
Australia!” So the trip was well worth it? “I realised that I am good, that I’m
just as good as what’s out there, my music is of standard, my production is
fantastic, I have a good voice and I’m a good song writer. You can’t be told
that here in Australia and believe it! It inspired me to go on, to come back
and write songs, to really work hard at my craft harder than I have ever worked
before.”
Two months away from MIDEM now and Lynda
is finding it harder to put a show together with the right musicians and
artists than it is to get the work. “You have to decide whether to put on a Big
Band show or do it acoustically. Big bands cost big bucks but I have learned
that you have to work with people that suit you. It’s true that you have to pay
to have the best, but you don’t have to put up with the ‘best’. One guy I hired
was excellent at what he did but was bringing me down. Now I realise that I
already have the best and they suit me!” It’s also difficult to try to
squeeze in the day to day living with the creativity necessary for the work. “I
don’t do late night gigs. I get all worked up and it takes hours to come down.
By the time I have come down it’s time to get up and take David to
school.”
So, where to now for Lynda Wehipeihana?
“I have demoed-up five songs for the new album: four songs and a cover. I won’t
tell you what it is! I might let you listen to it!” So when can we expect to
see it? “I won’t be pressured into a release date. That makes the creative
process easier. There’s plenty of live work coming up. I love to perform. It’s
the best part of the whole thing. I’m very passionate about singing and
writing. I want to be a star, I want to make it in this business. I won’t be
mortally devastated if I don’t but I’m up there doing what I love! It’s
fantastic!”
Lynda is also trying to find
the time to piece together all the offers made to them in Paris: publishing
deals, recording deals, licensing deals, even a marriage deal! “Murray proposed
to me, and on the plane back home, he snuggled up to me. I opened my heart, I
poured it all out, but he was asleep. When he woke up I wouldn’t tell him what
I had said and nobody else could either! So now he has to wait for the answer!
I’ll probably get him up on stage, sing a song and then tell him. Something
like that, but it won’t be a negative answer”.
(Peter is a freelance music writer based in Sydney, Australia. His Music Reviews website includes more reviews of Lynda’s live and recorded work.)