Spektor, Regina

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Regina Spektor

Singer, songwriter, pianist

A classically trained pianist with an eccentric style of pop songwriting, Regina Spektor made a name for herself at the turn of the century, playing quirky but intimate songs on the café circuit in New York's Lower East Side. Spektor was born and raised in Moscow, in the former Soviet Union, until age nine. After moving to the New York City borough the Bronx, the Jewish-Russian-American musician emerged with a string of independently released albums before signing to major label Sire Records in 2004. Blender's Pauline O'Connor described Spektor's music as, "… a weirdly ancient-sounding mash-up of pre-rock and art-school piano delivered in a voice that swoops from whisper to moan and back again." Spektor herself told O'Connor, "My songs take elements of classical music and literature and mix them with an 'I can do whatever I want' punk-rock attitude."

Born at the dawn of the 1980s, Spektor grew up in Moscow, Russia, with her mother and father. After watching her mother play the piano for years, by six, Spektor was ready to play herself. While living in Moscow, Spektor's mother worked as a music teacher and her father was a trained violinist. In 1989 the Jewish family left Moscow to escape religious persecution and immigrated to the Bronx in New York City. When the family moved, they had to leave most of their belongings behind, including the piano given to them by their grandfather. Situated in the United States, Spektor's parents were forced to take any job they could find, leaving the family with little money, and much to young Spektor's heartbreak, no piano. Clearly gifted, even without a piano at home, Spektor continued to practice whenever and wherever she could, including on the piano at her synagogue and on tabletops and counters, until they could afford their own piano.

Without enough money to hire a worthy piano teacher to help the gifted Spektor flourish on the keys, it was her father's chance meeting on the subway where Spektor found help. After chatting with a fellow violinist on the subway, Spektor's father discovered that his new friend's wife happened to be a music professor at the Manhattan School of Music. The teacher saw the talent in Spektor and offered to teach her for free. After years of playing classical pieces, into her late teenage years, Spektor began to write her own songs. Since she had heard little popular music growing up, her songs emerged from putting classical composition into a pop realm. Coupled with Spektor's coquettish voice, the songs had a truly unique style and flair. After graduating from SUNY-Purchase's Conservatory of Music (in three years instead of four) Spektor began playing her own songs.

Road to Independence

By 2001, with friend and jazz bassist Chris Kuffner, Spektor recorded enough original songs to sell CDs at her shows. Dubbed 11:11, the jazzy flair of Spektor's songs often took on unusual tempo changes with intriguing storytelling-style lyrics. Befriending other local musicians gigging New York's Lower East Side, Spektor was soon considered part of the extended family of the "anti-folk" scene. Just before Christmas that year, Joe Mendelson, co-owner of the venue The Living Room, offered Spektor use of his studio for one day. Mendelson sort of challenged Spektor to see how many songs she could write and record in one day. On Christmas Day 2001, Spektor recorded an impressive collection of tracks that Mendelson insisted people hear. In the new year, Spektor packaged the Christmas tracks as the album Songs and sold copies at her shows.

"I don't have an over all sound," Spektor admitted to EMI Publishing. "I tend to think of each song as its own little world…. It's more fun that way because I never have to do the same thing over and over again." Catching more than a few of Spektor's performances were two industry insiders—Alan Bezozi (a drummer for groups They Might Be Giants and Freedy Johnston) and The Strokes' producer Gordon Raphael. Not really knowing that in 2001 The Strokes were one of the most popular rock bands in America, Spektor respected Raphael's knowledge and she set herself to work with him and Bezozi on her next album. Recording in New York and London, Spektor's new songs were filled out with guitars, bass, and cello. Released independently in 2003, Soviet Kitsch was Spektor's first album to spread outside of the New York scene.

"Twisted and misty-eyed all at once, Spektor uses big, pleading choruses and elegant pauses to drag the listener through the emotional ringer with her," Devil in the Wood's Patrick Rapa wrote about Soviet Kitsch. The tales on Soviet Kitsch were often strange character stories with a dark sense of humor about subjects such as death, divorce, and cancer. "I try to write songs the way a short story writer writes story," Spektor told EMI. "I always thought, 'Why can't I write a song from the point of view of a man or a criminal or an old woman?' Obviously some of it comes from personal things, but it's so much more fun when a concept or idea pops into my head and then I pull on it and out comes this thing that I never expected." The Strokes' frontman Julian Casablancas liked Soviet Kitsch so much he asked Spektor to go on tour with his band. Since she wasn't signed to a record label, she had to pay her own way across the United States for The Strokes' sold-out tour. Spektor's tight relationship with The Strokes—she even sang on the rock band's B-side "Post Modern Girls & Old Fashioned Men"—threw Spektor into the spotlight in 2003. The following year, she signed a deal with Sire Records who re-released Soviet Kitsch.

After more touring, including an opening slot for rock bands Kings of Leon, in the summer of 2005, Spektor sat herself down to record her first official, record-label-budget album. Spektor spent two months recording her new album at New York Noise Studios with producer David Kahne (Paul McCartney); that was by far, the most time she had ever spent recording. The bigger deadline had a huge impact on the new songs. "I was able to be more playful because it was such a no-pressure atmosphere," Spektor told Rolling Stone's Brian Orloff. "It was just the two of us, me and David, and we were just working like on an art project. It was the first time when I really let go." In the studio, for the first time really, she was able to experiment with her voice and different range of instrumentation that included electronic beats and drums.

With more oomph and other instrumentation, including guitar (The Stroke's Nick Valensi added guitar to the track "Better"), Spektor's new album, dubbed Begin to Hope, was glossier and fuller sounding than anything she had recorded in the past. Some songs included trickling electronic drum beats and smoothed-out, pop-friendly tracks, and while Spektor's lyrics were still a bit strange, with Begin to Hope she really began to write about herself instead of characters. Almost a year after recording it, in June of 2006, Sire issued Begin to Hope to rave reviews. "Less miserable than Fiona Apple, less wacky than Nellie McKay and less hippiesh than Tori Amos, Spektor shows off her gorgeous, fluttery voice, her burgeoning writing chops and her God-given quirks …," wrote Rolling Stone's Jenny Eliscu. Sire also issued the CD/DVD Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories, a collection of songs from her first three independent albums.

For the Record …

Born in Moscow, Russia. Education: Attended State University of New York's Purchase College.

Self-released 11:11, 2001; self-released Songs, 2002; released Soviet Kitsch, Shoplifter, 2003; signed with Sire Records, reissued Soviet Kitsch, 2004, released Begin to Hope, 2006.

Addresses: Record company—Sire Records, 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505. Website—Regina Spektor Official Website: http://www.reginaspektor.com.

Brian Garrity of Billboard described Spektor's extraordinary style as "… a girlish piano-pop naiveté crossed with an East Village rock sensibility." For Spektor, she's found the perfect middle for her passion. "I always wanted to play classical recitals and concerts, and go from place to place and learn new programs and practice new things and play hours and hours of piano for people," she told EMI. "And now I do that, except instead of playing the compositions of Chopin and Mozart, I play my own."

Selected discography

11:11, self-released, 2001.
Songs, self-released, 2002.
Soviet Kitsch, Shoplifter, 2003; reissued, Sire, 2004.
Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories, Sire, 2006.
Begin to Hope, Sire, 2006.