Catching Up With... DeVotchKa

Nick Urata, lead singer of the genre-defying group DeVotchKa (pictured above, second from right), is a busy man. When Paste first called him, he was just getting out of a live radio session and understandably needed a bit of downtime before our conversation began. An hour later, and he was ready and rearing to talk about the long hard road that DeVotchKa traveled before their recent success (stemming in part from their contribution to 2006's Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack and their subsequent Grammy nod).

Paste: I've read that you grew up in a pretty ethically diverse household. [Urata’s grandparents, a Gypsy and a Sicilian, met in an arranged marriage.] How do you think the diverse background of your family contributed to your interest in blending such different music genres together?
Nick Urata: I think I was always fascinated with it. You know, my parents' generation always seemed in a hurry to get rid of all that old world stuff and just get on with being Americans. I think our generation is left looking around, like, "Who the hell are we?" We're all these mutts and, sure, it's a great melting pot, but I was just kind of haunted like that. I just wanted to find a way for those traditions and those sounds- they planted the seeds.

Paste: How did you begin to head in that direction?
Urata: A lot of it was groping in the dark. Before the age of the Internet it was a little harder to find music, but it's been an ongoing education and I realized early on that we are kind of this melting pot- and I wanted our band to be a melting pot, in that we could use all kinds of different styles and make it something new. We didn’t hamper ourselves by delving too deeply into one particular form or style, just because we aren't going to do it justice, but if we could use it as a spice or a flavor to have some more accessible pop songs, that was our mission.

Paste: Was it through touring with [Dita Von Teese's] national burlesque tour a few years ago that you were inspired to do the extensive set up that you do sometimes on tour, with dancers and the full orchestra set up, or did you have that idea prior to touring with them?
Urata: We always wanted to do that when we could, but it's hard to do when you have no budget, or no fans for that matter. (laughs) But I was always trying to get other artists to collaborate with us, dancers and whoever I could get to expand the show. It's always been aspiration of mine and we kept after it and on this tour we're-- yeah, I think this is our biggest tour yet. And we're adding stuff too that you didn’t get to see in Atlanta. Another good thing about touring all these years is we know a lot of musicians so we had a horn section for the last gig. It's been really great.

Paste: Two days before I saw you live I was having a conversation about a Theremin and then you were playing one on stage. How did you start playing that, how did you first hear about it?
Urata: I've known about it for years, I think I saw one in a museum once and I've always been kind of fascinated with it, and I started to hear about it being used in pop music and stuff, and of course I saw this amazing movie about it, called Theremin. There's actually an amazing story behind it. It's something I've been working on for years. It's a really fun instrument to play—there are not frets or keys or anything. The energy actually comes from you, from your electromagnetic waves that you put out from yourself. Which is sort of odd to think about.

Paste: Right now you're on Anti-, but before that you all were doing it independently, even when you were at the Grammys, which is pretty amazing. What has your experience been since signing and how does it differ from when you were independent?
Urata: The rewarding thing about being on your own is that you can put out stuff whenever and wherever you want it. We certainly took advantage of that, but it sort of got a little hampering because we had been trying for years to get our music played elsewhere, and we had a couple of small labels in Europe that had put it out there. It just got a little bit much because it's a lot of work, and we weren't doing it very well. We were approached by this amazing record label, which has a roster of all of our heroes, so it was really an offer that we couldn't refuse. I think the reason that they have a roster like that is that their m.o. is to let us be who we are and they'll help get the music out there. Our experience has been really good that way.

Paste: Were they involved with you all yet when you were asked by McDonalds to license one of your songs for their commercials?
Urata: No, that was before Anti- was involved, but they almost discourage that sort of thing— they almost see the downside of it, which is nice. [Anti-] just lets us do our thing.

Paste: How did you decide to turn down the commercial offer? It must have been a little tempting, because it was before you were signed, and would have given you more national recognition.
Urata: I certainly don't begrudge bands who do decide to take offers like these, and I think the production value of commercials has really gotten awesome these days. Some of them are kind of cool when they use bands that you like. (laughs) But yeah, I do think that you have to think about what the underlying evil, and in this case we were very unknown, and we were basically starving. I mean, I would have done it for a hamburger (laughs) But the song they chose it was a personal song that I was even hesitant about putting on the record, and it was a sweet love song. When I saw the cut of what they were going to do with it, the song was for the McRib sandwich. (laughs) And I just couldn't live with it. I'm not going to begrudge anybody for putting music in a commercial, especially these days when it's basically impossible to sell CDs, but I think that if there was an archetype for an evil corporation-- I read that book Fast Food Nation just a couple years ago, that was sort of burned in my brain. We stopped going to fast food on the road and saw how it has an exponential effect on everyone's lives. We just couldn't sleep with it.

Paste: But you all did decide to license your music for Little Miss Sunshine, although obviously a movie is different than a commercial. Did you all see the film before you decided to do that?
Urata: We actually started working with the director before they began to shoot the film, and we wrote a ton of music for the film, some of which didn't get in there, but it was like we were working with him on the film. I knew it was going to be good and I love the director, so that one was a no-brainer.

Paste: You guys are headed off to Europe after the American tour finishes- what do you have on the plate after that?
Urata: We got to do this cool thing, where they're doing an anniversary edition of the Nightmare Before Christmas album, and we got to do one of the songs by Danny Elfman, so that's coming out on Halloween. We're excited about that one. I guess that's all I can really comment on about that.