Pamelia Kurstin

COMMERCIAL BREAK!!!!!!if you like my weirdness and wanna buy a cd of new weirdness, please visit WWW.TZADIK.COM for my album!....Next commercial: SOLO BOOKINGS: please contact my buddy Andreas Scherrer... company-of-heaven (at symbol) liwest.at (i promise he doesn't bite! please refer to my blog about Andreas!) (OK! COMMERCIAL BREAK IS OVER!!!)" YOU NO LEEESPONSIBILITY!!! YOU NO GO TO SCHOOL!!!! YOU NO HAVE JOB!!!! LOSER!!!!!" --- my mom 1994-------------------------------------------" ba-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa ba-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa ba-aa-aa-aaa " --- the goats in indiana 1993-------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------so .. hi! my name is pamelia kurstin! someone recently told me that i should make a more professional biography that properly represents my world class rollerskating artistry but it's always a little weird to do that BIO thing... wait...it's not just a little weird... it feels horrible because.................. FIRST... i would be assuming that you do not have ears or taste (the capability to form an opinion about what you hear) and must rely on what i write in my bio (which could all be lies anyways) to make your own (pre)judgement about my music (so that is already like, multiple conflicts of interest)......................................... it would be a lie to myself to try and sell you into liking what i do which is like a double-sided insult to us both in the end!!....................................................... ........................................................... SECOND..... i would have to pretend like what you read below is coming from that 'third person' who is bragging about me while i am just standing here next to the computer... so... let me just tell you as if you were sitting across from me in a coffee shop and i am answering your questions... and...i hope i don't sound cocky or like some stupid annoying name-dropping slime-ball... (like those people who hand you a business card and say 'I'm a producer' blah blah blah....) if i do that... you are more than welcome to send me a bitch-slap message, ok?????----------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ when i was still in diapers... i began playing piano... (hey, i'm not going to tell you when i got potty trained!) at six, i memorized my mother's repertoire... at seven took piano lessons but it was really boring so i quit and continued to learn on my own.... then in junior high, there was a music program so i joined the orchestra class and picked up violin, viola and cello (so exciting to play strings.. i always wanted to play string instruments but we didn't have enough money for them... somebody want to give me a cello???)... then in highschool i joined the jazz band, marching band, orchestra, etc etc etc... and i had a cool teacher who let me take a bunch of instruments home in the summer. eventually though, i dropped out of highschool for a while, ran away from home and lived on a farm in indiana with a boyfriend (and i learned about the joy of goats!)-------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------ in 1997, i saw that documentary by steven martin about the theremin... and i wanted to at least try one because it sounded very vocal and string-like when i heard clara playing it... and.... i always have a soft spot for string instruments...anyhooo... i didn't think that i would become a thereminist... i only wanted to try one... but i ended up having to buy one because they were impossible to find back then, even in l.a.-------------------------------------------------------- ------------ my career began as a thereminist when i was playing bass with this band called Geggy Tah in Los Angeles. shortly after i picked it up, by chance i met steven martin, who made the theremin film, and after he heard me he introduced me to Clara Rockmore (a whole other story for next time)... and then Bob Moog at the NAMM show that winter... (and he let me take home an ethervox theremin! the one with extra octaves.... so so so so sweeeet! those things were SO expensive too.... there would be NO way i would have been able to excel on one of those if he didnt offer me to take it home!!!)---------------------------------------------------- ---------- A LITTLE TANGENT......so anyhooo...a lot of people ask about who or where i learned to play. i ended up teaching myself because i didn't want my sound to be like a 'theremin'.... i LOVE and MISS playing string instruments and a theremin is much cheaper than buying a decent violin or cello. plus, my theremin has the range of all those string instruments combined. (i use the Moog Etherwave Pro) so i listened to a lot of violinists like jascha heifetz and mark feldman for inspiration... and vocalists of many styles (fairuz... stevie wonder.... the young michael jackson always blows my mind... maria callas....etc) because of not just the intonation control, but the expression, dynamics, vibrato, and most of all... that SOMETHING which there is no good word to describe. i still continue to strive to make improvements on my technique whenever i listen to inspiring music and learn of new subtleties that can be overlooked--- especially when the expectations aren't so high with a novelty instrument. but hey... it is not my big mission to prove anything to the world or become a competitive athlete... my appreciation for expression is not limited by all that i just earlier wrote above. i dont want to be like those MAESTROBATER jack-asses that you see in some 'jazz' jam sessions who ruin it for the people who come to just have fun and not take things so so seriously!!! maestrobaters, you know what i mean? ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------- BACK ON TRACK...not long after learning to play, i began doing a lot of session work besides performing live, some of my earlier recording work has been with Matthew Sweet, The Kurstins (self released album with my then husband, Greg Kurstin)... Gerry Gibbs' Third Trio from the Sun... and at about that time in the late 90s, i was also performing with saxophonist Arthur Blythe (upright bass and sometimes theremin)--------------------------------------------------- ------ in 2001, i relocated to New York... performed with Cibo Matto, then a World Tour with Sebastien Tellier later that year. there were many recording sessions i also participated in D. Byrne (Grown Backwards), Foetus (Love), Barbez (am also a member of this group), Bela Fleck & Flecktones, etc etc etc!! ---------------------------.-------------------------------- ---------------------------------------so so a few years ago i began performing and recording my theremin orchestra stuff...the theremin orchestra has as many as 16 different parts, i record them all one at a time, or i use looping pedals and perform/record/playback all of the parts live when i perform solo... kind of like a distant cousin of the frippatronics thing, no pussyfooting...--------------------------------------------- ----------- and yes, that was me in the moog documentary! (many days he was wearing our barbez t-shirt! bob was the sweeeeeetest)----------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- in april 2007 my solo album will be released on Tzadik!!! (this label is so so so so artist-friendly!) yippieeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----------------------------------------------------------- i also have some other projects here and there...---------- i still tour with Barbez, plus i also play with Otto Lechner here in austria (he has magical ears)---------and occasionally, i give masterclasses at universities (uh oh, more name-dropping opportunities.... )---------------------------------the many different types of venues i have performed in range from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Albert Hall, Steinway Hall, & Lincoln Center to Tonic, Bowery Ballroom, CBGB's... sometimes classical or modern contemporary... sometimes freako improv stuff... sometimes punk.... sometimes jazz... sometimes.. sometimes..... somtimes a lot of boooozing and blowing chunks (just kidding... i'm not THAT naughty...hehe*+*) -----------------------------------------------october 2005 i moved here to Vienna. i really miss mexican food and good sushi. more coffee??? hope i didn't bore you to sleep.... i told you i hate this autobiography stuff!!!