Born and raised in Moscow, where she began playing piano at a young age, singer-songwriter Regina Spektor first cut her teeth in New York City’s anti-folk scene. Her new album, Begin to Hope, exhibits a polish and pop friendliness far removed from her low-fi roots, while still maintaining the adventurousness that won her attention in the first place. Spektor recently hit mtvU’s Hot Seat to drop some Russian folk wisdom, praise the doctor who delivered her and reflect on her long, complex relationship with NYC’s Irving Plaza.
Q: Tell us about your craziest touring experience.
A: There have been so many. I once had to play an entire show in Vegas on New Year’s for thousands of people on a keyboard that was wired the opposite of normal. It sustained when you touched any key and you had to press the sustain pedal to make it normal. That is the opposite of all my life’s experience and habit. Everyone tried to fix it, it was a rental, and by the time we gave up it was almost New Year’s so no help was around from the company. I drank a bunch of beers and taped the pedal upside down to try and fool my body reflexes… but it turned out OK in the end. I borrowed a guitar from one of the other bands, and played my earliest guitar songs. Sang a capella a bunch too. It was fun, and I still play guitar in my sets from then on.
Q: What type of college class would you most want to take and why?
A: I love history and literature classes. A dance class would be fun too, I think.
Q: What city in America is the most fun to visit and why?
A: One of my favorites is Chicago, because an elderly woman who helped me be born in Moscow lives there. She is an amazing person, a WWII veteran, with medals of honor, and a true doctor — she still gets letters from many women she has helped in Russia. She was in charge of OB/GYN clinics, and hospital wards, and she overcame a lot of anti-Semitism and sexism during her life and work there. Now I always go to her apartment and we have food and tea and take a walk to the lake.
Q: What’s some of the best advice you were ever given?
A: The morning is wiser than the evening.’ It’s a Russian saying, and it means that you don’t have to figure things out right away. Once you start going in circles in your mind, you can just let it wait, go to sleep, and in the morning when you wake up, look at it with a fresh perspective. This helps in the studio a lot. I also like the saying ‘ The eyes fear, but the hands do.’ That’s more about how a task can seem so huge and daunting, or something can seem very scary, but you just start doing it anyhow, and piece by piece you get it done.
Q: What’s in heavy rotation in your mp3/CD player right now?
A: Bob Dylan, The Kinks, Only Son, The Arctic Monkeys, Jeffrey Lewis, Magnetic Fields, The Strokes, The Beatles, Queen
Q: The last good book you read or TV show you’re addicted to?
A: I finally gave in and read the Da Vinci Code. It was fun, and I loved that I’ve been to most of the places mentioned in the book. I could really see it. Of course, I didn’t go to watch the movie, no matter how much I loved Amelie. I liked it how I saw it in my mind.
Q: What’s the first concert you ever saw and how was it?
A: The first concerts I saw were all classical music — concerts, ballets, etc. This was in Moscow before immigration, and then in NYC at Lincoln center. I saw Ani DiFranco in Central Park when I was in high school and that was fun, but felt more like a festival. My first indoor “electric” show happened when I was already in college. It was a BB King Show at Irving Plaza, I was 18, and VIP tickets that were given to a professor of mine at SUNY Purchase. He had other plans, and asked if anyone wanted them and I said I did, and then there was an extra ticket, so another kid in the class said he’d drive and come with me. Neither of us had ever had a VIP ticket before, so after the show we didn’t know what to do, we just walked all around Irving Plaza like idiots. Then we went upstairs, found a guy next to a velvet rope, and he let us back to the dressing room to see Mr. King. Before that night, I hadn’t ever heard his music, knowing it was him. In general, there are huge gaps in my music knowledge, they have been getting smaller over the past few years, but they still exist. It was real fun meeting him, and I had him sign something like ten photos of himself for my family and friends. Last September I played my own show at Irving Plaza. I couldn’t believe it!
Q: What are three items you can’t live without on tour?
A: My own pillow, getting to see my friends who live in some of the cities I visit, and my rented mobile phone. Oh, and an extra one — double espressos before the show.
Q: Who are your major musical influences?
A: There are so so many. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Mozart, Chopin, Bach, Nirvana, The Strokes, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Waits, Radiohead.
Q: Any random messages or tips you’d like to give to mtvU watchers?
A: Hmmmmm. I guess it would be: Just be good to yourself. Take care of yourself, and others. You set the tone for your life, and it can be whatever you want it to be, so it might as well be wonderful!
