| Ten minutes with REGINA SPEKTOR... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Monday, 19 April 2010 09:24 |
 Last time REGINA SPEKTOR delighted New Zealanders with a live show, she hobbled on-stage - supported by a cane - the aftermath of an accidental injury sustained by Spektor getting into a taxi (not a koala-killing spree like she jested, or a hip operation according to urban legend). Yes, it was July of 2007... and Regina Spektor's (supported by boyfriend Only Son), Bruce Mason Centre concert has been a sparkling memory of my high school years forevermore. Spektor was charming; her on-stage banter engaging and witty, all the while entertaining a captivated crowd for a full two hours, accompanied only by her own vocal finesse and piano playing. Three years later, I find myself on the receiving end of a call to the offices of Regina Spektor's manager in New York City. Spektor is disappointed by the quiet phone connection - it's like "you're in a tiny, tiny cymbal, so far away!" - and apologises profusely for being unable to make her phone any louder. She then proceeds to her next order of business - making sure she has my name correct - and then we're off; amidst many mutual giggles. COUP DE MAIN: I'm excited... New Zealand's excited! And I'm sure that you must be excited too!! You're finally returning... REGINA SPEKTOR: I'm excited!! I'm also going to get to see a new city. To tell you the truth, I sort of wasn't really a big part of the planning of this tour... I was just like - I wanna go back! I wanna go back to New Zealand and Australia! - but I've been working so much on everything else, I haven't really been participating in city-picking. But when I saw the itinerary, I was like - oh cool! I get to check out a new place.  CDM: Last time, you played Auckland solo - is it draining at all, entertaining a crowd for so long, all by yourself? REGINA: No! Actually, it's usually a very loving experience and very positive. For the most part, the people that come to the shows, they're so kind and giving of their energy, it doesn't feel that exhausting, or anything like that. It just feels like we share a lot. I think that sometimes when I have to do a lot of promotion, and play shows, then it becomes draining. Because I have to concentrate in these different ways. And then if I have to do interviews on days of shows, or sometimes radio and stuff like that - then I feel sort of like I'm giving too much on a certain day - my concentration goes towards something else. And then it becomes draining. But if it's just music, and audience, then it's just really fun. CDM: Are you going to be bringing a backing band this time? REGINA: I'm bringing a band! I'm bringing a violinist, a cellist and a drummer. So, it's going to be fun too - and different. I'm going about that because I've only come to New Zealand once before, so it's just nice to come with a different show. K Ishibashi - he's from the band JUPITER ONE - is going to be opening for me. Jupiter One is his band, but he plays violin with me in my band, and he was opening some shows for me in Europe and in America. It's always nice to bring music that - I love the idea of opening bands because you could always bring [ a ] constant stream of new music that you love and just constantly - yeah I always have so many people opening. Only Son is a great opener, Jenny Owen Youngs is great, Jupiter One, Little Joy... so many. *laughs* One of my favourite things is listening to my opening act. CDM: Imogen Heap toured New Zealand recently and did the same! Her opening acts, also being her backing band... REGINA: I think that it's very common now. It's a great way for the people - 'cuz so many times the people that play with you are musicians and have their own projects, not just with you - but their own things. It's such a nice way to share music.  CDM: It's especially evident, having already seen you play live, all the different ways you use your vocals as an instrument... Why did you decide to feature these sounds in your songs? REGINA: It's so weird to try and think about something that you do naturally - and try to analyse it. I guess, I just need it. I need different sounds, because I'm composing and orchestrating. And a lot of the times - like you said - especially when I write, I write by myself, and a lot of the times I've played shows by myself, so I guess I just need those sounds. I don't know why, I just need 'em. I think, that it's just our voices; we can make, we could just do so much with our voices, and there are people that really are absolutely brilliant with that stuff. What I'm doing, to people who really, really play with their voices and do in-throat singing - Mike Patton, or Bobby McFerrin, or beatboxers, Rahzel - it's like, what I do is really, just singing. Maybe to somebody who doesn't make any noises, it seems like I play around a lot... I guess my little attempts are their premium. But in the grand scheme of things? I mean, our mouths can do so much! They're just right there on our heads connected to us, and we can just use them, and make so many cool different sounds. I feel like I wish i could - whenever I watch people who really can make crazy shit happen with their mouths - I'm always like; aargghhh I wish I could mouth-drum like that, or beatbox! CDM: Some songwriters hate explaining their lyrics, instead preferring listeners to form their own interpretations. Others, love explaining their lyrics to great depths. Which school of thought, do you belong to? REGINA: I really like it when people just take the songs and make it their own. Especially, since a lot of the time it just seems so limiting to try and commit to a specific meaning for something. 'Cuz even for myself a lot of the time, either the meaning changes over time, or when at the time I'm writing it, I don't really know what I'm writing it exactly about. It's just that a lot of it gets so bogged down, when you try to assign such a specific meaning to it. You wouldn't want every work of art to come accompanied with a how-to-think-about-it, and interpret-it, stapled to it. it would be really not fun to have, if they had that in museums, next to all the paintings! Like, this is exactly what I was thinking when I painted... I like things more fluid. It takes away a lot, when people try and analyse their own work, because they actually make it smaller. Because a lot of the time, if you're lucky, the work is actually wider and bigger than you can really get a full grasp. And then you try and limit it to yourself and you make it all lesser, I think. ...and with that, Regina's time-keeper cuts in, in an effort to keep her on schedule. Spektor apologises again for the phone connection and hopes her answers "helped". Oh and hey, Regina? Here's hoping, that you'll have safer and thus healthier, travels this time round... "I hope so! Everyone's been saying that to me and now I'm starting to feel like something's going to happen in the next three days, where I'm going to show up with a cane again. And I just really don't want that to happen!" Here's to our upcoming Wellington date, Regina! Monday, May 3 ALL AGES Buy tickets via Ticketek - 0800 TICKETEK (842538) / www.ticketek.co.nz Regina Spektor's album 'Far' is in-stores. Coup De Main named 'Far' the second best album of 2009 HERE.  |
