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 CHRISTIE ELIEZER chats, via translator, to the man who has taken national – and international – music fans by storm, the incredible GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU.
“For my father / When the sun sets / Oh, beloved father”. Before Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu begins a concert, he’ll stand shyly behind the curtains and ask his collaborator and producer Michael Hohnen if there are any yolgnu (indigenous) people in the audience. Naturally he can’t see the people.
But as he sings, entirely in the Yolnugu language, he picks up their sounds and vibration. “He’s like an opera singer in the way he sends back their energy to them,” says Hohnen.
Hohnen speaks at interviews on Gurrumul’s behalf or translates for him. He only speaks in Yolnugu. Even if he could speak in English he wouldn’t because he is painfully shy. He is uncomfortable outside his life on Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island in north east Arnhem Land.
There the 38-year old goes fishing for stingrays, hunting with his nephews and uses old ARIA trophies to break open shellfish. He doesn't have a guide-dog or a walking cane so he relies totally on another person to be with him all the time. He drinks Coke and smokes cigarettes endlessly. His family is involved in indigenous politics — uncle Mandawuy is a school teacher who led Yothu Yindi, and Galarruwuy was a land rights activist — but he is himself is not.
Gurrumul says his first guitar was given to him by an uncle who is an elder at his church. He was left handed and so he played it upside down because the strings were set up for right-handed players.
Has his teenage daughter Jasmine any interest in music. “No,” he laughs, “happily she is busy with her studies.”
Hohnen, of Melbourne band The Killjoys went to Northeast Arnhem Land in 1996 to do a music workshop. He and Garrumul adopted each other, and Hohnen stayed on to produce records for Northern Territory acts such as Tommy Lewis and Narblek.
As a classical and jazz buff, Hohnen was knocked out with how vocally Gurrumul sounds like no other major indigenous performer. He combines indigenous, church, soul and Top 40 radio.
“We were driving home once an old ‘30s comic opera came on the radio and Geoffrey started singing in that style,” says Hohern. “He’s able to call on the full range of his voice. As a young boy, that talent was encouraged. His voice is definitely not trained. Old men in Arnhem Land sing with a lot of power and strength , they have to belt tunes out for hours at a time. He’s picked up a lot of technique from them. But the sound has come from listening to pop radio, Eagles, Neil Diamond, Santana…”
The Gurrumul album was made in Melbourne. All but two were sung in his language, and about spreading his culture and celebrating godlinks with his ancestors. Storm clouds forming above provides a link to how families operate. They are about father figures, Wititj the Rainbow Serpent and the Olive Python, and telling daughters of their culture through the eyes of an octopus. One forgets how someone who’s been blind since birth can sing so lovingly about a sunset he has not seen.
Indigenous performers like Archie Roach and Dan Sultan sniff at white media reports of Gurrumul’s “overnight success”. He has been around for ages, they say, it’s just Australia which has caught up.
His non-indigenous audiences may not understand all the cultural implications or the language. These days at his shows, key words about the songs he sings about flash up in gold on the large screen behind him. White audiences, says Hohnen, “are being struck by something emotional in the way Gurrumul expresses himself. If you could define it, more people would try and mimic it. So I think he’s very genuine. He’s got a lot of confidence in his upbringing, and culturally he’s very aware. There’s almost no ego. Because he’s been brought up blind, he’s always needed other people to tell him, ‘Yes you’re doing a good job.’ He’s a curious and unique person. His appeal is hard to describe until you see him play. Audiences are often crying when they hear him.”
When Gurrumul was released in February 2008, Hohnen had little hope it’d make waves here. “I see Australia as a racist country, and its success has surprised me. I thought overseas would warm to this album more. It’s very encouraging.”
Initially the record was aimed at an older affluent culturally sensitive white demographic. Then critics began drooling about the album and his angelic voice, and his audience expanded to Adult Contemporary record buyers. After his win at the ARIA awards (and scooping three including Best Independent Album, and Best New Independent Artist) and airplay on Nova, teenagers have come aboard. The album will be platinum (70,000) by Christmas, went to number three on the ARIA chart, number one on the independent AIR chart and number one on the iTunes chart. Gurrumul made a splash on every major music award, and is up for the Northern Territory’s Person Of The Year.
This year he played China and Holland. 2009 will see a push for global success. In January he plays Carnegie Hall in New York. The album is released in America on February 9 as an independent release on MGM/ Proper Distribution and Gurrumul will do a show or two there. He’s just signed a licensing deal with Just In Time Records for Canada, and he’ll be doing shows in the northern summer through the UK, France and Germany where there is label interest.
Gurrumul Yinupingu’s GURRUMUL is out now through Skinnyfish Music/MGM.
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