Cinder (previously known as Gordon Sharp; born 1961 in

Linlithgow Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a ...

West Lothian West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geographically by the A ...

, Scotland), sometimes known as Cinder Sharp, is a Scottish singer, musician and record producer. She has led several music projects since 1976, the most significant and long-standing being Cindytalk. Cinder has gained a reputation for an unflinchingly experimental approach to music and ideas.

Biography

Cinder started a punk band called

the Freeze ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

whilst attending

Linlithgow Academy Linlithgow Academy is a secondary school in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland. The original academy was built in 1900 to a design by James Graham Fairley and replaced an earlier kirk institution, known as "Sang Schule". History The present ac ...

in 1976. The Freeze was active between 1976 and 1981. Cinder moved to London in 1982, changed the band's name to Cindytalk and signed to the Midnight Music label. In 1983, Cinder sang with fellow Scots

Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instr ...

on one of their John Peel sessions and at selected live gigs, where she met 4AD executive

Ivo Watts-Russell Ivo Watts-Russell (born 1954) is a British music producer and record label executive. He was joint-founder with Peter Kent of the indie record label 4AD. He has produced several records, although he prefers to use the term "musical director". Ea ...

. This led to her being invited to participate as one of the featured singers with 4AD collective

This Mortal Coil This Mortal Coil were a British music collective led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotati ...

on its first album. Early in her career, Cinder traveled from Scotland to London to attend a concert held by

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

's band

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, where she met John Taylor and

Nick Rhodes Nick Rhodes (born Nicholas James Bates, 8 June 1962) is an English keyboardist and producer, best known as a founding member, keyboardist, and only continuous member of the band Duran Duran. He is also informally monikered as "The Controller ...

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger Taylor the following year the band we ...

. After meeting Taylor, Cinder was repeatedly asked by him to join his

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

based

New Romantic The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...

band. Cinder briefly stayed at Nick Rhodes' parents house in Birmingham during Duran Duran's early rehearsals, but decided on her journey back to Scotland that Duran Duran's ambitions did not sit well with her own direction. Cindytalk released a series of group albums and singles in the 1980s and 1990s. An electronic side-project,

Bambule Bambule, a term of German prison sociolect, originally refers to a form of mostly non-violent prison protest, typically effected by banging hard items against the cells' metal bars. The term is derived from the African dance ''Bamboule'' or ''Bamb ...

, was started in 1994 by Cinder and Simon Carmichael. In 2002, Cinder started to write abstract electronic music using a laptop, and since 2004 has split her time between Japan and the UK, working on various projects. This has included Cindytalk performing live (solo or group), and a number of (mostly solo) recordings.

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

based record label

Editions Mego Mego was an experimental electronic music independent record label based in Vienna, Austria. The label has been superseded by a new company, Editions Mego, which was set up both to keep Mego albums in print and to issue new albums, run by Peter ...

, which is known for releasing cutting-edge electronic music, released a series of Cindytalk albums focused on Cinder's primitive noise-poetry. No longer perceived only as a singer, this repositioned Cinder and Cindytalk within the musical establishment. ''Of Ghosts and Buildings'' (2021) was released on the Japanese label Remodel, and ''Subterminal'' (2022) on the UK label False Walls, both continuing Cinder’s integration of electronics with field recordings.

References

Living people Scottish rock singers Scottish electronic musicians 1961 births People educated at Linlithgow Academy LGBT people from Scotland Transgender musicians 21st-century LGBT people {{Scotland-musician-stub