I dug that photo out again yesterday to prep for an evening meeting. No longer a phone call of course, we all had to drag ourselves in front of our webcams for a Google Meet. If I make it sound mundane, it was not. I hadn't been given any agenda or clues so I had to make some educated guesses. I guessed right, but I did not guess where the conversation would end up.
I can see why musicians get tired of talking about themselves. I feel like you would know the stuff in this background section already but my very limited marketing knowledge tells me you do not. At Christmas, there was a conversation about the song Higher Love. I do not know why it started but it ended with me listening to a very nasal, ill schoolgirl singing that song with her dad. The schoolgirl was Lilly Winwood and her dad is called Steve. The song was used on a Hershey commercial during the Super Bowl.
Steve & Lilly
The story about how a British guy called Steve wrote one of the iconic 80s hits and managed to get Chaka Khan to sing with him needs to be told, but another time. The fact that he has a British daughter living in Nashville with even more talent is surprising. Steve recently turned 77 and even more recently was awarded the MBE.
I was so stuck in a rut at that time. I was trying to write a book about British gangs in the war, in the blitzkrieg of London. Trying to be Crime Guy and not having anything to write about. It was dark and cold. I couldn't sleep and I felt depressed. Luckily one evening, or rather 4am, Spotify chose to play me a song called Sleep Issues. I was hooked on Lil immediately. A few weeks later I decided to write a profile that tied her new work back to her dad and also a hero of mine, Warren Zevon, who covered Steve's Back in the High Life. If someone as amazing as Lilly Winwood had sleep issues, maybe I wasn't so mad?
PAUL DETTMANN
At that time, by coincidence or fate, Lilly had a big problem. She had agreed to curate three nights at Nashville's infamous 3rd and Lindsley bar and grill. If you know anything about the US you will have already guessed that the incredibly original name is simply the two streets it sits on the corner of. How to fill three whole nights? Out came the phone. I started to wonder if the main reason for this residency was the name: Feel Good with Lilly Winwood.
Cyrena Wages
After calling Lola Kirke, Lilly at some point called Cyrena Wages. At that time I had never heard such a name before and could only guess at a pronunciation. Most of us thought it was something like Sye-reena not Serena. And Wages looked a little bit German, us being also of German ancestry. It's not German. It's more to do with money.
So one thing led to another. Out came Vanity Project. This is Cyrena's solo debut after a false start or two back in Nashville, before she moved home to Memphis 80 miles away. The first thing to note is that Cyrena sounds nothing like Lilly. Cyrena at that time (around a year ago) had bottled up a lifetime of disappointing relationships into ten perfect songs. But every song was different from all the others.
Cyrena's voice is the through-line. She really does have a voice. She's got a deep, rich alto (or contralto) vocal register. It is surely no coincidence that Cyrena Catherine Wages shares a vocal range with Lana Del Rey; but also with Amy Jade Winehouse. I leave it to you where the boundary lies between alto and mezzo-soprano, but I need a snooze. And anyway, it depends on the song.
After listening to the album a few times, I began to realise that Cyrena had many interviews on YouTube and in podcasts, and that she is a very deep thinker. Although she prefers to sing her lyrics, she can really write prose too. It was around that point, in March, that I decided to write another profile. My second profile would be longer and more thorough. It took so long that I had time for this little thought piece on neurodiversity in the music business.
PAUL DETTMANN
Finally, on April 19, my Cyrena profile was ready to send. It started with a pronunciation lesson and a reference to Mark Needham. I worried. If Cyrena ever found happiness and settled down, would she stop singing? I soon discovered the answer: no. She's still pissed off, thank goodness. That line became a motto, a slogan, and the inspiration behind (of all things) a vid on TikTok.
@cyrenawages lOl the reviews on my new single ðŸ«
♬ If It Aint Broke by Cyrena Wages - Cyrena Wages
I am more surprised than anyone that my sort of homage, my appreciation piece, while being laced with sharp humour, some of it even at Cyrena's expense, caught her eye. I had said something that needed saying. The only trouble was, I didn't know what it was. I imagined her in the bath tub, a paragraph which got me into all kinds of hot water. It was nothing more than a joke, a spur of the moment gag.
PAUL DETTMANN
Now it turns out that photography goddess Sammy Hearn had photographed Cyrena in the tub. I don't use Facebook (I'm not a boomer) so I had not seen it. But two days later, CW posted that photo with the most amazing thank you note to her followers. It was late on a Sunday night and I spat out my alcohol-free G&T substitute called Mother Root across my phone.
As I understand it, the depth of my research had taken CW aback. But there was more to it. Something in her music had captured my attention, and something in my writing had captured hers. Hard to remember now just how dark that period was for me. I have written about it elsewhere on this site. There's nothing light about Vanity Project, apart from the video of Carried Away. So my best guess (and it is only a guess) is that Cyrena's darkness somehow eased me out of mine.
Two weeks later, I was travelling home on the train from Manchester with colleagues. I had a bottle of water or zero alcohol beer (not sure) and I was reading Wild West Village by Lola Kirke for a review. Earlier that day Lola had re-shared my photo of her book on the train with the water bottle that looked like it was full of beer. I understand better now why that amused Lola.
As we passed the book around, my phone lit up with an Instagram message. It was Cyrena. She is known for doing this. She did it once to Joe Restivo and Matt Ross-Spang. You will find out who they are soon enough. If you read the articles above you already know.
I’m a really big fan of your writing. How would you feel about reviewing a new single that is coming out Friday? Your writing is refreshing!
I knew that this was something more somehow. I showed it to my colleagues because I was so surprised. Nobody had ever sent any unreleased stuff to me before. The one-word reply is always the same and given without hesitation: YES! [This was not your reply and you know it. It began with an F, as so many of your sentences do before I get to work. Ed.]
An hour later she sent through four tracks and I stood listening at Marylebone, as I do on so many nights every week. But this night would be remembered.
Paul! I'm excited to have your ears, thoughts, and words on this new round of tracks. They're different!
She was right, these songs were different. The songs included If It Ain't Broke and Find Out, songs I can now share. There are three others in that folder that I cannot share. But when I can, I know you will love them. That's right, she recently added a fifth called W********r. No, I'm not even allowed to say the title. Although I can easily see how those asterisks might lead you astray.
Last Thursday, a one-line email. Received, coincidentally, while in the pub with the same colleagues from that Manchester train!
Do you have any time for a meeting with me and Cyrena this coming Monday?
As you know, the answer is YES. I had to write this article this morning. I needed to understand how we got here to understand where we go next. I have a few days to send her the questions for our upcoming interview. I'm not using the word interview actually. It will be a fireside chat in leather club chairs outside hell's gate: two people from different worlds, with different skills, trying to make sense of the universe.
It is hard to imagine two people with less in common. But what we have in common is this: an appreciation of the darkness that exists in life, our celebration of it, and our work ethic. We are both from small working class towns and feel like we have a point to prove to the world, even if the world is sometimes not interested in us.
CW asked me for a title. We're hoping it will be a series. A title to me suggests a podcast. I don't know that either of us have the time or the stamina for that, but if we can find half an hour twice a month, I know we will find things to say. I can't make a title without understanding what we'll talk about. And we won't know what we'll say until we say it. I wonder if she knows a guy from Memphis, name of Elvis? He's quite famous here. Anyway there are two words I did not get to say in our prep call: thank you.
In Cyrena Wages there is something for everyone. If you only listen to her music, that would be fine. But the videos and the interviews show some very deep depths, and a kindness and generosity that is not as plentiful in this world as it used to be.
