Spring/Summer 2004 - Another Magazine

ANOTHER THING I Wanted To Tell You

by Regina Spektor, Singer

Change.

"It's a lot of fun to leave coins as you wander through the city. Glance around, and if no one's looking, leave a dime, a quarter, a nickel, or any change you've got. But if you leave a penny, make sure you put it 'heads up', so it's lucky for the person who finds it. You can leave coins on street corners, cars, window-sills, flowerbeds, and train platforms, anywhere. One of the best places to drop them is right by the cashier in a grocery store, next to all the boxes of candy and gum, or near the paper coffee cups. That way, when people go to buy a lollipop or a coffee, they can find enough to really make a difference, maybe even pay for most of it. When that happens, they feel like they just got a wink from the universe, or something a bit less dramatic, but still rather sweet. For some reason, it always feels very personal when you find a coin, even though money is one of the most impersonal and transient possessions in our world."

Hailing from the Bronx via Moscow, Regina Spektor was unsigned when The Strokes asked her to join them on tour. It was a baptism of fire for the petite music school grad who cut her teeth playing lower eastside anti-folk haunts. Spektor enchants audiences with the kind of voice gymnastics that swing from girly whispers to full-blown punk rock in the blink of an eye. Her third album, Soviet Kitsch, combines her Joni Mitchell vocal range with a Björk-ish eccentricity. Spektor's hyperactive songs are beautifully lush, honest and goofy, tied together with a formidable technical ability that gives her all the more freedom to let fly.

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REGINA SPEKTOR WAS PHOTOGRAPHED IN NEW YORK BY ALEX HOERNER. TEXT BY HANNAH LACK