Regina Spektor On the Hometown Roots That Run Through Her Music and Mold Her Life
If you think you sense a certain lyrical or musical thread running through What We Saw From the Cheap Seats – the charming, whimsical new sixth set from Russian-born New Yorker Regina Spektor – well, stop, forget about it, you’re dead wrong. Or so swears the clever keyboardist. The waltzing “Firewood” and delicate processional “Patron Saint” may feel like old-world sagas drawn from the same book of lore, as does the quirky single “Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)” — which she insists is not a reference to renowned French crooner Jacques Brel. “All these songs, chronologically? They’re from all over the place,” says Spektor, who debuted with 2001’s 11:11 but broke out with 2004’s Soviet Kitsch. “”Firewood” is much newer than “Patron Saint,” and “Don’t Leave Me” is really old, like from maybe 2001. So it’s kind of hard to throw a lens on things, like I’m becoming much more of a This kind of writer, or a That kind of writer. It’s kind of hard to do that, because there are so many songs that I have to pick from.” But there’s one recurring theme that’s undeniable – the mark left on the singer by her homeland, which she just revisited on tour...
PureVolume: So you just played St. Petersburg?
Regina Spektor: Yes, and just being in Russia was amazing – I’ve come home and I’m just sort of in borscht withdrawal. It was completely bizarre, and everything still feels like a dream. But it was amazing to play St. Petersburg, to play Moscow. I was in Russia for a week, and it was incredible.
PV: Did you do fun, touristy stuff?
RS: Yeah. That’s why I took so much time off in the middle of the tour, which is kind of unheard of. I just had to, it was such a big deal to me. And it was a combination of things – it wasn’t as heavy on the tourist stuff as it was on a personal level, just things that are connected to mine and my family’s life. But in St. Petersburg more so, because I had never been there before, even though I’m from Moscow. So to me it was a brand-new city that I’d never seen. And it’s absolutely stunning. Everyone told me it was beautiful, but I had no idea how incredible it really is.
PV: What were some of the coolest sights?
RS: Just taking a boat ride and looking at everything from the water, like how massive it was. It’s just….just stunning. The architecture there is just incredible. But also, we went to the Peterhof, which is the Summer Palace, which has the fountains. And there are just no words to describe stuff like this – it’s from some sort of an imagination. And the cool thing about the fountains that I found out was, there are no pumps involved – it’s all using gravity. It’s just so smart, and was made at a time when it was difficult to make fountains. And going to The Hermitage (Museum) just blew my mind.
PV: Did you sample all the traditional food?
RS: Oh, like all day long. All day long! It was kind of like paradise for my food stuff, because everything there was my favorite thing. Everywhere I went was just full of my favorite stuff. They had salmon caviar at the breakfast buffet, and we had cold borscht four times a day, and all this delicious stuff.
PV: On the bonus-track edition of Cheap Seats, you even sing three tracks in Russian, right?
RS: Yes. Two of them are covers of this really amazing Russian songwriter named Bulat Okudzhava – he was this incredible Georgian – that’s Soviet Georgia – this amazing poet. And there’s a statue of him that I actually got to see in one of the old streets in Moscow that he lived on, where he wrote a lot of songs, called Arbat Street. It was sort of the artists’ street, and lots of painters and poets lived there. Then the other song was just my own translation of “Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas).” And “Ne Me Quitte Pas” isn’t (from Brel’s signature song) – it’s just a phrase. It’s not like in my song “Oh Marcello,” where I actually used a line from The Animals – ‘Please don’t let me be misunderstood.’
PV: But Russia isn’t the same place as when you left at age nine, right? Politically, there’s a huge youthful uprising that’s opposing Putin. Did you catch any of that vibe while you were there?
RS: I didn’t spend my time doing that because I had, for my own personal life, much bigger things in mind. I cared more about going to the house where I grew up, or seeing my first piano teacher – things like that. But I mean, I’d love it if some bankers got arrested (over here) too. And America’s notorious for this – people love to find other countries and go ‘Look at that! Look at those people! Look how fucked up that is!’ And meanwhile, we’re in a perpetual number of wars. And granted, I think there are tremendous political problems and people are trying to oppose them in Russia. And it’s visible, and they’re really fighting for their rights. As they have been, on and off, for over 40 years now.
PV: When you tracked down your first piano teacher, how did it go? Was she extremely proud of you?
RS: It was really beautiful. It was just absolutely amazing, and she was happy for me. But I don’t buy into this whole keys-to-the-city side of it – I don’t think in such broad terms. I think things are much more delicate than that. So it’s not about pride. It’s about reconnecting and being happy that the kid that you knew from six to nine — who you taught how to play piano, basically – went on and cares about music, and now wants to try and experience the country again.
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Currently Listening
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shelby .. is listening to: Just A Little by The Used
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sirfoldsalot is listening to: The Graduate by TYSEN
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tulip is listening to: Be There (when im down) by JUNE RAIN ™
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Lulay is listening to: A-Punk by Vampire Weekend
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Witerlland is listening to: The Response by Cinema Sleep
