On Hating New York: A Conversation With Shilpa Ray
When you’ve released one of the best records of 2017, but you still have to work as a door girl for a club in New York to make ends meet, a lot of people would be furious. But life’s not fair. A real tough person shrugs and pounds awhiskey. Shilpa Ray is one of those people. In the wake of her critically acclaimed 2017 record Door Girl, she toured the States and Europe and from what I heard, it was awesome.
The day after one of her shows in Bernov, Czech Republic, I got to talk to Shilpa on the phone. When she first answered, a cold shiver ran down my spine. This was the voice of someone beyond their years, soaked with Whiskey and smoked with cigarettes. And in fact, at that moment it was true. “I’m in a dressing room with bottles of yesterday’s booze and some glasses. And I’m waiting for my bandmates to come down so we can pack up.” Her laugh crackles through the phone like a firecracker. “I have a better story about last night. It was a sold out show and everyone was really excited about that. We ran out of merch!” Unfazed by that, Shilpa just laughed it off. “It’s a good sign! And it’s the end of the tour, it would be worse if it was right in the middle.”
People love Shilpa live but the response to her record has also been great. Shilpa is one of those artists you can truly call “indie”, as she calls Brooklyn-label Northern Spy Records her home. With Door Girl, she evolves her songwriting, continuing down a path paved by great artists like Patti Smith or Nick Cave. Her stories, mostly circling around her job as a door girl, are told with sharp observations and biting wit. Lyrics like “The air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife / and the crowds were so thick it could make you want to cut them with a knife” paint a vivid picture of the misery of working shows in New York City in the summertime.
Altogether, Door Girl is a very New York record. “My heart went to making the rent” she spits in “Revelations of a Stamp Monkey,” just as she croons about tiny Chinese ladies collecting cans from the garbage. Shilpa doesn’t paint an expressionist aquarelle, it’s more like graffiti sprayed on a dirty wall.
Confronted with the question if she hates New York she exclaims “Yes!”, sounding a bit desperate and very surprised. Laughing she adds, “But I don’t know where else to go. I’m such a New York person. I remember being somewhere on the West Coast and offending people because I’m so caustic. You know, my sense of humor is rough. There’s just nowhere else for me to go.”
Still, when she talks about the city, you hear a certain tenderness in her voice. “When you grow up in Jersey, you just want to move to New York — or Philadelphia, that’s the other option.” She recounts. “My whole life, I was staring at this huge city which was super diverse and there was so much stuff happening. And I wanted to be a part of it.”
These days, the city has absorbed her. “I have my spots, and I like that. I’m like an old lady. I know where todo my laundry and I know my bodega. I’m friends with my bodega guys. When I go to a restaurant, I get a friends discount, because I’m friends with the owners… those kinds of things.” Having spent so much time dreaming about and living in a city like New York, telling stories about it came naturally for Shilpa. Like in “Door Girl,” where she told the stories from her position as a door girl. “I was sitting there, looking out to the main room all the time, watching everyone like I was watching TV.”
Shilpa writes her own music, but she’s also open to changes and really relaxed about it. “With human beings playing, there’s room for interpretation. If someone comes up with a better way of approaching the line I accept that for sure.” With the finished songs, Shilpa and her band recorded Door Girl in a couple of days at Studio G in Greenpoint. “It was really easy. I came up with a bunch of music that I liked in terms of texture and form and sound. It’s really helpful from a production standpoint to have those references to get your mixes correct. After talking to Jeff Burner, who was the engineer and co-producer, and we came up with a whole plan to do this. Most of it is recorded live, there’s very minimal overdub. It was quick and easy record to make. Before, I made my dudes rehearse like motherfuckers, we basically just sat for hours to make sure that everything was tight.”
In spite of her taking charge of her artistry amongst her peers and that powerful aura she transports to the recordings and her live shows, Shilpa is no stage hog. She prefers the privacy and solitude of writing her music. She’s a bit wary about social media: “I don’t know who is out there and who is reading my stuff. It is very public after all. You have no control over it. Why not give yourself a break, have a good day and go outside”
She reflects directly to what drives her to keep making music. “I like the process in general. I don’t like the results of it — I can’t watch myself. If someone takes a video of me playing, I won’t watch it. But mostly I just like to sit and work on stuff — actually write the material. I like being alone. I just need a room with an instrument an a notebook and then I’m fine.”
Shilpa Ray is playing at Brooklyn’s own Union Pool on February 3rd with The Dreebs and Sharkmuffin and heading back on the road in May. Be sure to check them out live.
