Music for Cindy Doire has always been an art of expression and a way of processing emotions.
“It’s always been taking a universal feeling and trying to put it into a song and creating something that when you perform it, people can either connect with it or find comfort,” she says.
Born and raised in Timmins, Doire, 37, is an award-winning bilingual singer and songwriter.
Her music ranges from country, blues and folk to pop and indie rock. During her career, she has released four solo albums – La Vie en Blue, Chapeau De Pluie, Sticks and Mud and Panorama. Two more albums were produced with the Scarlett Jane band, and Doire was also a part of Ladies in Waiting collective which released two compilation albums and raised money and awareness for the mental health association.
Scarlett Jane, formed with Andrea Ramolo in 2012, will always exist, she says, but it is not active at the moment.
Growing up, she says she has always been interested in creating and has written songs since she was little.
She left her hometown to study modern languages at Laurentian University in Sudbury. As part of her program, she got to study in Mexico and Florence and during her international travels, she visited about 20 to 30 countries.
“It’s the social aspect and the history of travel that I love … One thing when I come home after travelling to certain parts of the world, you realize how rich Canada is. And the things we sometimes get so stressed out and worried about are so insignificant when you realize what’s going on in the world,” she says.
“There’s a sense of awareness when you travel to places and you see the happiness that people feel and live under worst circumstances.”
Throughout the hard moments of her life, there’ve been a few albums helping her to get through. One of such albums is “I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise” by Bettye LaVette. As a songwriter, Doire says she can only hope her music can also reach people.
After spending 18 years touring and living in Toronto, Montreal and Nashville, she returned to Timmins to raise her daughter Camilla, who turned two in April.
When Doire was a teenager, she says she felt detached from her French culture but reconnected with it when she was studying in university and felt she spoke Spanish better than French, which was “upsetting” for her.
“I find it a lot more challenging to write in French which is why it’s important for me to do. It’s preserving my language, my culture, my connection to it and it’s very important for me to speak French to my daughter.”
She describes the francophone music community in Ontario and Franco-Canada as “wonderful, supportive” and says it’s an honour to be a part of it.
“Everyone is so supportive. You’d think sometimes with the music scene it’s very competitive – and it is – but with the franco-music scene is just like you’re part of a family and it welcomes you with open arms, it’s wonderful.”
Although it’s been challenging adjusting to live in a smaller community again, she loves being up north and being close to her family.
Her work is influenced by her life and she says she always strives to evolve as an artist in terms of musicality or using new tools when she writes music. She also doesn’t exclude a possibility that her experience being a mom will find a way into her future work.
Themes in her albums and songs may vary but they “always tend to come from an honest place,” she says.
Just as COVID-19 pandemic was about to hit this spring, Doire says she was ready to go back to work but it forced her to take a step back.
In her spare time, she loves to go swimming, kayaking, canoeing, going for bike rides with Camilla and spending a lot of time gardening while enjoying the summer weather.
Her future plans include pursuing a master of arts in counselling psychology at Yorkville University this fall while focusing on her family and working on releasing new music closer to the New Year.
As a musician, yoga teacher and psychotherapist, she says she wants to offer healing retreats to fellow musicians.
“For me, to go into the field of psychology or counselling, it kind of marries all those things together. Also, there’s a huge need for having more presence with mental health awareness in the music scene because most artists suffer from anxiety and depression.”
With so much going on in the world right now, she says she’s trying to be comfortable with the uncertainty.
“My plan is to be adaptable and to finish my master’s degree, to continue to be creative with the people that I love, to release new music and to spend some quality time with my little girl – all in the process.”
