rocknroll_n_blues_queens | The Hilarious, Tell it Like it is, Harmonium Playing, Epic Shilpa Ray (& her happy hookers)

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Shilpa Ray

Shilpa Ray Filthy and Free

Emmy The Great introduces Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers

Watching Shilpa Ray live is a difficult experience to describe. Spin calls it the equivalent of your first punch in the face. Time Out New York calls her the 'Best Lead Singer who Doubles as an Air Raid Siren'. I only saw her for ten minutes, four years ago, but I haven't forgotten a second. Maybe that's the best indictment I can give of her talent.

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Now she's back in solo mode, having formed and disbanded her own acclaimed garage-blues act, Beat the Devil. Beat the Devil were awesome, but Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers is even more so. There's a ten inch due out soon, but for now you can make do with the music on her myspace page (myspace.com/shilparay), and sporadic youtube footage that shows her in her element, beating the crap out of some song against the body of a giant squeezebox.
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When did you first start writing songs on the harmonium, and what was it about the medium that attracted you?

I've played the harmonium since I was 6. My sister and I had to take voice lessons in classical indian music and that was one of the instrument you had to play for accompaniment. I first started writing songs on the harmonium at 22. At first I play it by default, now it's become my sidekick. Most people have these wild expectations as to what a harmonium is supposed to sound like. All it's really supposed to do is create drones so you can layer other sounds against it. Like gesso on a canvas. Not every instrument has to be a lead instrument.
Do you find songwriting a solitary process or do you need to be around people to gather inspiration?

Solitary
You work in a big department store in Manhattan, which you write rather scathingly (and amusingly) about in your blog. Has this or any other job informed your music in any way?

I've been working in retail since my late teens. I'm now in my late 20's. Being a shopgirl is my trade and a huge part of who I am. It's greatly influenced how I see and deal with people. I remember this girl from Germany coming up to me after a show really confused, and saying, "your music, it so working class." My reaction? Thank God!
Yes, darlings. She REALLY is that awesome!

Beat the Devil - Plea Bargain

Outsider Artist Shilpa Ray turns alienation into lusty, bluesy rock

Ray moved to New York in 2002, in part because “so many of the interesting artists here are chicks.” One nerve-racking a cappella performance at the Sidewalk Café turned into a regular gig, which evolved into Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers, which led to her debut recording, last fall’s A Fish Hook an Open Eye. The eight-song CD—displaying Ray’s raspy vocals, morbidly humorous lyrics (sample song title: “Woman Sets Boyfriend on Fire”), {excuse me while I snort with laughter} and screaming guitars—earned her some impressive attention (Nick Cave’s a fan), as do her notoriously debauched shows. MORE

SXSW- 3/18/10 Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers

Shilpa Ray talks with Duncan Alney

Interview with Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers

Why did you name your album A Fish Hook An Open Eye?

Well . . . it all extends from the fact that nobody likes the band name, which I think is hilarious ’cause it’s a joke. When I was leaving Beat The Devil, I was depressed about the band not working out, and I was hanging out with some of my girlfriends, and we were talking about bunny ranches in Vegas, and one of my girlfriends was like, “Yeah, man, that’s the life. Those girl look like some happy hookers.” And I was like, “Shilpa Ray and the Happy Hookers, that’ll be really funny.” It kinda stemmed from that, and I wanted to play off the word “hooker.” I’m really into Margaret Atwood. I really like her writing a lot—Handmaid’s Tale, True Stories—and I remembered this really powerful poem she wrote called “A Fish Hook An Open Eye.” And it’s “You fit into me
like a hook into an eye. A fish hook. An open eye.” The image of having that hook in someone’s eye is so terrifying and gritty that I just liked it and also the play off of the word “hookers.”

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Beat The Devil was taking flight. Then it . . .
A: Safely landed in the East River.
B: Crashed on the runway during takeoff. Or,
C: You can make one up . . .

Oh wow, that’s rough. Beat The Devil took one of those crazy U-turns where you can never get on the same side of the road again where you want to go. Just driving around in circles. We were stuck in the middle of an ocean fighting over the last piece of wood that we could grab on to. Somebody had to take it, and some of us had to drown.

You still perform some of the BTD tunes live?

Yeah, and you know what? I want to rerecord some of them too. They’re my songs, and I didn’t like some of the arrangements that we did for Beat The Devil. Although they were good, that wasn’t how I wanted them recorded. I didn’t realize till later that it wasn’t working for me. The energy of the band wasn’t working for me, and I felt very out of place in my own band. They didn’t like a lot of the songs I was writing anyway, and so there was, like, this moment we thought we could have a really shitty time doing this and go back to our day jobs that we worked really hard at and not have a good time, or we could do something that is fun and have a great time doing this, and maybe we don’t belong togetherMORE