Kurt Andersen: This is Studio 360. I'm Kurt Andersen and I am very happy to report that Regina Spektor is here with me now to play a few songs off her new record and talk. Her new record is called Far and Regina. Welcome to Studio 360. 

Regina Spektor: Thanks a lot. 

KA: So what are you going to play for us? 

RS: I could play, I could play "Laughing With". 

KA: Let's hear it. 

[MUSIC - "Laughing With"]

KA: That is Regina Spektor performing the very, very excellent "Laughing With" live off her new album, Far. There are a lot of songs in this album that get into religious spiritual ideas again and again. 

RS: Yeah. I noticed that actually when I was sequencing the record, I was like, kind of surprised me. And you know, I think it's fun that way when you just kind of don't plan on something and it still happens. 

KA: And you connect the dots afterwards rather than deciding on some grand album concept in advance? 

RS: Yeah, exactly. It feels like actually more natural, like less, you know, agenda specific or something. 

KA: Are you a religious person? Do you have a kind of religious point of view? 

RS: Well, I think that my point of view is very malleable and it changes from day to day. It's a very mysterious thing. But I myself personally have always felt a kind of faith and a kind of feeling with the world. But that's about it. Everything else is sort of up for grabs. 

KA: Your family emigrated from Russia to New York City in 1989. You were nine years old. How come? 

RS: Well, the main reason was us being Jewish and Soviet Union being quite, you know, openly not the friendliest of countries towards Jews. 

KA: And then two years after you got here, the Soviet Union collapsed. 

RS: Yeah, we watched it on the TV. It was very bizarre to see tanks going through Moscow while sitting in the Bronx in our little apartment. 

KA: And did your parents think, well, maybe we should go back? 

RS: Um, no. My parents really were so interested in the Jewish, in their Jewish heritage and also they were just, they loved the West. My dad always loved Western music. We had Beatles and Queen and Moody Blues. They loved the idea of this kind of freedom that America has and this kind of open-endedness. And to tell you the truth, as I found out from some of our friends that came later in the 90s, the anti-Semitism actually got worse afterwards. 

KA: Once the Soviet lid was taken off the pot, it got even uglier? 

RS: Well, I think what happens is unfortunately sometimes with Jews is, you know, while Russia was Soviet, then it was like the Jews are the bourgeois. They wanted to oppose the revolution and they were with the Tsar and all this stuff. Then of course, as soon as the Soviet Union fell, the Jews, they were the communists. They made us, you know, so it's unfortunate. Once it was kind of a free market, then they had hundreds of newspapers that could freely publish all this terrible stuff. Almost to the point of poisoning the wells, kind of drinking blood kind of stuff. The good old days of the medieval times. 

KA: So as a kid here, did you have any trouble fitting in or not? 

RS: I think I came at a very lucky time because I think that when you're nine and a half, ten years old, eleven, you're not a teenager yet, so you're not that aware. And also, it's one of those things where you're so don't fit in that it's fine because you're so out that it doesn't matter. 

KA: Right, right, right. Your lyrics are so dense and interesting and writerly. Were you a writer as a kid? 

RS: Sometimes I fancy them myself. I loved writing. 

KA: That's all any writer does, is fancy themselves as a writer. 

RS: I think I have that kind of a three to five minute mind. 

KA: Good, so does the world, so you're set. 

RS: Yeah, I could maybe write three minute novels, but I love writing songs and they feel so good when I'm writing a song because it's just like this kind of happiness that's very unique to that particular experience. I bet it would be amazing if that would span an entire group of songs or somehow an interconnected project, but that's really hard for me right now for some reason. 

KA: Well...

RS: Like for most people. [laughs]

KA: There's no rush, you're only 29 and will you play another one of those songs that gave you such pleasure for us? 

RS: Yeah, of course. This is called "Folding Chair". 

[MUSIC - "Folding Chair"]

KA: That is the utterly and completely delightful Regina Spektor playing "Folding Chair" off her new album Far. Now did you, is, do I take that to be that one of those sounds you made the sound of a dolphin? 

RS: Attempted. [laughs]

KA: Very well done.

RS: Thanks, I've had some I've had some people with marine biology skills tell me that it's not really correct, but I did my best.

KA:  Eh, it's art. It doesn't have to be correct. You have lived in New York since you've come to the United States, 20 years.

RS: Mm-hmm.

KA: You seem pretty New York-y as a person. 

RS: [laughs] Yeah.

KA: Do you can you imagine living somewhere else?

RS: No, not really. Though I, sort of, get to have the best of it all, because I, I, sort of, get to live everywhere. Also, because I just tour so much and I get to go everywhere. So I think that New York can kind of drive people crazy if they just live in it and don't go anywhere. It sort of gets you, it sort of gets you and you get to that point where you're like, I cannot go underground another time. I can not go into the subway another time because it just becomes too much. But the way that I have it, it's like I love it so much and I can never take it for granted. I'm never trying to leave. I'm always just trying to come back, you know.

KA: And your parents still live here?

RS: Yeah, they live in the Bronx.

KA: And, and how do they feel about having come to the United States and raised this famous American artist? 

RS: I think that well last night I played the Beacon Theater. I don't know actually when this is gonna be airing but imaginary last night. I played the Beacon Theater and I think that everybody probably saw my parents like them beaming pride and and they were so...they're just so proud and so excited. I don't know they but you know, they were always Like that they take me to like the crappiest bars and they would help me carry my keyboard and so they're just...they love new music. They love creativity and they always support like me and all my friends who've made music, so I'm really lucky. 

KA: Excellent. Thank you very much for coming in. 

RS: Thank you very much.

KA: Regina Spektor's new album Far is out right now and that is it for today's show. Thanks very much for listening and I hope you're listening in next week. 

[MUSIC - "The Calculation"]

KA: Studio 360 is produced by PRI public radio international and WNYC. Our production team includes Julie Burstein, Vital Moulin, David Krasnow, Michelle Siegel, Derek John, Jenny Lawton, Pike Medinowski, Amanda Aroncek, Alana Harper, Kelly Sullen, Matt Frassica, Annie Minoff, Irene Trudell. Special thanks this week to David Isay and sound portraits and our theme music is by David Van Teavum.