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Regina Spektor Looks Back on the ‘Magic,’ ‘Confusing’ Downtown New York Scene As 2002’s ‘Songs’ Sees First Official Release
Regina Spektor on the official release of 'Songs,' her 2024 concerts and New York's scene in the early '00s.
Four years before her fourth album, 2006’s Begin to Hope, made Regina Spektor one of the brightest stars of the ‘00s indie boom, the Russia-born American singer-songwriter was just another starving artist traipsing around New York City, playing free gigs and selling CD-Rs out of her backpack. When her 2003 major-label debut Soviet Kitsch — and, more importantly, Begin to Hope ’s breakout hit “Fidelity” (a Billboard Hot 100 entry that appeared in a laundry list of TV shows and movies) — made Regina Spektor a national name, Songs faded into the background. Here, Spektor talks to Billboard about those lean but creatively fruitful days selling CD-Rs out of a backpack, getting Ludwig to briefly come out of retirement to do her a solid, and how a few generous concertgoers helped her stay motivated to keep making music,
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