Alina Simone

Alina Simone’s haunted Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware asks its listeners to consider an attempt to absorb a cover record with songs by a Russian woman they’ve probably never heard of. Having listened to, and enjoyed, Simone’s particularly personal brand of indie, I shot questions at her Blackberry in order to clear up just what all this expanding-one’s-horizons malarkey was about.

Cokemachineglow’s Conrad Amenta (CMG): I’ll start at the top: who is Yanka Dyagileva, and why an entire album covering her songs specifically, rather than someone else’s?

Alina Simone (AS): I think the answer any musician would give to the question “Why did you decide to cover so-and-so’s music?” is that they really love it. And in my case, I would say that I was completely obsessed, listening to my favorite Yanka CD (Sold) for weeks on repeat as I drove across the country on tour. As to why Yanka in particular…well, in the history of Soviet rock, Yanka is unique. There simply weren’t many female ‘indie-rockers’ during that era, and none who I find to be as good as Yanka. She is the only woman whose music I really relate to stylistically, in that her songs are very raw, driving and melody-driven and she favors very simple chord structures. Oh, and she really wasn’t interested in sounding ‘pretty’ or feminine. I like that too. I try to enjoy the increasing mellowfication of today’s female indie divas, but again and again seek refuge in Yanka’s music for a fix I can’t seem to get anywhere else.

There are other Russian bands whose music I love, but whenever I listened to Yanka’s songs, I found myself harmonizing or imagining new arrangements in my head. I just realized one day that there was space there to make these songs my own.

CMG: I’ve listened to your music, but I’ve yet to hear Dyagileva’s work before. Did you approach it at first with the notion of making it completely your own, or was it important to you that reflect what she was doing, stylistically? Or did you find that there were already a lot of similarities between your work and hers?

AS: It was important to me to capture the spontaneity, rawness and urgency of Yanka’s original recordings, and for that reason, most of the album was recorded live. All of my guitar and vocals were recorded together, in one take. We recorded the album in just two days. But I also wanted to flesh out the songs with exotic new instruments and take the melodies to new places, so it was very much a balancing act—preserving that live feeling, while creating more complicated arrangements with up to five instrumentalists. I do feel there are strong similarities between my work and Yanka’s, in that we both prefer simplicity and directness and favor passion over polish.

CMG: The first time I read that last response my brain saw “prefer simplicity and directness and favor passion over Polish”...now that I see my mistake, I’ve had to abandon the follow up questions that came to mind.

Have you played Russia before?

AS: Yes! I played the Territoria Festival in Moscow a couple of years ago. Then in late Fall of ‘07 I did a little solo tour organized by some rock critics that took me through Moscow, St. Petersburg and the distant city of Arkhangelsk (within the Arctic Circle!). In Moscow, the guy who puts out Yanka’s albums in Europe, and who knew her when she was alive, came to my show and gave me a copy of one of her albums on vinyl. It was really a nice moment.

CMG: I think music listeners can get a sense of what it’s like to play North America, or Europe, from the coverage those tours receive online and in magazines, and even in the way certain musicians sing about touring. Is there anything about playing Russia that you think everyone should know?

AS: Regardless of the somewhat exotic locale—ice-breaking barges looming in the harbors, the still-ubiquitous Lenin statues, and acres of monotonous gray five-story buildings—Russian cities are quickly becoming as hip and modern as their Western counterparts. Most of the indie rock clubs I’ve played were just as styley as any here in Brooklyn!

CMG: It’s hard to find something non-Western without it coming with the “World Music” albatross around its neck, with all the connotations of appropriation that that implies. Do you have any recommendations for listeners who hear your new record and want to get into Russian rock music? Like, is there a certain label one starts with; a Muscovite Sub Pop?

AS: Yes, I find the world music tag very annoying (and was determined to avoid it) because it doesn’t suggest any genre to me, but rather seems to mean music made by people in non-western countries. For those seeking to sample some amazing Russian rock, I would start with Kino (very Pavementy!). And the legendary Auctyon (who I have seen live three times within the past year and each time was blown away!).

CMG: Looking at some of these lyrics I’m struck by their gravity, especially in comparison to a lot of the popular indie that happens to be of the West. For example “From a generation of evil / Into four black numbers / Throw on the old uniform / Worn by somebody to holes.” Or the title, “Everyone is Crying Out to Me, Beware.” This is weighty stuff, history-rich it seems. As someone who lives in American now, do you see the release of this album as a consciously political gesture, a parallel between an ideological viewpoint and what Dyagileva is singing about, or is it far more personal than that?

AS: Yes, you are dead on target. Yanka’s lyrics very much reflect the turbulent era she was living through. Her songs are far from political screeds, but they are full of sharp scorn for the regime: the mindless meetings, the righteous posturing, the hollow pomp and ceremony of a political system and a social order that so many had lost faith in long ago. I wouldn’t say in covering this music I was making any sort of political gesture (it was Yanka’s melodies and voice that hooked me) but I was conscious of the politics expressed and felt that it was rather prescient—like an eerie commentary on our more recent history…

CMG: Do you pay attention to the reviews?

AS: I read them when I come across them, but I don’t much care what they say anymore. I’ve been through the phase of hoping and caring and putting a world of weight into each “important” show/review/whatever and, after enough heartbreak, learned that the most important thing is to be exactly who you are. And to not be a quitter.

CMG: What’s next? Can we hope to see a series of cover albums in the same vein, or will you be returning to your own material soon?

AS: My next album is about 80 percent done. It includes Brazillian druming, vocal loops and flute solos among other things. I play autoharp and toy organ instead of guitar on two songs. There are a lot of rock songs. Hopefully it combines the best of Placelessness and Beware into something…better. But do you know what I’d really like to do next? I’d like to partner up with a DJ and make an album that people could dance to. Yes, seriously.

CMG: I’ve only seen you perform the once, but I was struck by how you use volume and space. I’ve forgotten your guitar player’s name, but with just the two of you up there, and those pipes of yours, it made for some pretty stark and dramatic stuff. It would be interesting to see you use that volume to a different effect, like with rhythm, to get people dancing. Do you imagine it being a major aesthetic shift from what you’re doing now, or do you imagine something more straightforward, like your songs with electronics and beats?

AS: I imagine a total aesthetic shift. Basically, I would like to get rid of my guitar completely and just follow whatever wild path a vocal melody can lead. I’m thinking, for the first time in my life, of taking voice lessons. Especially if I can find a gospel or jazz teacher. In making a more dancey, beat heavy album, the most important thing for me would be to preserve that handmade quality, the organic element, the mistakes and raw edges that makes music a living thing. A lot of “electronic” music sort of dissolves into aural wallpaper, but I’ve never been into making music that’s “easy” to listen to. I guess we’ll see what happens…