Inspiration: Regina Spektor

It’s been a couple of weeks since I went to her show at the Minneapolis State Theater and Regina is still humming in my head:

They’ll name a city after us
And later say it’s all our fault
Then they’ll give us a talking to
Then they’ll give us a talking to
’cause they have years of experience
Living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Living in a den of thieves
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious…

(from the song Us, one of my favs)

I find it natural to draw inspiration from music, especially music from artists like Regina Spektor whose voice springs from her soul.  She paints the air with her rich tones; she tickles the brain with her lyrics.  She is sarcastic.  She is serious.  Every song she sings is a mini book.  A novella.  I can picture the characters and situations as she sings them.  For instance:

A man walks out of his apartment,
It is raining, he’s got no umbrella
He starts running beneath the awnings,
Trying to save his suit,
Trying to save his suit.
Trying to dry, and to dry, and to dry, but no good

Or “Reading Time with Pickle.”  Or “All the Row Boats.”  Many of Regina’s songs conjure up vivid images that have fantastic sticking power.  She thinks about the world in unique ways and describes ordinary events in unusual terms.  For instance, in “Braille,” she talks about her subject “lying on the floor and counting stretch marks,” as if the woman in her song is reading her skin.

Regina Spektor is my Gabriel Garcia Marquez of music.  In her world, men sell butterflies out of trench coats, birds complain about weariness, and the Bible’s Sampson eats Wonderbread.

And that’s ok.  There are too many mundane ways to tell a story.

Better to detach your mind from the “shoulds” and “musts” and think about the “what ifs.”  What if I tell a story from this angle instead of that one?  What if I think about things from this point of view instead of that one?  What if birds could talk?  What if Wonderbread was around in Biblical times?  Or Sampson is around in modern times?  What if words had color?

This entry has been a bit of an abstract ramble, but I hope you understand my main point.  It is healthy to think about the world in unique ways and challenge normalcy.  Regina Spektor does this exceedingly well and I draw on the power of her voice and her lyrics as a source of inspiration.  To close:
On the radio
We heard November rain
That solo’s awful long
But it’s a good refrain

You listen to it twice
’cause the DJ is asleep
On the radio…

Thank you, Regina.  You are one of many artists that give me strength and inspire me in my writing.
-Kate