{"id":3264,"date":"2011-08-09T12:27:46","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T19:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3264"},"modified":"2011-08-09T12:30:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T19:30:23","slug":"regina-spektor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/regina-spektor\/","title":{"rendered":"REGINA SPEKTOR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

REGINA SPEKTOR<\/h1>\n

A self-proclaimed \u201cnerd\u201d lets fans into the live music-making process<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 2009, Regina Spektor\u2019s director friend Adria Petty convinced her that the time was right to preserve one of her concerts on film. Petty (daughter of Tom Petty) traveled across England on tour with Spektor, filming behind-the-scenes footage, then shot her show at the Hammersmith Apollo. That performance is documented on the new DVD and CD set Live in London<\/em>, which features familiar tunes like \u201cFidelity\u201d and \u201cApres Moi\u201d alongside three previously unreleased stage favorites. The\u00a0Moscow-born singer and songwriter spoke with us from New York City.<\/p>\n

How did you avoid self-consciousness, knowing the show was being filmed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t. (laughs<\/em>) At all times I\u2019m trying to get over some sort of self-consciousness. You want things to be perfect. But I know that eventually all the things I\u2019m cringing about get put through the nostalgia lens. Even though it was hard to sit through the edit, and all I could see and hear were imperfections, I\u2019m sure when I\u2019m 70 I\u2019ll be really psyched. I\u2019ll be like, \u201cOh, I looked so pretty and sang so good.\u201d Right now it\u2019s just like, \u201cOh, why did I squint my eyes? Do I really do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

And the camera is often very close. <\/strong><\/p>\n

People didn\u2019t even get to see that close when I was playing tiny little clubs in New York. Part of the fun of this is that you really get to see how things happen. When I watched Radiohead side-of-stage at festivals, one of the things I loved was seeing how they\u2019re pushing buttons, or seeing [guitarist] Jonny Greenwood switching pedals. To me that\u2019s really fun. I don\u2019t know if that makes me a nerd. (laughs<\/em>) Actually, I know\u00a0that I\u2019m a nerd.<\/p>\n

Why include the unreleased songs? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of these songs had become\u00a0such an important part of the show over the last few years, so it just made sense.\u00a0I thought it would be fun to have them\u00a0available. The people who come to shows can never get these songs except in\u00a0cell-phone quality. Actually, some of the tapers who record my stuff make good\u00a0quality recordings. But I thought I should\u00a0make a really<\/em> good-quality recording\u00a0and put it out. I was thinking, \u201cWell,\u00a0I could wait until they\u2019re properly\u00a0produced and put on record.\u201d But I\u00a0honestly didn\u2019t know when that would\u00a0happen, because I have \u00a0 so many other\u00a0songs. If I didn\u2019t ever\u00a0 write another one, I would\u00a0still have eight records\u2019 worth of songs\u00a0that I\u2019ve written already.<\/p>\n

Have you been writing lately? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mm-hm. I\u2019ve been writing a lot of songs, in part because I\u2019ve also been working on this musical I\u2019m writing [a version of Sleeping Beauty<\/em>]. It\u2019s funny how it works\u2014when I start writing one thing, all of a sudden I start writing 50 things. I think your mind just goes, \u201cOh, we\u2019re doing stuff now.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are your plans for 2011?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want to make a record, and I want to finish the musical. It\u2019s going to take a lot to put it on, and that\u2019s a whole other process. Everything about it is new to me. But right now I\u2019m having so much fun writing and so much fun being home. I love touring, but I toured so much. It\u2019s like a pendulum, I go from being in a new city and a new part of the world every day to not wanting to leave the house. (laughs<\/em>) Just wanting to cook, write music, watch movies and be a complete hermit. I\u2019m in that place now.<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Neal<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REGINA SPEKTOR A self-proclaimed \u201cnerd\u201d lets fans into the live music-making process In 2009, Regina Spektor\u2019s director friend Adria Petty convinced her that the time was right to preserve one of her concerts on film. Petty (daughter of Tom Petty) traveled across England on tour with Spektor, filming behind-the-scenes footage, then shot her show at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1334,2342,970,1640],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3269,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264\/revisions\/3269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}