Interview DeVotchKa’s Valentine’s Day massacre

“I started to write songs in the first place to somehow communicate with girls, because it wasn’t working in the normal way,” admits DeVotchKa singer-guitarist Nick Urata. That’s not the kind of confession you’d expect from the leader of DeVotchKa, Denver’s reigning kings of romance. With its sixth studio full-length, 100 Lovers, due out March 1 from Anti- Records, the band is gearing up for another Valentine’s Day show—its fifth or sixth consecutive one by Urata’s count—Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Fillmore. Because not everyone can form a cinematic, Euro-folk-indie hybrid to help break the ice, Urata spoke with A.V. Club with the hope of helping the romantically challenged avoid some potential Valentine’s Day disasters.

Don’t say you’re staying in because of the overly commercial nature of the holiday.

Nick Urata: Have you ever tried that one? I’ve tried it several times, and the result is always the same. That one doesn’t work. There’s this, “I’ll appeal to her intellectual nature!” That side doesn’t really come into play on Valentine’s Day. It’s nice to get wrapped up in that warm, fuzzy, romantic feeling. That’s kind of why I started writing music anyway. Last year [at the Valentine’s Day show], we had a very large man dress up as Cupid and shoot arrows into the crowd. I was disturbed. I think it showed a really different side of him. I think it could help him romantically.

Don’t compliment any member of the opposite sex, because it will be used against you.

The A.V. Club: Is that specific to Valentine’s Day?

NU: No, but especially on Valentine’s Day. I’m just going for some romantic tips on pitfalls I’ve fallen into. It might not be that night or that weekend, but it will come up. Like six months later, “Oh, well you like blonde hair, I guess.” Everything you say goes into a folder on her hard drive and never gets erased. You should think about that. Whatever you say, or any transgression, is going into the folder and put on the hard drive. It will not be erased. It will be used against you. It’s best to be realistic about these kinds of things.

Don’t Try to Make Your Own Box of Chocolates

NU: That didn’t go so well.

AVC: You actually tried that?

NU: Who hasn’t? Those things are expensive! I took a bunch of fun-size chocolate bars of different varieties and chopped them up and put them in there. Like I said, that didn’t go over so well.

Don’t feel pressured to join in on Valentine’s Day activities.

NU: It just kind of makes 98 percent of us feel like shit, and the other 2 percent are forced into some sort of awkward situation that they don’t want to be in. That’s how we feel about it. That’s why we keep doing the show. It’s kind of a one-stop shop for Valentine’s Day. If you don’t have somebody, you might actually meet somebody there. If you have somebody, you don’t have to actually come up with some stupid romantic idea that might backfire on you anyway.

AVC: For a band that’s so associated with romance and the holiday, it’s a little strange to hear that DeVotchKa hates Valentine’s Day.

NU: I know. I probably shouldn’t be saying that. On a more serious and positive note, we have had tons and tons of emails and anecdotes of people meeting at our shows and actually continuing on and getting engaged or getting married. We actually had a dude come up to me in Minneapolis last year when we were there with Gogol Bordello. He was a real sweet guy. He asked me if he could propose to his girlfriend on stage. I couldn’t turn him down, and he actually did it! There were like 1,000 people there, and they all shared in the moment. It actually turned out to be pretty cool. I thought it was pretty cool. I think the crowd was pretty touched. They actually met at a DeVotchKa show, and they wanted to bring it full-circle. So sometimes, there’s a happy ending.