Rock's Most Mysterious Sensation: Who is Cindy Lee?

An enigmatic musician has released one of the most lauded LPs of recent times, but he's done so without marketing or interviews – and you certainly won't find it on Spotify.

By: Shaun Curran / BBC
Translation: Telegrafi.com

Of all the musical acts that emerged last year, none were more captivating – or more mysterious – than the Cindy Lee Project. Last March, Diamond Jubilee — a two-hour, flawed album with 32 songs that reflect the formative sounds of rock and pop — appeared as if by magic: a vast, rich, and dreamy dive into beautiful melodic songs, often troubled by a sense of loss and longing. But this self-released album was not easy to find, as it was not available on streaming services or in any physical format.

The music was captivating and kaleidoscopic, moving from the aesthetic core of girl groups like The Supremes to folk, psychedelia, glam rock, rockabilly, doo-wop, Velvet Underground-style rock, and Righteous Brothers-style ballads. But to listen to it, you had to go to a 90s-style website, similar to GeoCities, and download it through a service called Mega, with a suggested donation of $30; the album was then uploaded to YouTube.

People were also involved in a frantic search to find out: who is Cindy Lee? There was no promotional campaign, no interviews, and no social media presence. In fact, as it was later discovered, Cindy Lee is alter ego enigmatic and drag by Canadian alternative rock singer-songwriter Patrick Flegel, who was once part of the band Women, an acclaimed indie rock project in the 2000s that released two successful albums before breaking up after a physical altercation during a concert.

Flegel started the Cindy Lee project in 2012. Shortly after their first public performance, playing bass in a friend's band, he emerged with the now-famous Cindy Lee look: wig, sparkly gold or silver dresses, knee-high boots, and a coat. In a rare interview in 2020, he said, "In the context of modern drag, the way I do drag is so soft, conventional, basic, and traditional. I'm like a hidden drag queen from the 1960s ... in a tradition of diva archetypes like Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Diana Ross." Flegel also explained in a 2022 interview that the music and the look were not necessarily connected in a deliberate way. "They didn't really have anything to do with each other at first, they just naturally came together. But, this is a long-term thing, it's not just an idea I wrote on paper – it's just my life."

The previous six albums as Cindy Lee had made little noise; the strange uniqueness of Diamond Jubileecould have been another challenge to break into the public. But when big music fans discovered the album, they couldn't get enough of it. As word-of-mouth buzz grew, online forums, like Reddit, were filled with praise; the comments section on YouTube was unanimously enthusiastic (a typical comment was: “This is one of the best albums I’ve heard in a decade. Wow.”). “There was a certain sense of mystery that made it feel unique,” ​​says Steven Hyden, an author and music critic who co-hosts the indie-rock podcast – indiecast IN Uproxx. “That added to the charm. It feels like a compilation tape of songs that might have been hits 40 or 50 years ago, but no one had heard them. That was the element that attracted a lot of people. And even though Patrick had this history in indie rock, it felt like the album came out of nowhere.”

When, last October, a more conventional download became available for purchase on Bandcamp – an online music store and community that connects independent artists with loyal fans who pay for their music – it proved successful; then, the album was finally released in physical format, on vinyl and CD. “It almost immediately became one of the best-selling items on the site,” says Aly Gillani, the European representative of artists and companies at Bandcamp and founder of independent production First Word Records"It sold very well and continues to sell."

This success was aided by strong praise from the online music press in the US; one page, Aquarium Drunkard, called the album Diamond Jubilee “a throwback to a different, stranger, more interesting, and better era of independent music.” The popular online magazine, Pitchfork, gave the album a 9.1 rating — the highest for a new album in four years, propelling Cindy Lee forward in a way that harks back to the site's glory days in the 2000s, when her reviews often helped promote indie-rock artists like Arcade Fire. Meanwhile, The Guardian announced it Diamond Jubilee-the second best album of 2024, behind Charli xcx's cultural monster and dance-pop masterpiece, Brat.

It was unusual to see Diamond Jubilee-un and Brat-in to be listed side by side. Brat represented the definition of a 21st century album, with an equally contemporary promotional campaign: aggressive and cleverly designed marketing, dominating the online discourse through memes and viral moments, which worked so well that it even reached Kamala Harris. On the other hand, Diamond Jubilee-rejected almost all contemporary theories about how music should be sold and consumed in the modern era, sparking a debate about music industry practices and the relationship between artists and fans that goes far beyond the album itself.

For a certain category of fans – committed and collectors – the process of discovering the album was a big part of the magic of the album. Diamond Jubilee-, not to mention the dedication it took to find and absorb Patrick Flegel's ambitious artistic vision. "It speaks to the desire of some music fans to go back in time," Gillan says. "To a time when they could find an album, get excited, and immerse themselves in it, rather than just moving on to the next one. People want to experience great art firsthand."

“People felt like they were getting into a new phenomenon, in a way that doesn’t happen often on the internet these days,” says Steven Hyden. “And because this album wasn’t being forced on people by social media, record labels, or corporate media, it all combined to make it feel like a special event—even though it was still a phenomenon limited to a specific audience.”

Of course, it's nothing new for artists to experiment with different ways to sell and promote their music. From Beyoncé, who surprisingly released her self-titled fifth album in 2013, to Jack White, who promoted the album No Name initially distributing unlabeled vinyl copies in plastic bags to casual shoppers in his stores Third Man Records – an innovative approach can ignite a promotional campaign and create a huge buzz. “If you’re a well-known artist with a strong platform, you can afford to take risks that maybe smaller artists can’t,” says Gillani, adding that even lesser-known musicians can employ unconventional release strategies to powerful effect.

Gillan also mentions the mysterious London neo-soul collective Sault, who for years refused to reveal their identity, didn’t give interviews and even released five albums for free download – in a five-day period. “Both Cindy Lee and Sault did some things that wouldn’t normally be advised,” Gillan says, “and it definitely helped that their music is extraordinary. But as a music fan, it fascinates me. And that kind of approach can be a really effective way of bypassing all the things that you’re supposed to ‘have’ to do to get your music out there.”

The theory is that if people have to put in more effort to listen to something, it can be rewarding. “You want people to connect with it on an emotional level,” Gillan says. “And I think by creating some barriers to that connection, yes, there’s a risk that they might not get through. But if they do, the emotional connection doubles, triples. And that’s hard to beat.” And despite what it may seem, Gillan insists that Diamond Jubilee there really was a marketing strategy. “It’s a high-risk strategy, absolutely, but it’s a strategy nonetheless.”

However, it’s not a strategy you often see in our world of content-to-share and over-exposure: it’s an artist who gives the impression that he doesn’t care whether his music is heard or not. Expensive marketing campaigns, with a strong social media presence, are the norm for artists desperately trying to grab our attention. “In the ’80s and ’90s, artists didn’t seek fame as openly as they do now,” says Hyden. “I don’t blame those who seek fame today, because we’re in an environment where you’re just trying to get your music heard in a vast ocean of content online. But the fact that Patrick didn’t go down that path was a throwback to another era.”

Flegel's refusal to Spotify and other streaming platforms – they once stated on their website, for the CEO of Spotify-'s Daniel Ek, that “[he] is a thief and a war pig” – ties into an ever-growing debate over the state of the music industry and the economics of streaming in particular (one can imagine Flegel's reaction when an illegal version of Diamond Jubilee-ut was unexpectedly loaded into Spotify, only to be deleted shortly after). Furthermore, the global touring cost crisis is hitting lesser-known artists particularly hard. A new survey from Ditto Music shows that 84 percent of independent artists in the UK can no longer afford to tour. Those who have seen physical sales plummet now have virtually no revenue from streaming. Spotify It reportedly pays between $0.003-$0.005 per listen (which is then split between all rights holders, including productions, promoters, and artists).

While the advantages for users are clear – low cost and convenience – this has led to the devaluing of artists’ work.”Spotify "It's become a pretty negative place for artists who don't have millions of streams," says Hyden. "People treat it Spotifyas if it were Netflix. And, it's like, if a movie isn't in Netflix, then that movie doesn't exist. There's an illusion that this is the whole world. I wish people would understand from Diamond Jubilee"Not everything worth listening to is on streaming platforms. There are many artists who choose to operate outside of this system."

In keeping with the album's initial campaign, or lack thereof, Cindy Lee has shown no interest in capitalizing on their heightened profile. In fact, before their U.S. tour was abruptly canceled in mid-May for undisclosed personal reasons, a message on their website read: "This will be Cindy Lee's last U.S. tour." Critics who attended the concerts that did take place — 45-minute solos, with Flegel, wearing her signature wig and gold dress, playing over a ready-made musical backdrop — reported a spellbound audience, witnessing a phenomenal guitar talent. Meaghan Garvey, of NPR, wrote that “Flegeli played ‘with a rare skill that I would think belongs only to those who have made a deal with the devil.’” But there was also a reluctance to perform in concerts: in San Diego, Ian Cohen of stereo gum-i reported that Flegeli said during the performance: "I feel like a damned animal in a cage."

“The fact that Patrick is uncomfortable with exposure has kept Cindy Lee at that cult level,” says Hyden. “And maybe that’s where she should be. Maybe some things are just meant for an audience of true connoisseurs and appreciators. But in the age of the internet, we’re not used to that way of thinking. Before the internet, if you were in the indie rock world, you were supposed to not be trying to reach a mass audience, and that allowed you to engage in a whole different way. Now everyone’s on the same platform. If you’re an artist with only 100 monthly listeners on Spotify"The media treats you like you don't matter because they compare you to Coldplay. And that doesn't help at all."

That means stories like Cindy Lee's are becoming increasingly rare — though not impossible. "But it depends on a lot of things going in the right direction," Gillan says. And while no one is suggesting that other artists should copy Cindy Lee's strategy point for point — "Diamond Jubilee"is a unique album in that respect," says Hyden – there are still lessons for artists to learn from it.

“I think the biggest lesson is to be intentional about what you do,” Gillani says. “The industry is full of people telling you, ‘You should do this, you should do that.’ But it’s your art and your expression; think carefully about what you do with it. Don’t do something in the most standard way possible.”

No one can blame Cindy Lee for that. And now that Flegel has been pulled from the spotlight at the height of her fame, it's unclear what the future holds for her. But the goal of the strategy is to Diamond Jubileewas realized entirely on its own terms. The music will live on, no matter how you choose to experience it. As Hyden says: “It seems like one of those albums that people will continue to discover over the years.” /Telegraph/