5 minutes with DeVotchKa's Jeanie Schroder and Nick Urata

Lollapalooza '08, Day 2

By Amy Oprean
Published: August 6th, 2008 | 10:00pm

Though it's impossible to pin DeVotchKa down to one simple idea or sound, knowing that the group once dressed like a dead mariachi band for a performance isn't a bad place to start. Though the the band lacks the sombreros, its flavorful trumpet and violin parts accompanied by singer Nick Urata's ghostly howl can, at times, evoke the feel of a Mexican serenade.

This is still only a starting place, however, since the four-piece ensemble from Denver also fuses gypsy, folk, and many facets of eastern European music into one hauntingly romantic sound.

After they played at Lollapalooza's Playstation 3 stage on Saturday, band members Jeanie Schroder and Urata talked to Venus Zine about their Lolla experience, European sounds, and their world tour for A Mad and Faithful Telling, which was released last March.

You started out as the backing band for a burlesque show. How do you think that crowd compares to Lollapalooza? What kind of crowd do you guys like the most?

Jeanie Schroder: I would say that we seem to appeal to a wide age range and personality range that it doesn't really seem to matter whether we're doing something with a burlesque group or doing [a different kind of show]. We have kids and we have people as old as 70 who come to our shows.

Who are your looking forward to seeing here the most at Lollapalooza (or who you saw yesterday)?

Schroder: A lot of the band went to Radiohead last night, so that was a big plus, and if we were staying tomorrow I would definitely want to see Gnarls Barkley. We saw them when we were at the Grammys.

Nick Urata: I got here kinda late yesterday but Gogol Bordello played and they're, of course, one of our favorites. And there was some band called Radio something that was pretty good. We're excited to see Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. They're awesome. And Broken Social Scene I'm really psyched about. Rage Against the Machine I kind of have a soft spot for. I like Wilco.

Since your music is such a blend of different European sounds, are you received in those countries since you're from the U.S.?

Schroder: We were kind of wondering what was going to happen we went over there, so it's been the same kind of reception we get here at home. When we were in Russia, we were afraid because our name means "little girl" in Russian — how would we respond to a band who came to the U.S. whose name was girl? But they seemed to get it.

I got to see for the first time the theremin that Nick uses and it seems like you're constantly trying new instruments and you all play multiple instruments. Is there any instrument that you haven't used yet on a record that you'd be interested in trying?

Schroder: Let's see. I have a guitarrón, which is a Mexican, mariachi-style bass, that I want to try. I wouldn't mind bringing my flute on there sometime, and then Nick is always learning new stuff so I don't know what he's gonna pull out of the hat next, and [trumpet player-percussionist] Shawn [King] has some vibes I think he wants to try, and I don't know what Tom [Hagerman]'s gonna pull out next either.

What are your favorite songs to play live?

Urata: I think I like "The Enemy Guns" the best because I get to sort of play guitar with reckless abandon, which is like my teenage fantasy.