Quick Q and A with Chris Pureka
 by Kathy S-B  ·  14 February 2009

Chris Pureka makes her me&thee debut on February 20. Word about her great voice and fantastic lyrics and musicianship inspired us to invite her to our venue. The New York Times says that “her tunes have the grave Appalachian flavor of Neil Young and Gillian Welch; her guitar playing is subdued but quietly virtuosic. And her voice can be a desolate whisper or a bitter accusation.” Check out her songs on MySpace. Here’s a video of Chris singing “Burning Bridges.”

I love the quote from the LA Times about your music: “Pureka makes romantic depression seem, somehow, invigorating.” So, how do you do that? How do you manage to be upbeat about romantic depression?

I think that it’s difficult to explain “how” one does something creative. If you asked a famous painter how they were able to capture the essence of a person in a portrait, I don’t think that they could answer that. If we could answer those questions, then art would be something that anyone could do. In fact, I wish that I did know or could explain how that sentiment can come across in my songs, because then I would be able to do it all the time! So I guess, if you find out the answer to that, let me know :)

You’ve been compared to many fantastic singer-songwriters: Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams, Mary Gauthier, and Gillian Welch. Are all these musicians your role models?

I would definitely consider Ryan Adams and Gillian Welch role models. Their music has been very important to me and I think that they have both directly influenced my songwriting, especially on my last record. But Gillian Welch hasn’t put out a record in quite a while and I just heard that Ryan Adams is taking a break from music. And of course over time we discover new songwriters that inspire us. Some of the newer ones for me are Damien Rice and Elvis Perkins. I definitely love some of Bruce Springsteen’s music and I think he is a pretty amazing songwriter. And I really appreciate Mary Gauthier but I am not as familiar with her music. But I wouldn’t specifically call either of them influences.

Does any one musician’s music speak to you more than anyone else’s?

I could never pin it down to one, but the ones mentioned above are pretty high up there. But one who I haven’t mentioned, whose music just resonates with me is a songwriter friend of mine from Boulder, CO. His name is Gregory Alan Isakov and I recommend to your readers to check him out.

Tell us about your life as a biology lab assistant. Have you ever tried penning a tune about anything scientific?

I used to spend my days growing cultures of bacteria and testing them for antibiotic resistance. That’s a gross oversimplification, but that’s the gist. It was very interesting work and the professor that I worked for was pretty brilliant and inspiring. It was a good gig.

I have not tried to write about anything science related. I think mixing science and music would not be a good idea for me. But it might be pretty funny….

I see that you have included a version of “Wagon Wheel” on your new EP. That’s such a fun song with an interesting past considering it was a Dylan outtake and picked up by Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show. What attracted you to that particular song? Is it an atypical kind of song for you to play?

It just turns out that I have a lot of friends that play the fiddle. And I really like fiddle or violin as an accompaniment to my music. So over the years, I have worked a few fiddle tunes into my set. Wagon Wheel is one of those and it is just a really fun song to play and sing. It just has something special. And people used to really enjoy my cover of it live, which is why it ended up on the record.

Do you plan to do any extensive touring in 2009?

Yep, for sure. I will be touring the West Coast in April and then the Southeast probably in May — in addition to some more local and regional stuff. Then I am hoping to release a new record in the fall and so I will be touring extensively behind that. I will be all over this country and hopefully hitting up some other ones… I am hoping to make it over to Europe at some point soon.