Musical Thingarium 16: “You can scoop out my brain shape it into an ear and then tell me your pain”
Featuring Virginie Rodin, Islands, Human League, Mendoza Line, Oestblocket, Sambassadeur, Madness, Rebels United, DeVotchka
Keren Ann
International chanteuse Keren Ann brings the swirl of her life and influences together in her music in a manner reflecting not only the scenes and emotions of her life and, but also her unifying musical sensibility: Calm. She has gained a lot of attention with this breezy and airy approach, with 2004’s “Nolita” and her most recent recording, “Keren Ann,” released in 2007.
Born Keren Ann Zeidel to a Javanese-Dutch mother and Russian-Israeli father, the French singer divides her time between Paris and New York — place is very important in Keren Ann’s music, with the musical notes functioning as reminders of physical spaces she has inhabited. Keren Ann goes on tour in February to inhabit further spaces.
JM: Do you see yourself living in New York City permanently?
KA: Permanently with a suitcase and a guitar and a tour bus or some hotel
in some town somewhere around the world. I’m touring all the time, but
I do have a place in New York where I can land and write and draw and
I do have a similar place in Paris. Both places are very small, but
they don’t look like hotel rooms, so at least I do have places to put
stuff and go back to it, not that I get very attached to objects, I
gave this up a long time ago.
JM: Did you spend your childhood planted in one place?
KA: We moved a lot. My life as a musician and my parents’ lives as just a
couple moving from one country to another are about the same—about the
same time is spent on planes and trains. We did move a lot from
Holland to Israel to France. Before I was born they had been to
Mexico.
The funny thing is it wasn’t about the moving, it’s not about
exploring or anything, it had to do with business opportunities for my
father, but it was more in my family and the life I lead and the
identity never went through what land your on, what town you were born
in, Catholic mother, Jewish father, everything was mixed up.
I gave up a long time ago trying to find an identity that goes through
either tradition, religion, or nationality. I think that’s why I love
New York so much.
