After nearly a decade in the trenches, Cindy are still finding new ways to make noise.
Auckland garage rockers Cindy have spent the better part of a decade making a racket in small rooms.
We have a lot of time for a band like this.
There’s something solid about a group that has spent years playing, writing and building things the slow way, and Cindy feel very much cut from that cloth.
On new single ‘A Knife’, though, they ease off the accelerator and let the tension do most of the work.
It’s the final single before debut album The Way I Do lands on September 4, and fittingly, it also closes the record.
Across five slow-burning minutes, James King’s guitar wobbles around the edges while Gloria Florence’s vocal drifts through the track, giving the whole thing a slightly ghostly feel.
It’s restrained without ever feeling flat, and when the noise eventually starts to build, it lands because Cindy haven’t rushed to get there.
There are shades of The Cranberries, Deftones and The Brian Jonestown Massacre in the mix, but ‘A Knife’ still feels very much like its own thing.
Recorded straight to tape by Darren McShane at Earwig Studios, with Jordan Lim on drums, then mixed and mastered by Steven Marr, the track keeps plenty of roughness around the edges.
Florence says the song came from a broader feeling of instability.
“It feels like everyone is going through a lot right now and I think this song reflects the sense of instability we’re all experiencing.”
That uncertainty carries through the track nicely, without being laid on too thick.
For a band known for fairly high-energy live shows, it’s good to hear Cindy show another side of themselves here.
They can still make plenty of noise, but ‘A Knife’ proves they don’t need to come charging out of the gates every time.
The Way I Do arrives digitally and on vinyl through 1:12 Records and Sunreturn on September 4. Pre-order here.
Cindy will then take the record around Aotearoa through September and October, kicking off at Auckland’s Whammy Bar before heading through Helensville, Tauranga, Taupō, Hamilton, Wellington, Invercargill and Dunedin. Tickets available now at Undertheradar.co.nz.
A solid final taste of an album we’re very keen to hear in full.
Listen to ‘A Knife’ below.
