2004-03 Dazed & Confused

REGINA SPEKTOR

TEXT MILENA SELKIRK PHOTOGRAPHY STEWART SIMONS

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POSSIBLY THE MOST TALENTED GRADUATE OF NEW YORK'S NURTURING ANTI-FOLK SCENE, RUSSIAN BORN SINGER / SONGWRITER REGINA SPEKTOR DESERVES ALL THE GOOD FORTUNE THAT HAS ALREADY BEFALLEN HER, AND ALL THAT IS YET TO COME.

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Regina Spektor has fallen off the tour and off the wagon. The countless nights of performing, drinking, smoking and after-show partying with the Strokes and Kings of Leon have taken their toll on the petite singer/songwriter, who supported both bands with just her voice and a keyboard on their recent US and European tours. "I've been a vegetarian for four years," she says, "and I came home from the Strokes tour and ate a steak! I think it's one of the side effects of touring with boys who eat a lot of meat. I had way too much testosterone around me."

As a child all Regina ever wanted was to become a classical concert pianist in Moscow, where she was born. After emigrating to New York City with her family at 15, she discovered the new sounds that would inspire and shape her own songs. "In Russia, we had Beatles tapes, Queen and Pink Floyd, so I knew that kind of stuff," she explains. "But I didn't really discover pop and jazz until I was a teenager in America. I found out about Radiohead when I was 21 and Tom Waits when I was 22." At some point Regina had the good fortune to find her way into the ever-accepting anti-folk scene centred around Manhattan's Sidewalk Café. Here she was encouraged to fine tune her songs that variously evoke Björk, Suzanne Vega, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and other greats whose existence she was probably only dimly aware of.

One of Regina's two self-released albums fell into the hands of producer Gordon Raphael, the man behind both of the Strokes' albums. Mesmerised by her voice, which can float from a girlish giggle to a full-bodied belt in a single phrase, he asked her if she wanted to record a few songs at his studio. The sessions became Soviet Kitsch, her new album, full of tunes like "Poor Little Rich Boy" and "The Flowers", which showcase her soaring melodies and her eccentric sense of humour. Regina was flattered that Gordon wanted to work with her, but she did not realise the enviable position she was in. "The first time I recorded with Gordon, I didn't even know what he did," Regina admits. Oblivious to the international hoopla surrounding Raphael and the Strokes in 2002, Gordon slipped her a copy of Is This It and she loved what she heard. "I wore that CD out," she says, with a grin. "I carried it around at all times. It was like a dragged- around teddy bear."

After her album was finished, she got the call. The Strokes had asked her to join them on their Room On Fire tour, a two-month jaunt through American amphitheatres. "I heard rumours from Gordon that Julian had suggested me to open the tour," Regina explains. "I was like, 'That's never going to happen. No one's going to let them bring this person nobody knows and isn't on any label.'"

But the Strokes wanted her, unknown and unsigned. Regina sensed the opportunity was priceless, but without a record label, she was forced to pay for her own air fare and hotels, since the band flew in between most of the gigs. "When Ryan (Gentles, the Strokes manager) showed me the tour calender and asked which ones I wanted to do, I said 'all of them'. I don't care if I'm in debt for the rest of my life."

The tour itself was a challenge and a test in physical stamina and performance strength. Since Regina had never played to more than a hundred people at a time, she had to learn how to win over crowds of more than 5,000. "I quickly realised that not all Strokes fans are going to like me," she explains. "A lot of them shout 'Freebird' and 'show us your tits'." With encouragement from the Strokes and the Kings, Regina got tougher and her set grew stronger, and she added "Sampson", her astonishing love song to the biblical outcast, to her show and it became a live hit. "Everybody took me under their wing," she says. "The guys taught me a lot about being on stage."

And as you might imagine, there were some unbelievable moments. Take, for example, the day off in Seattle when she and Julian Casablancas wrote a song called "Post-modern Girls" together and recorded it with Gordon and the rest of the Strokes. She also remembers the two New York hometown gigs fondly. "It was pretty insane to see my name in the lights at Madison Square Garden," recalls Regina.

Perhaps Regina's most surreal touring moment occurred a month later on Thanksgiving during the Kings of Leon's headlining European tour. "We were in Germany," she says, "and we went to this restaurant called Graceland in Hamburg and it had Germans playing live old-time country music with no accents. We ate an awesome Thanksgiving feast with candles and pumpkin soup. It was so good to be with those guys."

Back in New York, Regina is struggling to get her mind off of the road She is anxious to begin work on new material, but it's hard because she still lives with her family in the Bronx, far from other musicians, venues, and Manhattan attractions. "I'm so all over the place, even when I'm not touring," laughs Regina. "My stuff is at my parents' house and I do laundry there. But I've gotten this kind of gypsy way of living ever since I finished college. I always have a pair of underwear and socks in my bag and definitely a toothbrush. I'm exhausted by it, but I also wouldn't have it any other way."

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SOVIET KITSCH IS AVAILABLE ON SHOPLIFTER RECORDS IN MARCH.