The DailyER Talks With Jeanie Schroder, Bassist, Sousaphonist And Vocalist Of DeVotchKa

Story by Casey Welsch 

| Published Nov 11, 2008

ER: DeVotchKa has a very unique sound comprised of all sorts of world musical styles. How did all that come together?

JS: We all kind of liked some different kinds of music. When we came together, we all kind of brought things to the mix and that’s how we ended up with our sound.

There are elements of mariachi, classical, French accordion, jazz, folk and middle-eastern styles.

ER: That’s pretty diverse palate. Where are you all from?

JS: Our singer Nick (Urata, who sings and plays the theremin, guitar, bouzouki, piano, and trumpet) is from New York.

Tom (Hagerman, who plays violin, accordion, and piano) is from Colorado Springs. I’m from Littleton Colorado and Shawn (King, who plays percussion and trumpet) is from Hartford, Conneticuit.

ER: You’re all local? How did you all come into contact with such diverse music?

JS: A lot of us...I don’t know how we were really exposed to it. I suppose it’s mostly from family, traveling around finding things, college, one of us had a semester in Mexico.

He heard a lot of music down there he wanted to use. My family traveled around a lot when I was a kid and I picked stuff up that way.

ER: How long has this music been a part of your life?

JS: It’s a lifelong thing. My first instrument was the piano. Tuba is now my primary instrument, bass is secondary, one that I picked up along the way.

ER: Do you ever get a chance to tour abroad and take your international sound on the international circuit?

JS: Oh yeah. We went to Europe three times this year. We’ve toured around Spain, England, Scotland, Istanbul, Poland, Moskow and Finland.

ER: How are the audiences in these far off lands?

JS: I was surprised people were actually singing the words to our songs where we’ve never been before.

It seemed like folks that grew up with the sort of music we were emmulating, felt that we were more paying homage than imitating.

ER: That’s good. I know that bands like Gogol Bordello get a lot of flack from world music purists who say that they’re subverting a deep tradition.

JS: Yeah, we don’t get a lot of that. We’re not really trying to create pure gypsy sounds, though we have had people get very mad at us because of our music before.

ER: Oh yeah, what for?

JS: We opened for Marylin Manson a few years ago. Some of the people there liked it and some people threw things at us.

ER: How did you get roped into doing Marylin Manson?!?

JS: His wife at the time was big and burlesque, and she liked us. He asked for us to open for him.

ER: Moving on to politics now, what are your thoughts on the finally decided election?

JS: As a band we are very excited that it came out the way that it did. Personally, I’m just glad that it’s over, so we can talk about something different now.

This is definitely a better direction for our country.

ER: Out of all the countries you’ve visited, where is the best food?

JS: France, they have some wonderful food. Portugal also has wonderful food. Lots of fish and shrimp and seafood. I like all that.

In Spain, pork is in everything, even the vegetarian dishes. We have a few vegetarians in the group, and they would order a vegetarian meal, and it would come with pork in it. That wasn’t so good.

ER: Where are the best fans?

JS: Ooh. I have to think back through all the places we’ve went. I would say that they’re really great in Portugal, Spain, London, Paris and a really fun crowd in Istanbul and Amsterdam. The whole country of Holland is really fun.

In Finland, they’re very appreciative but very quiet about it. That’s a little different attitude. They won’t dance much or anything, but will tell you how much they loved you after the show. It’s strange.

ER: How important is getting the audience to dance for your band?

JS: It really helps the energy on stage. It helps us know that they’re having fun. It let’s us know that we’re doing something right and gives us the inspiration to be even better.

ER: What is your touring schedule like in a typical year?

JS: Some years we are out as much as six months throughout the year, others three to four.

ER: What is it like being the only woman in a 3/4 male band?

JS: It hasn’t been too bad. The guys in the band are really great people. Touring is a really hard life anyway, so we just all try to make each other laugh and stay positive.

ER: What is the best show you’ve ever played?

JS: This past September at Red Rocks. That was exciting for me and the guys, since we all live in Denver now.

Or maybe when we played for the first sold out show in New York or L.A. That was exciting. We had a really good time on Jools Holland with Portishead.

ER: Aside from the instrumentation, what do your songs mean?

JS: A lot of them are about love, love gone wrong or love being successful, or missing somebody that you love or being separated from what you love.

Some are more about putting your all into something and wondering if there’s any reward in it.

ER: Is that last part a materialization of what being in a band is all about?

JS: I don’t know that we’ve ever really talked about it, but for the last album it might have crept in there.