Photo: Auckland Museum
Annie Crummer MNZM has been part of the New Zealand music scene for 40 years. She gained fame in the 1980s with her guest vocals on 'For Today' with the Netherworld Dancing Toys, then as the lead vocalist with When The Cat's Away. In 2021, she was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.
Next week, Annie performs at Auckland Museum alongside her father, celebrated Will Crummer as part of New Zealand Music Month.
I've got to be me
"I have a very curly way of speaking because my head is full of dyslexia. So it's hard for me to put words together.
"I’ve tried to be brainy and funny, it just doesn’t work. I’ve just got to be authentically me.
"Let's live the best life we can, right?"
Dad is always good to go
“I wouldn’t be me without my folks, but he's the one that certainly passed the music baton on over to me. Oh boy, he’s had an incredible life via music.
"My father will come on in at some time in my set, I haven’t sorted that out yet, but Dad is always good to go. I mean, I'm so used to my father's beautiful, luxurious voice.
"I’m just paying my respects to my parents who have passed this magic over to me to douse me with this incredible life. And so I'm passing the baton back to Dad to say thank you… it’s a full circle."
I'm so proud to be in my Dad's band
"In 2010, my dad got the opportunity to make this album, Shoebox Love Songs. Everyone’s rehearsing away, playing their ukulele, but there wasn’t anyone playing the pa'u, the big bass drum. So the pa’u baton was handed to me. And I'm like, ‘what?! No, no, I'm New Zealand-born’.
"There are so many of us who are New Zealand-born… our DNA is so strong of the island and it isn't until we go there that we experience what it's really like and everything makes sense. But I wasn’t raised with the pa'u baton in my hand.
"I just give it a go and support my dad best I can, but I'm very proud to be obviously, in a band with my dad, and being in a band is quite good too. It’s not about me, but Dad.
"When Dad sings the Cook Islands reo, wow. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it. You can really feel it. There's something about the magic of the vowels and the way they sound and certainly my father adds his Pat Boone and Jim Reeves kind of tones because he listened to the wireless back in the day. You’ve got a nice mix of real polished crooner and then you've got the island reo."
Netherworld Dancing Toys featuring Annie Crummer perform ‘For Today’ at the Silver Scrolls 2018. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
I’ve just gone with the flow
“I'm a veteran now. But I've somehow managed to get away with it. Imagine if I’d really, really tried? I've really just gone with the flow. And now I'm 1000 years old. I've got, like, not even a handful of songs that I've managed to elongate and have longevity with... Honestly, I am amazed.
"There are fantastic things that happen in the industry... but just as equally, train-wreck decisions made unintentionally. Things just don't go your way sometimes. But the music itself is the drug that I have a penchant for. That’s why I hang on to it because it makes you feel so good.
"I'm always out there and I know there is a bit of a gasp when I walk out on stage, because I think everyone thought I’d died or something. But I'm still here and I love what I do. I don't get everything right. But I never intentionally mean to be crap.”
Auckland Museum makes you want to sing properly
“It’s a really special gig because you may know the songs that I'm singing, but we've never actually played them in this way. It’ll just reach through and reach out to the ancestors. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else do their thing.
"This particular gig will be organic and quite acoustic. I’ll be singing the songs I’ve done in my time, it will be kind of repimped, if you like, more authentic and raw.
"We do gigs all the time. But there'll be a couple of songs that I'll be performing in the museum that I don't usually do… but the museum just makes you want to sing properly.”
Did I do a good last gig?
“Every time I perform I prepare myself as if it’s the last gig. I’ve been in a plane crash [in 1997] and what spun in my head as the plane was spinning, the only thing I thought of was, ‘did I do a good last gig?’ That really made me make sure that every gig that I do is the best that I can do, because I respect it, I'm grateful for it.
"The plane [a Cessna] was written off. There was only four of us in there. This was in Gisborne… it was a fundraiser and everyone performed at this gig, like Billy T. James, the Finn brothers, Dave Dobbyn, Che Fu, DLT, everyone.
"The plane didn’t have enough speed to get up and the cliff was approaching. So I’ve had that in my head for a long time... It was just gravel, but it didn't get in my speed to get up and the cliff was approaching. So I've had that in my head for a long time… ‘was that a good one? When’s my next gig, so I can redeem myself?’
"It definitely reminds me why I’m here. You’ve got to serve. Yeah I get paid to do what I do. But I put that towards the preparation. The gig itself? That’s for free. I can’t charge the universe!”
Annie and Will Crummer perform at Auckland Museum on Monday 29 May.
