Top Five: Era S. of The Tanukis
The Tanukis' frontwoman hears peculiar voices
Denver group The Tanukis plays a striking, raw chamber-folk that's cloaked in Eastern European atmosphere and backed by formal music training, sans the usual virtuoso baloney. Frontwoman Era S. (the band's members withhold their last names) did a stint at a conservatory in her native Russia, where she studied classical voice and piano before immigrating to the States. Onstage she fearlessly and passionately, if not angrily, belts out everything from tender ballads to rolicking shanties. In advance of the band's show at the Hi-Dive tomorrow, Decider asked Era to list her favorite fellow eccentric vocalists—those rare voices that are able to captivate, confound, and sometimes confuse.
Björk
Era S.: Björk has so much charisma and power in her vocals, and it comes out of this tiny little thing. I could never figure out how she could be so uninhibited about the subject matter she deals with. She has the ability to not pander to the audience, to maybe educate the audience. She bleeds onstage. She bleeds happiness; she bleeds any form of emotion. That's kind of what it looks like to me, and that's what I love about strange vocalists like her.
Era S.: Björk has so much charisma and power in her vocals, and it comes out of this tiny little thing. I could never figure out how she could be so uninhibited about the subject matter she deals with. She has the ability to not pander to the audience, to maybe educate the audience. She bleeds onstage. She bleeds happiness; she bleeds any form of emotion. That's kind of what it looks like to me, and that's what I love about strange vocalists like her.
Joanna Newsom
ES: I've heard people describe Joanna Newsom's voice as a cat in heat. But she works very hard, as well. I feel as though Joanna Newsom, in the transition from her first album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, to her last one, Ys, there was such a tremendous change. Most of the time you see a second album develop a little, but nothing really tremendous. For her, it was a giant leap. It's amazing. The woman is a phenomenal harpist, too. I've never seen a classical harpist do what she does.
ES: I've heard people describe Joanna Newsom's voice as a cat in heat. But she works very hard, as well. I feel as though Joanna Newsom, in the transition from her first album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, to her last one, Ys, there was such a tremendous change. Most of the time you see a second album develop a little, but nothing really tremendous. For her, it was a giant leap. It's amazing. The woman is a phenomenal harpist, too. I've never seen a classical harpist do what she does.
Kate Bush
ES: I don't know if people even remember her, but she's amazing. The woman was doing this stuff in the '70s; I think she was discovered by David Gilmour when she was sixteen. The vocalists I always like are practiced and educated but unaffected. If you manage to have the vocal training, but maintain a bit of originality, that's when someone like Kate Bush comes along.
Decider: You've been compared with Kate Bush, Björk, and Joanna Newsom in recent articles.
ES: I would never say I don't like that, because those are the people I would most like to be compared to. If I'm doing something different, that's fantastic, and if I'm doing something similar to those people, I'd much rather it be them than others. These are the people I choose to know musically. And who knows? Maybe I'd be proud to know those people, period.
Kate Bush, "Cloudbusting" (from the album Hounds Of Love)
ES: I don't know if people even remember her, but she's amazing. The woman was doing this stuff in the '70s; I think she was discovered by David Gilmour when she was sixteen. The vocalists I always like are practiced and educated but unaffected. If you manage to have the vocal training, but maintain a bit of originality, that's when someone like Kate Bush comes along.
Decider: You've been compared with Kate Bush, Björk, and Joanna Newsom in recent articles.
ES: I would never say I don't like that, because those are the people I would most like to be compared to. If I'm doing something different, that's fantastic, and if I'm doing something similar to those people, I'd much rather it be them than others. These are the people I choose to know musically. And who knows? Maybe I'd be proud to know those people, period.
Kate Bush, "Cloudbusting" (from the album Hounds Of Love)
Tom Waits
ES: The worst song by Tom Waits will still be the best song by any other band. I've never met a person who can use their vocals as a percussion instrument like he does. I think he's a phenomenal lyricist. It's just the meat and bones of low-income folk. He's a rarity, because he's a true combination of an actor and a musician and he's great at both. He was in Down By Law as well as some silly movies like [Francis Ford] Coppola's Dracula.
D: That role must make full use of his growl.
ES: Of course it does! An appearance by Tom Waits in any movie can make even a crappy movie a little bit better.
ES: The worst song by Tom Waits will still be the best song by any other band. I've never met a person who can use their vocals as a percussion instrument like he does. I think he's a phenomenal lyricist. It's just the meat and bones of low-income folk. He's a rarity, because he's a true combination of an actor and a musician and he's great at both. He was in Down By Law as well as some silly movies like [Francis Ford] Coppola's Dracula.
D: That role must make full use of his growl.
ES: Of course it does! An appearance by Tom Waits in any movie can make even a crappy movie a little bit better.
Zhanna Aguzarova
ES: I must have been thirteen when I got into her. In Russian culture, woman are supposed to look a certain way in order to be considered attractive. But this woman has a hawk-looking face and is completely unattractive by Russian standards. She was dressing bizarrely and being ridiculed constantly by everyone, but she has this phenomenal voice. This was a time when swing became very popular in Russia, in the early '90s. It was a Kerouac, beatnik, poetry kind of swing, except it was done in a Russian pop style that was horrible, with all these weird synthesizers.
D: It seems like a lot of world pop music is some form of bad synth-pop with wonderful vocals.
ES: It's unfortunate. It seems as though American pop music is dominating the traditional music of other areas, when the traditional music is a lot better. And then over here, you have people incorporating traditional musics of other countries into the pop culture. I think that's a pretty decent thing to do, as long as it's tastefully done.
ES: I must have been thirteen when I got into her. In Russian culture, woman are supposed to look a certain way in order to be considered attractive. But this woman has a hawk-looking face and is completely unattractive by Russian standards. She was dressing bizarrely and being ridiculed constantly by everyone, but she has this phenomenal voice. This was a time when swing became very popular in Russia, in the early '90s. It was a Kerouac, beatnik, poetry kind of swing, except it was done in a Russian pop style that was horrible, with all these weird synthesizers.
D: It seems like a lot of world pop music is some form of bad synth-pop with wonderful vocals.
ES: It's unfortunate. It seems as though American pop music is dominating the traditional music of other areas, when the traditional music is a lot better. And then over here, you have people incorporating traditional musics of other countries into the pop culture. I think that's a pretty decent thing to do, as long as it's tastefully done.
A brief interview with Zhanna Aguzarova:
