[MUSIC - "Poor Little Rich Boy"] Marc Maron: 34 past the hour Marc Maron here with Mark Riley. Mark Riley: Hey! MM: It's Air America Radio's Morning Sedition Program. That sound you hear is Regina Spektor. She's been a favorite of the New York City Cafe Circuit since 2001. I don't even know what that is. MR: Yeah, what is it? MM: Then we'll talk to her in a minute. Her latest full-length CD is Soviet Kitsch. She has a new CD of live material called Regina Spektor, Live at Bull Moose. She'll be at Irving Plaza in New York tomorrow night. Please welcome the Morning Sedition. Regina Spektor, good morning Regina. Regina Spektor: Good morning. MR: Good morning. MM: I'll be honest with you. I was given this CD. I didn't know who you are. I don't know what the New York cafe scene is. MR: I've been trying to steal the CD ever since he got it. MM: I played it because I found the cover interesting and compelling. I was like, what is Soviet Kitsch? Who is this person, Regina Spektor? And you're like... MR: He broke it. You see, he broke the CD cover. MM: You're great. You're one of those overly talented people. You're one of those kind of geniusy, like, wow, what a gifted person this is. Where do you come from? Another planet? RS: Sort of. Soviet Union.[laughs] MM: Really? You come from the Soviet Union? How long have you lived here? RS: Since I was nine and a half. I went from Moscow to the Bronx. MM: Okay. So did you grow up in a very Russian neighborhood or no? RS: No. MM: Not at all. RS: We were actually one of the first two Russian families there in something like 15 years. We were in the front page of the Bronx. MM: The Russians are coming. MR: The Russians are coming. The Russians are coming. RS: Totally. I was playing handball against the wall of my building wearing a Salvation Army dress. MM: Like nine and a half. So how long have you been playing music? I know that this one, this CD, which is the first full-length CD, you put out yourself originally? RS: Well, no. It's actually, I'd made one in college, then I made another one, and then this is actually the third one. But it's the first one that's ever been put out by a record company. MM: Oh, wow. So well, congratulations. And now where do you perform? Tell me about the New York City Cafe Circuit. There is sort of a cabaret-ish kind of thing going on in the music that I noticed, but there's also a very contemporary kind of a cool hip thing going on. Did I just explain the Cafe Circuit? RS: I think you did. I don't know. I mean, I played at Sidewalk Cafe. I started, and that's pretty much the only cafe that I've ever played at. MM: That's the Cafe Circuit? I mean, Rich Shapiro plays there on Tuesday nights. RS: Yeah, he's awesome. MM: Yeah, yeah, I've known him for years, because we did comedy together. But that is the Sidewalk Cafe is the Cafe Circuit. RS: Yeah, and also the old Living Room. It used to be on Stanton, and now they move. MM: The Living Room is that, I remember that. Yeah, sure. So that's it. That's the New York Cafe Circuit. RS: That's as far as I know. [laughs] MR: I've got to ask you something, because I'm looking at your background material here, and I realize that a lot of people heard your music, not as recorded albums or whatever, but they just heard you play or they heard you sing or whatever, and they were drawn to your music. Do you consider yourself to be a natural? MM: Silly question. MR: No, the reason why I asked is because I met guys... MM: I wouldn't say because there's really silly, because you just laughed right at me. MR: No, because I've met a lot of people in my life who were natural musicians. I know a guy who's, from the time he first picked up a pair of drumsticks, he knew how to play almost without having to be taught. That's what I mean by a natural. RS: Oh, no, I was taught. MR: You were taught, okay. RS: I was taught classical music, and I think that kind of, I don't know, I'm a very nervous performer and stuff like that. But it's sort of, I guess it's one of those things where, like as soon as I start playing, then I just... MR: You're in it. You're a natural. That's what you think I want to admit it, but you are. MM: So you were classically trained in what? RS: In piano. MM: Oh, okay. So that's all you playing piano on this? RS: Oh, yeah. I play and sing at the same time. Like the Serving show that I'm doing is going to be all solo. MM: That's tomorrow, so it's just going to be you and the piano? Yeah. And then you have a guy, I noticed there was a guy making noises. RS: Oh, that's me. I played piano with my left and hit the drumstick with my right. MR: There you go. RS: On the chair. MM: Wow, you are gifted. So that's... RS: It's more of an acrobatics. I sort of destroyed my mom's piano bench in the process of figuring that out. I just got really bored. I was living in my parents' apartement in the Bronx, and I was home one day. There were some drumsticks around because my mom had been taking classes. MM: Your mom was taking drum classes? RS: [laughs] No, no, no. Wouldn't that be really cool? No, she was a professor of music in Russia, and then she went back to school to become an educator. She teaches in a public school in Yonkers. So she teaches music to kids, and when you go to get your masters or whatever, you have to kind of learn every instrument a little bit. One day I came home, she was trying to play the trumpet. It was awful. Is there a broken pipe in the building? A horrible sound coming from our apartment. But so there were these drumsticks lying around, and I kind of demolished the piano bench, but I did teach myself. MM: So that must have been nice to grow up in an environment that was at least supportive. You didn't have parents going, why music? RS: I'm like the only one, of anyone I ever known. My parents actually had to ask them at one point to not come to a show just so I could feel what it was like to not have your parents in the audience. MM: How nice to have supportive parents. Our producer, Dan Pashman, has a family. They travel together. He's in his late 20s, and you're like, where you going for lunch? I don't know, I meeting my mom, my dad, my brother, my grandparents down at the diner and I'm like, what the hell is wrong with you people? RS: No, that's how it is. When I was at university, kids just couldn't understand. It's like, I'd speak, my mom would call me. MM: That's weird. RS: She needed to hear my voice. Then my dad would call me. Then my mom would call me, and my dad would pick up the other phone. MM: So you have conference calls with your parents? MM: So they won't worry. Basically, that's what they do. RS: Yeah, yeah. They worry. MM: It's not about love, it's just about fear. RS: [laughs] MM: So why don't we hear some of your music? Can we do that, Chris? Can we hear the song? I'd like to hear the song, "Us". Would that be okay? This is Regina Spektor. [Music - "Us"] MM: There's a little taste of Regina Spektor's songs. The album is Soviet Kitsch. I still call them albums, and I'm not even as old as Mark Riley. The CD is Soviet Kitsch. She's appearing tomorrow night at Irving Plaza in New York. And we're going to give away some tickets to that. In a few minutes, that song is called "Us". So now like this is, the music is a little, it's unique. It's not the mainstream music. So I imagine that you, your following is primarily from people that just adore you from your live performances. RS: Yeah. MM: And I went to your website, you have an international following. RS: Yeah, they're amazing. I don't know where they come from. MM: Isn't it weird when you go to another country and you're treated like Jesus? And yet you're still playing with seven people at the sidewalk cafe in your own country. You're like, what's wrong here? Why am I even here now? Because people here are jaded and they don't go out much. So you come from Russia. Do you remember immigrating? Were you one of, are you, are you Jewish? Were you part of the great mass migration of Jews out of Russia? RS: Yeah, absolutely. It was like, my, you know, Gorbachev said, you know, you can apply to, for visas. And like the next day of my parents, like a, and then a year later... MM: Gorbachev said, if the Jews would like to leave, they're welcome to. RS: Yes. And all these Jews are like, okay. MR: Wow. MM: My family, I think comes back to Russia, but it was before that, that whole thing. You know, I know I got, I'm kind of an Eastern European mutt Jew, third generation. RS: I'm a mutt Jew. MM: You are? But you, but you at least are... MR: Is this a Jewish thing? I've never heard the term mutt Jew. MM: I just came up with it. RS: It was just created, right? I mean, we're witnessing history. MM: Oh, I feel important. Thank you for giving me that credit. I'm glad to be part of this moment in history. Now, tomorrow night, do, are you sold out or is it packed out? Do you don't know you don't have those kind of things? RS: Well, I checked up to the point where I was like really scared I was playing for 50 people. Like, oh shit. MM: Very good. No cursing on the radio. RS: Oh, was that a curse? MM: Kind of. RS: I thought it was a bodily function. I am so sorry. MR: That's okay. MM: You should say, oh, poop then. RS: Yeah. MM: But, um... RS: Gosh. MM: But I'll tell it, gosh is good. Yeah, that'll be fine. RS: I'm so sorry. MM: Don't worry about it. It's okay. We got past it. There's a tool we use. It's called, let's just remove that thing ever from happening. So not only did you witness a moment in history moments ago, we just erased history as it happened. RS: Well, isn't that such a United States thing to do these days? MM: Absolutely. Absolutely. And we borrowed it from Russia before we could... RS: Yeah. It's, yeah, because it's actually really funny because I used to be the most, like at university, the most, I would come off as more conservative than my friends because, you know, I'd be walking through school and there'd be kids on their megaphones and they'd be like, are you free in this country? Nah! And I was like, well, I mean, I come from a country where, you know, you could get a bullet in the back of your head or taken to Siberia. And I always would be like defending and the American ideals and it's just getting harder and harder to be that person, you know. MM: That's really, that's really interesting. Because some of my wife's relatives come from Berlin and remember before it was liberated what it was like to live like that. And so, you know, compared to that, of course, you can say what we want. I can say like, you know, I don't like Jesus and the Pope sucks and no one's going to shoot me. Except in May, uh-oh. So we're going to give away a couple of tickets to your show tomorrow night. The first two callers who actually can, you know, go to Irving Plaza tomorrow night and enjoy the music of Regina Spektor, call us and we'll set you up. The new CD is Soviet Kitsch. Regina Spektor has been our guest. We'll go out with a little of your music. Thank you for being with us. RS: Thank you. MM: Thank you very much for being here. The phone number if you want to win the tickets, of course, is 866-303-2270. So call up and you can go see Regina. I can't, I got to go to bed at 8. 47 past the hour, we'll be back in a second. Marc Maron with Mark Riley, Air America Radio's Morning Sedition. [Music - "Us"] MM: All right, let's put this thing down. 52 past the hour, Air America Radio's Morning Sedition program. I'm Marc Maron. That's Mark Riley. MR: Hi. MM: We want to congratulate Michael in Inwood and Luria, whose husband is Regina Spektor's voice coach for winning tickets to... MR: Wait a minute, is he eligible? MM: Yeah, he would think he could have gotten in if he had connections. Maybe it's her old voice coach for getting tickets to see Regina Spektor tomorrow night at Irving Plaza, play a solo performance. Regina would also like us to say hi to her sound... MR: Her sound guy. MM: Pierre, who is about to have a baby and is apparently a fan of the show. So good morning to you, Pierre. All right.