May 25, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Insomniac Edition: Regina Spektor – All The Rowboats
Regina Spektor – All The Rowboats from What We Saw From The Cheap Seats (to be released on Tuesday, May 29, 2012)
Mother Jones – What Regina Spektor Sees From the Cheap Seats
MJ: You incorporate lots of languages into your songs—French, Russian, Latin, Spanish. Is English not enough to express certain feelings or meanings?
RS: Really good question. I don’t know if it’s just going through immigration really early in life but, we went through three places. We went first into Austria, where you spoke German, and that’s why my last name is actually spelled with a K, because it’s the German way. And then we went into Italy and then into America, where I had to learn both English and Hebrew. So I think it kind of made me just all around feel like language is so arbitrary. It’s as arbitrary as borders and it’s all manmade. And if you deconstruct it, it’s just cool sounds. And certain feelings get triggered by those sounds. So, it feels like a color. Or a sample. I guess sometimes English doesn’t feel like enough. But, you know, I also make up words and make up sounds, so I guess nothing feels like enough! [Laughs.]
