Regina Spektor Plays Up The Kitsch Factor
Tuesday April 26, 2005 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
Regina Spektor's first appearance in Canada should have come about two years ago. The singer-songwriter was supposed to have opened at The Strokes October 2003 Toronto show but had to back out when her grandmother died. When she finally did show up in early April, it was obvious that the appearance was long overdue. Her show at the Rivoli was sold out and people outside were literally begging for tickets.For the young Spektor, it's a little hard to believe.
"I love playing shows and love being shocked and amazed that I'll get to a city and there'll be people there who pay to listen to me play," she says. "But I'm not that much of a road warrior, I'm definitely one of those people who wants to kill someone after a certain number of hours in a car. You get to a point where you just want to get out and run for the mountains. Just say, 'I"ll be back in five minutes,' leave and never come back."
The Russian native and New York resident has become a fixture in NYC's anti-folk scene and counts Kimya Dawson and the aforementioned Strokes among her fans. The Strokes even recorded a b-side with Spektor and insisted the track, "Modern Girls And Old-Fashioned Men" be credited to "Regina Spektor featuring The Strokes."
That marriage was born out of Spektor's relationship with producer Gordon Raphael, who recorded part of her Sire debut, Soviet Kitsch. The album is a not-so-subtle tribute to her heritage.
"When I got to America there was kind of a cliche image, people would find out that I was Russian when I was 10 or 11 and parents of kids I knew would be like, 'Oh Russia! Commies! Vodka,' whatever," she says, her accent still discernable. "I mean, you expect that kind of stuff from kids, but you wouldn't expect adults. Only later when I saw some of the films they saw growing up, all the propaganda against the USSR did it kind of make sense.
"So it was sort of a wink at those stereotypes, yes I come from Russia, from Moscow, from the U.S.S.R., I'm Soviet kitsch and this is what Soviet kitsch sounds like, it sounds like human, personal emotional music.
Spektor's live show is hilariously endearing. She tells stories, sings solo with either a guitar or piano and goes a cappella on a couple songs. At the Rivoli show, the crowd ate it up, amazed at the voice on the miniature singer.
This has, of course, garnered her comparisons to countless other artists who sing and play the piano. Or guitar. Or anything else. There are ups and downs to subjecting yourself to the music media, Spektor says.
"I used to be really upset about all of it, but then I guess you sort of grow up and realize that it's not personal and a lot of it is meaningless. I'll play a show and have people come up after and say, 'That song sounds like Billie Holiday, and that song sounds like Erykah Badu and that song sounds like Janis Joplin and this one sounds like Rufus Wainwright,' and you sort of go, these people don't sound like each other. This is all bullshit.
"But the nicest thing that came out of it was that I would find out about some of the people they were talking about."
For now, she's working on a new record and trying to figure out how to supply the demand for her appearances around the world.
"It's hard to tell when the record will come out with touring," she says. "It's like, 'When are you going to come to Germany? When are you coming back to Montreal again?'"
While you wait for Spektor to visit your city, you can check out Soviet Kitsch, out now on Sire.
—Noah Love
ReginaSpektor.net is an old fan site dedicated to the music of Regina Spektor. This site is in no way affiliated with Regina, her management, or her record company.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
2005-04-26 ChartAttack.com
Friday, April 22, 2005
2005-04-22 mp3.com
Regina Spektor: A Steady Diet of Propaganda
Every so often a new talent emerges on the popular music radar that is so unique one is forced to take notice. Regina Spektor is poised to be that talent.
By Chris Rolls
Contributing Writer
April 22, 2005
Every musician dreams of a serendipitous event catapulting them from obscurity to stardom, and Regina Spektor was handed just that. In the audience at one of her performances was Julian Casablancas of the Strokes. So impressed was Casablancas that he invited the cosmopolitan pianist and provocative vocalist to open for the Strokes on a domestic tour. Without a label, a manager, or a lawyer, and just a backpack, Regina leaped at the opportunity. This twist of fate would soon land her on the doorstep of Sire Records, and they offered to put out her self-released _Soviet Kitsch_album. She of course said yes and is now touring alone to support her own music.We caught up with Regina while she was in Seattle eating a donut in her hotel room. She had much to say regarding Soviet stereotypes, her current love affair with David Bowie, and how she could really care less about what other contemporary artist she may sound like.
Interview:
Chris: I understand you've been on the road quite a bit.
Regina: Yeah, I'm in Seattle actually, eating my donut.
Chris: You've been to San Francisco before?
Regina: No. I've been to Seattle and to San Francisco once before when I opened for the Strokes.
Chris: That must have been pretty exciting touring with The Strokes?
Regina: Yeah, it was my first time going to the West Coast too.
Chris: Was that your first tour?
Regina: Yeah, ever in the world.
Chris: Really?
Regina: I know, it's one of those things where you sit in your room, and you're like, "Oh," feeling sorry for yourself, and you're like, "I'll never get to go on tour. Only other people get to go on tour. No one will ever take me on tour." And then, poof, you get a thing that's 7,000 times bigger than you'd ever even hope for.
Chris: And how did that tour come about?
Regina: Oh, they heard my music, and they really liked it, so they came to a show of mine and...
Chris: In New York?
Regina: At this club called Tonic.
Chris: So they came and saw your show there.
Regina: Yep. And then the next thing is, I heard, was like, "Oh, you know, they asked for you to be their opener." Whoa!
Chris: You must have been more than excited at that point.
Regina: I was so excited, yeah. And I had just made my record, _Soviet Kitsch_ and then, even, and so what I did, is I self-released and pressed it, and there was a bunch of copies, and then I just went on the road with them.
Chris: I'm really intrigued by the fact that you self-released the majority of your material.
Regina: Yes.
Chris: And then [Sire] Records swooped in and picked up _Soviet Kitsch_, right? Did they do that before or after you went on tour with the Strokes?
Regina: It was after…I went on tour with the Strokes I wasn't signed by anybody. I just kind of went with my backpack. I didn't have a manager or a lawyer, or a label, or anything. Or an apartment!
Chris: So that means that you had to pick up all the costs for your touring?
Regina: Yeah, I kind of maxed out my dad's credit card, and just went with it. I used to like, temp work a lot, in offices and stuff like that. And then it just got to be too exhausting because I didn't have enough time to work--I work a lot. When I'm at home I just, you know, I just work on music all the time. And it was just too distracting working all day and then taking the subway for an hour and a half to get there, and for an hour and a half to get back, and try and play shows, and stuff like that. So then I just decided that since I never ever made enough to pay rent anyway, and I wasn't going to, I just decided to quit all my temp jobs and just work on music. And like, I was still living in my parents--like, this was after college--so I just moved back into my bedroom at my parent's apartment in the Bronx.
Chris: At that was at SUNY Purchase right?
Regina: Yup…and then I figured if you know, after the Strokes tour I could just get another job and just work it off, you know.
Chris: How much time elapsed between that decision and then getting picked up to go on the tour?
Regina: Oh, quite a bit. I ended up making the same amount of money pretty much by...I used to like, tour New York City. I'd have my own, like, tours, you know, I would arrange them, like, you know, the Lower East Side, to the Lower West Side, Brooklyn, back to the Lower East Side. You know, sometimes midtown, really risqué. Can't really go above 14th Street and get away with it really. I mean, I played everywhere, like I mean everywhere. I didn't say no to a show. I played colleges, I played comedy clubs, I played [rid] bars, I played, you know. I don't know, I probably played people's apartments, probably have played people--I did play people's apartments. So it was like, it was just sort of one of those things.
Chris: And how do you think you were received at all these different variety of places that you played at?
Regina: Well, it was really funny. If you play a comedy club, people are preprogrammed to laugh. So things that were just, you know, in a regular show someone would just kind of maybe smile to themselves or something--or would be like, that's kind of funny--people would laugh hysterically at, at the comedy club. So like, you would just say something remotely funny in the lyrics, and there would be just like this huge roar of like, a laugh track, you know, like in a sitcom or something. It was awesome.
Chris: So it erupts while you playing.
Regina: Yeah, it was really amazing. It was really exciting, songs like "Poor Little Rich Boy," I mean, people laugh at my shows, at the lyrics you know. Like, people will laugh during "Ode to Divorce," or like "Poor Little Rich Boy" or something, but at a comedy club it was like, I was hilarious! But I've been really lucky, people have always been really open and receptive with my music, I didn't have to have a battle. And that's just luck, because I'd be writing this stuff anyway, and I'm just really glad that I didn't have to battle.
Chris: This has been great so far. I feel bad, I have to ask you a couple of questions about the, about _Soviet Kitsch_, if you don't mind.
Regina: No, I don't. Yes, go ahead. I mean, it's my record.
Chris: It is your record. The title is intriguing. Obviously the word kitsch to a lot of people sort of implies bad taste, or it's sort of generally reserved for tawdry artifacts or what have you. And I'm just kind of interested how you felt, how you arrived at the name and how you feel it applies to your music, or if it was just something that sounded good to you.
Regina: Well, it's kind of a combination of all the things that you said. And the thing is, when I came to America, it was a really fascinating experience for me to, as a kid, I went through immigration, I was 9 and a half, and when you go through something like that, and you get to a place where there's kids again, and they didn't go through that, you sort of feel really adult-y. I mean, I was already always like the little adult, like I think about myself...I was tiny. I was one of these little, little skinny tiny little short 10-year-olds, and I felt so grown up, you know. And when I got to America, and I would go to kid's houses and stuff, I'd be 10, 11, 12, and I'd have adults, like middle-aged people be like, "Russian, Commie, vodka," and they'd laugh. You know, Russki. And I was just like, so indignant, and I was this little, short elitist! I was like, what are these crude people talking about?
Chris: You had adults actually throwing stereotypes at you as a child?
Regina: Yeah, you know, it was a really interesting experience because it took me years to understand where it was coming from. I remember being at [SUNY] actually and watching this movie, this documentary, I don't know. Have you seen this thing called Atomic Café?
Chris: Yes.
Regina: OK. I was watching it, right? And there's all this propaganda…American propaganda--stuff that I was never exposed to. I was exposed to my own brand of propaganda, you know, in Russia. And I think it was the first time, I must have been 18, it hit me and I realized where those people are coming from with their stereotypes, because I saw what a steady diet of propaganda they had grown up with. And these were the iron curtain people so it kind of made things easier. But, I had a lyric, and it was actually a song called "Dusseldorf." There was a memorable beginning that goes, "In Dusseldorf I met a dwarf." And it didn't make it onto the record, even though I tried recording it, like 700 times, it just was never the right take, never the right thing. And, but it has that lyric in it. And I think that when I finished and I wanted a title, I just liked the sound of it, and--so much--and then I also felt like it would be a really good thing to sort of--like for the past--my whole time in America, I've been the Russian, you know. I've been the girl who came from the Soviet Union who has been on scholarships, and you know, who's this Russki, vodka-drinking, Commie immigrant. And I just thought this is what Soviet Kitsch stereotype is, and this is sort of like the wink at the image. But then I was hoping that people would pick it up and see that image, and see that title, and then put on the record, and then be like, wait a minute, this is just human. This is just like a human trying to make music.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
New Video: Regina on The Tonight Show
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
[FIXED] New MP3s: Hero of the Story, Bartender, and more
Hero of the Story & Bartender
Two unreleased songs (with Chris Kuffner on bass and Ben Kalb on cello for Hero of the Story)
"begin to hope"
Unreleased song (title unknown)
Time Is All Around
Unreleased song
"open"
Unreleased song (title unknown)
Hotel Song
Unreleased song (with Chris Kuffner and Ben Kalb on backing vocals)
Your Honor
Song from Soviet Kitsch (with Chris Kuffner on bass, Ben Kalb on cello, Elliot Jacobson on drums, and Andy Graziano on guitar)
A higher quality source for this show may surface in the coming weeks.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
2005-04-03 New York Post
MIND GAMES
By STEVEN P. MARSH
* * * _April 3, 2005_ -- Forgive Regina Spektor if she doesn't play your favorite song -- she may not remember how it goes.The prolific singer-songwriter has written so many musical vignettes since she finished her latest CD, "Soviet Kitsch," that her head can't hold them all.
"I've written hundreds of songs, so there's a lot that I have forgotten," she says.
The charming Moscow-born, Bronx-raised Spektor isn't happy about this.
"It's terrible. I get absolutely devastated." Even so, the 25-year-old Spektor just can't seem to write a song down.
"I feel like I know it, and I'll work so hard and so much, playing it over and over and over again while I'm writing it, that I feel like it's there. How could I ever forget it?" she asks.
Even a lost tune leaves a memory.
"It feels as if you just woke up and you know you were having a really vivid dream and it's right there and now it's completely gone. It's a very sad feeling. With a dream, it's OK, but with this, it's not OK, because it's your work!"
She's trying hard to change, though, for the sake of her fans. She does work with a friend a couple of times a year to lay down rough recordings of each new batch of songs.
"I know what it feels like when you just want to hear _that_ song. Because of that, I have been working on myself to remember how to play songs.
"I know that I've written another ton of songs and it's really fun for me to play them, but I can also understand what it's like for that person" who wants to hear a particular song.
After graduating from the music program at SUNY Purchase, Spektor began playing at the Sidewalk Cafe and other "anti-folk" clubs on the Lower East Side.
She developed a style that tops classically inflected piano lines with vocals that range from sweet folk song to yelping punky riffs.
She got her first shot on the national stage by chance, when the Strokes tapped her as the opener for their "Room on Fire" tour last year. The band was turned on to her by their producer, Gordon Raphael, who was also working with Spektor. That led to a long tour, complete with talk of a romance with Strokes singer Julian Casablancas, something Spektor politely avoids discussing.
Spektor's first headlining national tour, which kicked off last Tuesday, brings her to the Bowery Ballroom Wednesday for a short stop back in the place she calls home.
"New York is home and The Bronx is like,_ extra_ home," she said wistfully. "Yeah, this is my city, in every sense."
Saturday, April 02, 2005
2005-04-02 WERS.org
Regina Spektor
INTERVIEW: Regina Spektor
PROGRAM: CoffeehouseApril 2, 2005
By Jinnie Lee
Singer-songwriter Regina Spektor entered our WERS studios in a casual yellow knit sweater and blue jeans with her curly brown hair falling naturally around her face. The petite and unaffected Spektor arrived in all smiles, despite the typical pre-spring Boston rain and dreariness looming through the station windows leading into the live mix studio where Spektor was patiently setting up. After much deliberation on which songs to perform, Spektor proceeded to rehearse and banter with Coffeehouse DJ John Paul on such topics like her Russian upbringing, her flourishing website, and the importance of non-commercial radio as Spektor is one of many live guests to have performed in our annual Live Music Week spring fundraiser.
Born and raised in Russia, and now residing in New York City, Spektor is currently on tour for Soviet Kitsch which allowed her to drop by WERS for a small Coffeehouse shindig. With much to say on her recent encounters with increased publicity, her thoughts on the Internet, and the process of being signed on to a major record label, Spektor offers a glimpse into her fast-paced world as a reserved and unwearied performer aimed for inevitable stardom.
I have noticed on your website that you have a link called Reginapolis, your personalized version of the game Tetris, which is pretty unique in terms of artist websites. How did that come about?
I was always thinking of the website and the Internet. I love the fact that we have it; we are so lucky and we take it for granted. If we had the Internet 20 or 25 years ago, there would have been no Cold War because you could text someone and be like “Hey, is this really what your country is like?” and they could be like “No, actually, it’s not.” Okay great, crisis averted! When I was not on any label, I would make home-made CDs and put them on the Internet and people would buy them in Croatia, the Netherlands, Japan, anywhere. When I would look at the addresses of these people, it would be so heartwarming. When I got the chance to make a website, I really wanted it to be a place where people can go to as a community. I have forum so they can talk amongst themselves and get together and it is such a pleasure to see it thrive because people are communicating across the Atlantic talking about different shows, politics and the different music they like. Spektris [the name of Regina Spektor Tetris game] was an extension of that. I wish I could put all my records on the Internet so people can listen for free if they do not have a chance to buy it or if they are saving up, whatever. I said there should be a game for those people who sit at their office, who want to go somewhere and play for 10 minutes and relax. So I gave them Spektris and they can play that on my website. The funny thing is when I first came to America and first found out about Tetris, it had Russian music and it was weird to me and thought it was so bizarre because I am from Russia.
It was a sign! So from working on the Coffeehouse last year, I know that we have had an advanced copy of Soviet Kitsch for about a year now. So why is the album being released just now and what was going on in the time between?
Soviet Kitsch was a strange putting-out process because I finished it right before I was invited to go on The Strokes tour and open for them. I made a whole bunch of copies and sold them on tour and self-released them. Then I ran out of those and labels started talking to me. And once labels get involved, you cannot self-release your album anymore and they won’t release it until the cows come home, as they say. Is that right? I’m so bad with American phrases! Anyhow, it has been a slow process. At first, Soviet Kitsch was going to be put out but the people at Sire Records, my record label, a division of Warner Brothers, were very cool and they did not want to just put it out so no one would notice it. They really petitioned for attention for Warner Brothers to put in the time and love into it, so that is why it has taken so long. But since March 1 st the album has been out so I am really excited. I have walked into a couple of stores and it has been there and it is so cool. I am on the shelf next to Britney Spears and Bruce Springsteen and there is Regina Spektor! It is really funny.
Speaking of opening up for The Strokes last year, I know you collaborated on a song with lead singer Julian Casablancas. Have you any plans to do more collaboration?
I have been talking to several musicians but I am so superstitious. I am like, “It won’t happen,” so I guess if it happens, you will know about it. But I do not want say it because if I say it, I feel like it will not ever happen.
That is understandable. So I assume you will be on tour for a while, but what will you be up to afterwards?
I am going to be touring for a long time. I am doing the national tour right now and then I am going to France and England. Then I am coming back to do more national so I will be doing that until the end of June, and what is it now, April? So it is a lot of touring. But after that, I am going to start recording my next record because I have so much material already.
And with your recent tour heavily underway, you have experienced your first couple of live television performances, notably on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” What were those experiences like?
I have just been learning quickly. There is no energy from the audience—an impenetrable wall—around the TV people so everything that you bring is your own. You have to bring all the energy in, literally, seconds to do it you do not have time to organically fall into a show or fall into a song. You come in right at the peak and it is really hard and different from real life. You have got makeup and lights all up in your face with big equipment. But I think it is also very wonderful. It will be wonderful once I know how to let go. I am such a sucker for direct human contact. I want to be in a club where people are close to me and I want to be feeling the two-way energy; it is what performers live off of and TV just does not give you that. But because of TV, you do not know where you are going to end up, you know? Someone in, I don’t know, in a trailer in the middle of nowhere can tune in and there you are as they are sitting on their couch and that is so cool. Conan [O’Brien] was very nice to me when I was on his show. You get there and someone asks you if you need anything. They try to make it homey and they make sandwiches for you. And they put your name on the door! I totally kept the label; I ripped it off because it was so cute that I stuck it on my bathroom door at home.
For more information on Regina Spektor, visit www.reginaspektor.com. Soviet Kitsch is now available to own from Sire Records.
Friday, April 01, 2005
2005-04-01 The Boston Globe
WITH HER MUSIC, REGINA SPEKTOR CREATES A WHIMSICAL WORLD FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
BY JOAN ANDERMAN, GLOBE STAFF
Glamorous as it looks, workers in the rock music trenches are perilously jaded, and frankly exhausted. There are so many bands. So many of them sound like the other ones. It takes some doing to get excited, and more often than not the rare happy jolt arrives unexpectedly, even against one's will. When Gordon Raphael found Regina Spektor, he was neither in the market nor in the mood.It was Christmas 2002, and Raphael, a record producer whose most famous client is the Strokes, had just moved to London, where he was coming off a busy year working with upward of 30 bands. He was physically spent and musically fried, and he was on his way to Seattle for vacation from verses and choruses. When a good friend invited him to meet a young Russian woman who plays piano and sings, Raphael declined. The friend pressed. Raphael grudgingly agreed to stop in New York for a day. Pleasantries were not a part of his game plan. "I walked into TMF studios, sat down, and said, 'What do you do?' " Raphael recalls.
"Regina started playing piano with her left hand. She was banging a stick on a chair with her right hand, and it sounded like horses galloping over a plain. She was singing this complicated melody in this classic voice but her lyrics were modern, like the Moldy Peaches. And she was smiling at me the whole time. I said, 'My God. Go get the microphone.' "
Raphael and Spektor recorded three songs that afternoon. When he returned from Seattle (where Raphael spent his so-called vacation sending e-mail messages to Spektor) they finished an EP, and then coproduced with Alan Bezozi, the mutual friend who had introduced them a full album in New York and London.
"Soviet Kitsch" was released last month on Sire Records, and it's easy to understand why Raphael responded so viscerally.
Spektor's intricate keyboard work, stream-of-consciousness songs, and intense, quirky singing will earn her plenty of comparisons to Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Bjork.
But Spektor, who performs tonight at the Paradise Lounge, carves her own niche: a whimsical, literate musical world inspired by Tchaikovsky and Queen, Hemingway and Picasso, free jazz and the Beat poets.
"I'm a messy girl," says Spektor, 25, who is sitting in a Soho cafe, and speaking on her cousin Marsha's cellphone.
Spektor is talking about her apartment, her approach to songwriting, and her life. "I don't understand a lot, which is probably why I have quite a few songs written from the point of view of a male. . . . Sometimes I have a concept. I seem to wonder a lot about death, and I also mention food a lot. I love to eat. Sometimes words just come together phonetically." ("Crispy crispy Benjamin Franklin" springs to mind. There's only a trace of an accent in Spektor's voice. Born in Moscow, she immigrated to the Bronx at age 9, mainly for religious reasons.
"It's very anti-Semitic," Spektor says. "Every Jewish person's passport is marked, and as soon as Gorbachev said we could apply for visas to go to Israel or America my parents said 'No way our kid is going to grow up in this.' "
Her mother taught music history; her father was a violinist as well as a photographer, but when the Spektors crossed the ocean they had to leave their piano behind; it was considered Soviet property. Regina, who'd studied since she was 6, practiced for a year on windowsills and tabletops. She discovered an out-of-tune upright in the local synagogue.
Thanks to a fortuitous meeting on a subway train, Spektor began taking lessons from Sonia Vargas, a professor at the Manhattan School of Music, while attending yeshiva. Spektor was so focused on perfecting her Chopin that the idea of writing a song didn't occur to her until her senior year, but then the floodgates opened.
While at college at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, Spektor started playing local gigs. She sold a homemade CD at coffeehouses and, after moving back to New York City, began frequenting open-mike events while working day jobs as a medical secretary and as an assistant to a private investigator. As her songs became "weirder and darker" and as Spektor became more serious about a life in music, she moved back in with her parents to save money, and became a fixture on the anti-folk scene, supporting such artists as David Poe, Ed Harcourt, and the Dismemberment Plan. She made another CD, called "Songs."
Then she met Raphael, who financed her album because "we had a good feeling something would happen."
He hired a string section and the punk band Kill Kenada to play on "Soviet Kitsch" a clue to the idiosyncratic nature of this collection, which includes such titles as "Ode to Divorce," "Carbon Monoxide," and "Chemo Limo." Track seven, "* * *," is a whispered exchange between the artist and her brother. Her characters are so vividly drawn that when he heard "Chemo Limo," Raphael didn't doubt that Spektor had four children and cancer.
His influence extended past the making of the album. On a lark, late one night during sessions for the Strokes sophomore CD "Room on Fire," Raphael played one of Spektor's songs for the band's singer and songwriter, Julian Casablancas. Casablancas asked for a CD to take home that night. The next morning he came into the studio, put his arms around Raphael, and sang one of her songs into his ear. Casablancas invited Spektor to join the band in the studio for "Modern Girls & Old Fashioned Men," a B-side to the "Reptilia" single, and despite the rather glaring aesthetic differences the Strokes took Spektor out as opening act on their North American tour. That's when the labels came calling.
"It may not be logical," Spektor says of her musical love match with the swaggering modern rock band. "But their music was immediate and beautiful to me. Julian was drawn to mine. A classical violinist can walk into a jazz show and adore it. Still, I don't know what's to come for me. It's a hits world and sometimes smaller things can get lost in the bigger picture. But for every million people that follow the hit song, there are fifty people who want music that will stay with them through their life."
Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com.