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- [00:00]
Kushan Avadar
Hey, Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month?
- [00:05]
Regina Spector
With the Fidelity app, you can choose.
- [00:07]
Narrator/Announcer
A schedule and set up recurring investments.
- [00:10]
Regina Spector
In stocks and ETFs.
- [00:12]
Narrator/Announcer
Huh.
- [00:13]
Regina Spector
That sounds easier than I thought.
- [00:14]
Narrator/Announcer
You got this?
- [00:15]
Regina Spector
Yeah, I do.
- [00:17]
Kushan Avadar
Now, where did I put my keys?
- [00:19]
Narrator/Announcer
You will find them where you left them.
- [00:23]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC. Member NYSE, SIPC.
- [00:31]
McDonald's Advertiser
I' ma put you on, nephew.
- [00:32]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
All right, Unc.
- [00:33]
Narrator/Announcer
Welcome to McDonald's.
- [00:34]
Regina Spector
Can I take your order, miss?
- [00:35]
McDonald's Advertiser
I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.
- [00:47]
Nordstrom Rack Advertiser
New fall arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60% off. Vince, Kurt, Geiger, London and more.
- [00:55]
Narrator/Announcer
How did I not know Rack has Adidas?
- [00:57]
Regina Spector
There's always something new.
- [00:59]
Nordstrom Rack Advertiser
Join the Nordy Club at Nordstrom Rack to unlock exclusive discounts on your favorite brands. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus, get an extra 5% off every rack purchase with a Nordstrom credit card. Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack.
- [01:19]
McDonald's Advertiser
Listener Supported WNYC Studios.
- [01:33]
Kushan Avadar
This is all of it. I'm Kushan Avadar, filling in for Alison Stewart. A few months ago, I had the great pleasure of speaking with singer, songwriter, pianist Regina Spector. She's someone whose work entered my life at the exact right moment. When I was in college, I was learning to play piano, and one of my closest friends said, you've got to listen to Regina Spector. So I listened to a CD and the voice I heard and the piano that played told such vivid stories about joy, about regret. I remember thinking, dang, a piano can do that. Since then, she's performed at the White House, written memorable themes for TV and movies, and released multiple albums. So it was my great joy when she came into the WNYC studios to show us just what a piano and voice can do together. And because we can all use a little more music in our lives, we're excited to re air that conversation today. It began when she sat down at the piano and played a song called Becoming All Alone. Let's listen.
- [02:32]
Narrator/Announcer
I went walking home alone past all the bars and corner delis When I heard God call out my name and he said hey, let's grab a beer it's awful late we both right here and we didn't even have to pay Cause God is God and he's revered And I said why doesn't it get better with time? I'm becoming all alone again Stay, stay, stay Let the ones who want it better get all the things that make them better Let the ones who don't care Feel a thrill and I just wanna ride but this whole world it makes me car sick Stop the meter, sir. You have a heart, why don't you use it? Why doesn't it get better with time? I'm becoming all alone again Stay, stay, stay Day I went walking home alone Past all the bars and corner delis When I asked God, please call call my name and I said hey, let's grab a beer it's awful late I know you're here and we wouldn't even have to pay Cause you are God and you're revered why doesn't it get better with time? I'm becoming all alone again Stay, stay, stay I'm becoming all alone again Stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay.
- [06:23]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Wow, thank you so much. That was beautiful. One thing that I noticed, I'm just sitting here watching for listeners. I'm about what I'd say 20ft away on the piano, watching you. One thing that I see while you play is that you're choosing a register in the piano for a given time in the song and you really get into that lower register of the piano towards the end of it. Is that what. You already have the foundation there and you're really just putting that bass home. What thought goes into there, you know?
- [06:53]
Regina Spector
I think that what happened was when I first started writing songs, I heard so many things in my head and I was so worried about like not being able to grow things or make them small. Like I cared so much about dynamics that I really would just write different parts of songs in different places so that it could kind of have this. It could have somewhere to go, you know, it could travel around. And I don't think I do it consciously, but in hindsight I realized that I was just sort of holding place because I didn't have a bass and I didn't have a cello and I didn't have high strings. So a lot of the time the piano sort of had to imply everything. And between the piano and my voice, I tried to stretch it as far as I could, you know, with impression, implying things.
- [07:50]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Isn't that cool how like the constraint leads to that creation, which is such a well known fact. For anyone who creates anything, it's. You want to make something good, put constraints on it, right?
- [07:59]
Regina Spector
It's true, actually, I think that the limits do kind of help you. Only if you buck against them though, because if you're just kind of staying within the limits and you're just always kind of stuck there, then it doesn't help.
- [08:13]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
How do you buck against them, you know?
- [08:15]
Regina Spector
Well, for me, it was really like, okay, well, you know, I just wrote a song, and it has arpeggios, and it has all this kind of watercolory pedal on it. So the next song I'm gonna write is gonna be, like, really staccato and really aggressive. And, you know, this one has complicated chords, and this one's gonna be three chords, or this one's gonna be just the voice. And I also tried as much as I could to sort of stretch my voice into doing things and just kind of to try and shape shift as much as I could, even though I was just playing, you know, a piano, which is. It's kind of interesting because it is a percussion instrument, but it's so vast, and it's just like. It really can be so many different things that I think I got very lucky that if you are gonna get stuck with one instrument, getting a piano is really fun.
- [09:13]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Yeah. Much love to the tuba players, though. They do what they can with.
- [09:17]
Regina Spector
They do as a matter of. I've had really amazing tuba. I've had the pleasure of having amazing tuba on a lot of my records and songs. And what they brought to the song, nothing else could bring.
- [09:29]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Absolutely. If you're just joining us, welcome. Thank you. We are wnyc, all of it. I'm Kusha Navadar, and I'm here with Regina Spector, singer, songwriter. Her latest album, before and After. And you're celebrating, I guess in air quotes, some major milestones. OG fans are celebrating them with you. It's been 10 years since your song from Orange is the New Black, and about 20 years since you first released your breakout album, Soviet Kitsch. Question for you about all of those milestones. Are there big lessons you feel like you've carried from one project to the next, or is every project just like fresh start? What are we looking at to do this time?
- [10:10]
Regina Spector
I try really, really hard to have a fresh mind because I do think that. I do think that as we kind of, you know, do a lot of things, the field becomes narrower and narrower because we naturally want to, as people, be comfortable and with the familiar. I mean, I think there's a reason why sort of like people who kind of get to a certain age, they're not there checking out the new bands. They're kind of just kind of. And, you know, that happens with all kinds of things. People just sort of realize that they think they know everything, they're arbiters of their taste, and they sort of get a little condescending. But I do think that, you know, if you have the energy and if you have the curiosity, I think it's very worthwhile to keep that beginner's mind alive and to make yourself slightly uncomfortable, even if it is something as simple as, oh, I'm gonna go to this part of town that I've never been to, and I'm gonna just walk into a restaurant of the kind of food I've never e. Because something happens when you travel, when you eat, when you listen, when you do things that are outside of the norm for you. And I think when you make art, it's kind of your job, like, you have to stay very, very open. But I think that even just if you don't make art, just as a human wanting to have a really good life experience, it really pushes you. And I really try very hard to do that consciously, even though it's not always easy. Because when you have made a lot of records, you know, you. You kind of tend to sometimes also fall into those, like, well worn grooves and everything. That's why, like, when I. When I made home before and after the world because of the pandemic, sort of forced me into this new way of working. I'd never worked remotely with anybody and. And it was just a very different experience because I'm so used to being so hands on. But I have to say that even though it was really hard, I learned a lot just by doing things in a new way.
- [12:22]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
So I want to think about doing things in a new way, but also based on your roots, which I think is an interesting intersection there. Something you and I actually share in common is that we're both immigrants who moved to New York City around the same time and because of tough circumstances in our home countries. So you're from Moscow originally, right? I'm from Tehran originally.
- [12:46]
Regina Spector
Wow.
- [12:46]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
And about a year ago, I read in this music blog with Stereogum that you were talking about your music lineage. And I'll just. I'll recap so you don't have to go back to the archives.
- [12:56]
Regina Spector
He just sees me squinting at you.
- [12:57]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Yeah, right. But here's what you said that really struck me. You said one huge part of you that you don't get to share much with your American friends is the Russian singer songwriters that you grew up with. And you said it's a huge part of you and you love them because they made up Songs about the craziest things. And, and I gotta say that, like, forgive the pun, that struck a chord with me because it's like, what do you get to share? What do you not get to share? But also where do you reflect on the artistic roots of where you're from? So I wanted to jam on your roots a little. Is there a Russian singer songwriter you grew up with that I should be listening to? And what do they write about?
- [13:33]
Regina Spector
Oh my God. Well, there are so many. And it's, you know, it's one of those things that when, when I saw the Matrix, like I was like, oh, you know, if I could just, instead of like downloading how to, how to have incredible martial arts skills, like if I could download into all of my American friends just a program that would allow them to partake in all these incredible Soviet era singer songwriters. Because basically there was, you know, there was like the official music and all of these, all of these other people, they were just making these cassette tapes, they were house concerts, they were kind of camping get togethers and they would write the most amazing songs usually accompanied by guitar. They were all self taught, but it was because in Russia basically poets were heroes. It really had like such a love of poets and so poetry, the poetry of these songs was on such an incredible level. But I would say that, you know, of my soul, soul, like if I was, if I could somehow. And I don't even know how you would translate a lot of it. It's so particular. But there's this amazing, brilliant singer songwriter named Vladimir Vosotsky and he was a great actor of the stage, but he wrote hundreds and hundreds of songs really on all kinds of topics. And the amazing thing that he did was he embodied the characters. So he would have everything from the deepest, most emotional songs about World War II, where even veterans would write to him. He was just a little boy during World War II, but veterans would write and he would say, I remember that I was in your platoon. I remember that moment. It was that vivid. And that's incredible. And, and then he would also write these hilarious songs from the point of view of, you know, petty criminals or just, you know, all kinds of people, like. And he would, you know, the thing that really influenced me was he would embody really bad people. He was sort of like an anti hero in a lot of them.
- [15:45]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Oh, wow.
- [15:46]
Regina Spector
And it was really incredible. And I really internalized that idea of like, I always wanted to have all these different perspectives and to be these different characters in my songs because I just loved so Much listening to those stories.
- [16:00]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
So you feel like that's kind of where your storytelling bug came from or that inspiration of how you tell a story through music.
- [16:07]
Regina Spector
It was definitely a big part of it. I think also just I had an insatiable hunger for stories just ever since I was little. Like, if you wanted me to just pay attention to you all, you had to be like, once upon a time. And I, like, sit down and just be like, yes, yes, and tell me more. And as soon as one. One story would be over, I would just have this pining for a new story. And so I loved fairy tales, myths, books, you know, films. And it still goes on, you know, this insatiable, hungry for. Tell me a story that brings up.
- [16:48]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
A question that I was gonna ask way later, but I feel like it's perfect right now. An element of your songs that resonates, I think, with a lot of people is the storytelling aspect of it. And I think on a lot of songs, I notice that sometimes it's the change in time signature that you choose to do that evokes that sense of, like, stream of consciousness storytelling. Is there a conscious connection there with changing time signatures or is it just. That's how it came out. That's what it is.
- [17:16]
Regina Spector
You know, it's funny, like, so much of what I find out about my own music is from other people telling it to me. I think most of it is actually not very conscious. And I do very much respect people who are always talking about the craft of songwriting and all that. I believe them. And I know that somewhere in there, like, I have been gifted, you know, a music education by my teacher, and I have been gifted these skills so that I can go over to the piano and I could find things when I look for them, instinctively or unconsciously, as opposed to just being like a shadow artist, which is somebody who feels all the feelings and wants to make art. Just hasn't been given the skills to actually do it in whatever medium, you know. And so I'm so grateful for that because I think I would just be brimming with feeling and I wouldn't be able to get it out. But as far as, like, knowing what it is I do consciously, I've only found out from people in hindsight. They're like, oh, there's like a flatted ninth. And I'm like, I don't even know what that means. You know, Makes me feel like a, you know, like a musical idiot.
- [18:28]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Well, no, no, not idiot. I think just the pioneer, the ones creating. You're too Busy creating it.
- [18:32]
Regina Spector
Right.
- [18:34]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
There's one song that comes to mind that does a lot of these things. It's Loveology. It's on your newest album. I'm hoping maybe you might have that one in your back pocket you could share with us.
- [18:44]
Regina Spector
Yeah, of course.
- [18:45]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
So before you play, is there a quick idea of what people should be listening to or something you really appreciate about the song, you know?
- [18:53]
Regina Spector
Well, that's so hard to talk about songs. I'm always just struck silent when I get asked questions. I know for a fact that the thing about this song that's so special to me is that I wrote it in my early 20s. I played it, I think, once or twice, and then I kind of left it, but. Because at that time in New York, there were people coming to my shows and they would record songs and they would put them up on the Internet. And so these songs, even though they never got to be on a record or have this life of being fulfilled properly in a studio, had a life of their own. And a lot of them were kept alive by fans and listeners sharing it. And so eventually, actually, this song came back into my life because people had been asking me about it for so long that Jack, my husband, was like.
- [19:51]
Narrator/Announcer
What is this song?
- [19:52]
Regina Spector
Love ology. You know, people keep asking about it. So I figured out how to play it. I played it for him, and he was like, you have to start putting that into your solo shows whenever you go and play solo. So I tried, and I just kind of. I just re. I don't know, remit it. And it was really, like, such a good feeling.
- [20:13]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Let's meet it right now.
- [20:14]
Regina Spector
Okay.
- [20:30]
Narrator/Announcer
Oh, an incurable humanist you are oh, an incurable humanist you I, you I you I. Who are you? Oh, an incurable humanist you are oh, an incurable humanist you O o o r r r R u o o o R I I All right. Let's go to the movies I will hum you a song about nothing at all let's go to the movies I will hum you a song about nothing at all let's go to the movies let's go to the movies Nothing at all, nothing at all, nothing at all, nothing at all oh, oh, an incurable humanist you are oh, an incurable humanist you O r r r R u o I I, I I let's go to the movies I will sing you a song about nothing at all let's go to the movies I will sing you a song about nothing at all let's go to the movies let's go to the movies. Nothing at all. Nothing at all. Nothing at all. Nothing at all.
- [22:37]
Regina Spector
Sit down, class. Open up your Textbooks to page 4 32. Porcupinology.
- [22:48]
Narrator/Announcer
Antlerology. Carology. Busology. Trainology. Planology.
- [22:56]
Regina Spector
Mamaology. Papal.
- [23:08]
Kushan Avadar
Love.
- [23:08]
Regina Spector
Ology. Kiss. Ology.
- [23:13]
Narrator/Announcer
Stay.
- [23:14]
Regina Spector
Ology.
- [23:15]
Narrator/Announcer
Please. Ology.
- [23:17]
Regina Spector
Let's study, class. Let's study, class.
- [23:22]
Narrator/Announcer
Sit down. Love. Ology.
- [23:27]
Regina Spector
Love.
- [23:28]
Narrator/Announcer
Ology. I'm sorry. Ology. Forgive me. Ology. Love. Ology. Loveology. I'm sorry. Ology. Forgive me. Ology. Loveology. Lvology. Lvology. Lvology. Let's study, class. Let's study, class. Sit down. Livology. Love. Ology. I'm sorry. Ology. Forgive me. Ology. Love. Ology. Loveology. I'm sorry. Ology. Forgive me. Ology. Oh, an incurable humanist you are. Oh, an incurable humanist you are. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Forgive me. Ology. Forgive me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me.
- [24:54]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Wow, there's so much in that song that speaks to me about regret, but also where home is, and it feels so perfect. Given that your latest album is called Home before and after and you're home for your tour. Yes, this is gonna be a geeky question.
- [25:14]
Regina Spector
Yes, I love geeky questions.
- [25:16]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
Okay, well, he came to the right studio. You're talking a lot about home lately. Is there a chord or something on the piano that feels like home to you? You can say a chord. You can play something. Is there anything that to you, when you play it, it feels like, ugh.
- [25:32]
Regina Spector
That'S where I sit, you know, Honestly, like, so as you're talking, I know there's no video here. You guys can't see it, but as he asked the question, I just put my hands right on the top of the piano, like, sort of smushing the lid to that nice top. And I think that just touching it, like, right in this spot, like, at the center just feels very grounding to me. I just. I think that because, you know, I do get kind of. Kind of sometimes, you know, nervous or just kind of this whole thing feels a little bit like outside of my nature, you know that when you do have such a nice, big, beautiful, like, Steinway by your side, and you can just go to it, it's almost like being friends with, like, a huge whale or elephant or something. And just, I think more than a chord just kind of touching the piano and being able to lean on it makes me feel, ah, Like I'm home.
- [26:38]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
This is where I am. Yeah, I love that because I think of it as core. It's like the sound that it makes, but for you, it's very tactile. It's. It's. It's. It's where you sit. It's where you can hold on kind of. Is that fair?
- [26:48]
Regina Spector
Yeah, I. That kind of. Yeah, I think, actually. Yeah. The touch of the piano and the keys and the. Yeah. Just because. Actually, a lot of the time I realized this again, only when I started doing television, because they were like, do you ever open your eyes? And I was like, oh, no, I think I kind of don't, you know, But I really. I most of the time play with my eyes closed. And so. So much of the piano is besides sound. It's just this kind of touch to me. Like, I kind of feel, like connected through that.
- [27:22]
Kushan Avadar
That was my conversation with Regina Spector on all of it last summer. She and I talked for so long that we ran out of time to get to a third song Regina had prepared to perform, but she was kind enough to stick around and record the song for us, so we wanted to share it with you. Here's Regina Spector performing the song what Might have Been from her latest album, home.
- [27:44]
Narrator/Announcer
Before and after Sickness and flowers go together Bombing and shelter go together Laughing and hurting go together Finding and keeping go together Canary yellow mustard yellow Yellow tear stains and old pillows Everyone loves a story about love Long, long ago Pirates and parrots go together Sticks and carrots go together Loving and leaving go together Lies and believing go together Canary yellow mustard yellow Yellow tear stains on old pillows Everyone loves a story about.
- [28:57]
Regina Spector
Fire.
- [28:59]
Narrator/Announcer
Far away Living and dying go together Business, sadness and crying go together Passion and madness go together Yellow and sadness go together Canary yellow, mustard yellow Yellow tear stains and old pillows Everyone loves a story about far, far away Everyone loves us down a hu. About long, long ago and what. What?
- [30:04]
Kushan Avadar
That was Regina Spector performing what Might have been live in WNYC's Studio 5 last summer. It's from her latest album, before and After.
- [30:12]
McDonald's Advertiser
I'm gonna put you on, nephew.
- [30:14]
Interviewer (possibly Kushan Avadar or another host)
All right, unk.
- [30:15]
Narrator/Announcer
Welcome to McDonald's.
- [30:16]
Regina Spector
Can I take your order, miss?
- [30:17]
McDonald's Advertiser
I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.
- [30:27]
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