2005-04-22 mp3.com

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Regina Spektor: A Steady Diet of Propaganda

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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.

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By Chris Rolls
Contributing Writer
April 22, 2005

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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.