The singing farmer
When Dionne Bidois’ unsure about a song she will go out into the field and sing to the cows.
The 43-year-old Matamata singer songwriter, also known as Red, isn’t your stereotypical dairy farmer with striking red locks and a full face of makeup. But put her in her bright blue overalls and she’ll ‘‘rock the dirt and poo’’.
Bidois and her fiance Laurie Stanbridge run a dairy farm in Richmond Downs, MatamataPiako. The couple look after two herds of more than 350 jersey and friesian cattle.
During the week days Bidois will be working on her music career. She will record and produce original songs as well interview a range of undiscovered Kiwi artists on her Facebook show called
Come the weekends, she said, all her attention is on the ‘‘girls’’.
‘‘Before I met Laurie I had never been near a cow and I had a genuine fear of cows,’’ Bidois said.
She said she never knew they could ‘‘ninja kick’’ and they weren’t too fond of her red hair either.
‘‘Obviously when I first turned up they got a heck of a fright, they weren’t too sure. But now I hug the cows, I pat them and they know me.
Bidois said she often sings her original songs to a crowd of cows in the pit before any human has heard them.
‘‘The cow pit has the best acoustics on the farm, so I go there a lot especially when I’m practising performances.’’
Bidois’ always been a performer since she can remember. She said she would go with her dad to the local country club and perform on stage at the age of three. Her mum then enrolled her in a theatre school in Hamilton where her energetic personality thrived.
‘‘Music runs in my blood and I’ve been singing forever,’’ she said. ‘‘I did acting ever since I was a small girl. I was that Shirley Temple girl,’’ she cackled. ‘‘There’s no point in hiding it because I can’t.’’
While Bidois has written more than 200 original songs, she said, she’s only recorded two songs. ‘‘The first song I recorded was
which I wrote 20 years ago. That one hit number two on itunes without any promotion.
‘‘I genuinely did not think any of my songs were good and I didn’t want to put them out there because they’re so personal.
‘‘It was Laurie who believed in me and encouraged me to put myself out there.’’
Similar to famous artists like Paul McCartney and Keith Richards, 90 per cent of Bidois’ songs come to her in a dream.
‘‘Ever since I was a child I would dream songs and it took me many many years before I realised they were original songs. What happens is I will be fast asleep and in my dream I’ll start singing a song and it’s literally a completed song, so like a melody you would hear on the radio.
‘‘I’ll be singing along and then my logical brain will go that’s not a song on the radio that’s a song your brain is writing, wake up.’’
She’ll record it on her phone and sometimes will work on it from there, but 80 per cent of the song is already done, she said. Although her life is often hectic, she said, she loves the mix of getting to wear lippy one day and gumboots the next.
‘‘I’m not all about being on stage and worried about my looks and my sound, it’s also about hard work, and hard work is good for you,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m learning about mastitis in cows and just understanding how much care you really have to take to look after your herd. I love it.’’
‘‘I did acting ever since Iwasa small girl. I was that Shirley Temple girl.’’