Band with deaf singer breaks new ground

From Caitlin Lester

A Wellington band featuring a deaf singer is breaking new ground in the deaf community.

MaryJane Thompson, the singer and keyboardist of the two-man band Deaf Edge, was born deaf.

She has a family history of bilateral atresia; her mother was also deaf.

“My hearing loss is significant,” she said

However, her love of music was never clouded by her deafness.

She sang along to music from a young age. Her favorites included Jeff Buckley and Lauren Hill.

“I would play it really loud, but it’s almost like the music is outside your body and you turn the volume up to hear the sound, and no matter how much you turn it up, you still don’t really hear it.”

But at age 20, MaryJane Thompson received a bone-anchored hearing aid that changed her life.

She said it was incredible to hear her voice for the first time.

“That’s when I really started to understand this concept of tones. I would match tones and imitate singers, that’s what I used to do, but when you hear your own voice for the first time, it’s so drastically different than singing deaf.”

Deaf Edge members Simon Cuming and Mary Jane Thomson.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Guitarist Simon Cummings is the other half of the band and said he has always been interested in experimental music.

When MaryJane Thompson told him that she had written over 1,000 songs and numerous spoken word poems, he was very interested in collaborating.

Cummings said he has had to adapt the way he makes music and pays attention to visual cues from his bandmates to know when to make changes.

He said he liked Thompson’s use of repetition.

“It becomes hypnotic. It’s a kind of dream-folk approach with experimental undertones.”

Thompson said the songwriting process was organic and she waited for the words and melodies to come to her.

She recorded herself and listened to it again to make sure she wasn’t singing too off-key.

“This may take a moment,” she said.

And how does a deaf person know that he is not singing out of tune?

Thompson said she could physically feel the music within her and tried to adjust the frequencies.

“It’s the feeling of harmony.”

Thompson said she doesn’t know any other deaf musicians.

Lachlan Keating, chief executive of Deaf Aotearoa, said MaryJane Thompson was the first deaf singer he had heard of.

“There are not many deaf singers, singing is not common in the deaf community.”

He said he knew some deaf rappers who used sign language.

Sometimes a singer would translate this for the hearing community.

Keating said that sign language interpretation has also become increasingly common in popular music performances.

A sign language interpreter was used at Taylor Swift’s recent concert in Melbourne, and this will also be the case at Coldplay’s concert in Auckland later this year.

Deaf Edge are currently working on a new EP.