Interview: Hurray For The Riff Raff . . . Riding the freight train of life!

Alynda Lee Segarra is the sultry, diminutive lead singer and driving force behind Loose Music’s new signing Hurray For The Riff Raff, a raggle-taggle band of freight train riders and street hustlers. Wise beyond their years, they have written some of the most haunting yet melodic tales of life and love that you will ever hear. This is raw lo-fi folksy music with a vocal to die for and a languid fiddle accompaniment that takes your breath away.

When ‘Maverick’s’ Alan Taylor caught up with them at the Glee Club in Nottingham on their first UK visit, they were busy tucking into a huge meal. It seemed logical to ask if they were making up for those legendary lean years riding the trains? Barely able to suppress a giggle, Alynda took up the story, “Yeah, times were tough, I grew up in New York in the Bronx and would hang out in the lower east side and meet up with lots of travelling young people who were living on no money. They were riding the freight trains, you know in the style of Woodie Guthrie. I liked the look of the lifestyle; it looked so romantic and free. So I decided to give it a try and left home. Travelling across country I eventually settled in New Orleans where I met up with a bunch of amazing musicians.”

So tell me what happened from there? I interjected somewhat pointlessly, as she was clearly on a roll! “Well I was lucky enough to bump into music critic Gabe Soria, who introduced me to fellow band member Yosi (Perlstein) and I just started playing music on the streets with them . . . Cos’ that’s what the young people do over there, we play folk music on the street and I got my start playing music that way really. It was all purely by chance and by very good circumstance, pure serendipity I guess . . . I had never played music very much when growing up and when I did I was really shy and self-conscious. When I started playing the washboard which was my first instrument, it just seemed to free me up. The musicians I met wanted someone to play rhythm, so that allowed me to get started and learn how to hold a beat . . . it was really fun. From there I went to the banjo and then to the guitar.” Pausing briefly she continued,  “Freight train riding still exists and though it is secret and illegal it is still a part of what the underground young people like to do . . . It represents being free, not taking part in capitalist society, which is something that means a lot to young people in America right now.”

I suggested that the sound on the new CD has very much a continental Gypsy feel. Alynda again picked up the thread between the occasional mouthful of lettuce, “Yeah,  that fairground gypsy sound will always be a part of me, I always had a desire to travel and be in the middle of nowhere. Living off my wits was always kind of exciting to me. So, I asked, was the gypsy sound a conscious thing? Alynda’s dark eyes widened as she replied, “No not really, I’ve really tried my best to steer away from writing about travelling. I guess it’s a little clichéd . . . At the end of the day though, some of the best songs are about rambling and no one was a better proponent of that genre than Woodie Guthrie, so I wanted to keep up the tradition I suppose.” Yosi took up the theme, “We met up via a mutual friend and travelled together across the top part of America riding the freight trains. We were playing with the Dead Man’s Street Orchestra a street band and we had a loose plan of meeting on the west coast and riding up and down that coast. The Gypsy, Balkan or French sound . . . is probably due to the accordion. We were playing with a guy called Walt McClemont who is an incredible accordion player and very well trained in that style . . . But now I think we are leaning more towards the old American style.” She went on, “Busking was how we learnt the trade, playing on the streets, that’s how we learnt to play traditional Jazz and traditional American music.”

I was interested to know whether their literary influences affected their song writing. Alynda was quick to reply, “I’ve just read ‘All The Pretty Horses’ by Cormack McCarthy . . . and that has really changed the way I want to write. I have also read lots of Jeanette Winterson. Anne Carson wrote my favourite book of all time, it’s a beautiful book called  ‘The Autobiography of Red,’ she uses words in a way that are totally new and somehow invite you to be creatively ambitious.  With song writing, I usually have an idea that I know I want to write about, and it kind of develops over time, maybe a month or two. What really helps is listening to music that is stimulating and reading literature that is stimulating, just getting your brain going. So I try to get a concept and try to write about it. So for ‘Sali’s Song’ for instance, (written for a 19 year old banjo player named Sali Grace, who was murdered in Mexico) . . . I had to write and think about it for about a year and I hope that effort comes out in the song.” That said, she continued, “it’s kinda hard to play your own songs on the street cos’ they are just too quiet and no one really listens . . . It’s better to hear those songs around a fire or something where everyone listens and really appreciates what you do.”

As this was their first time in UK, I asked if the audiences were different to what they were used to back in the States? . . . “Yes it is very different,” said Alynda, . . . “Everyone is so polite, they all want to shake our hand and tell us what a good job they think we have done. The audiences are much more attentive here and I’ve learnt to talk and connect with them much more.” Pausing briefly, she elaborated, “In the States we feel we are very much outsiders, just touring around and trying to get people to come to our shows. We would very much like to come back to the UK in the near future with the full band, which is obviously a much bigger sound. We have just recorded another album in Nashville, which hopefully we will be releasing during the winter months”

With Yosi on fiddle and Alynda on guitar and vocals I enquired whether we were likely to see any surprises from the two multi instrumentalists, “Well it would be great to get that old washboard out, but maybe on the next tour. I would really love to play the harmonica I love the warm lonesome sound that Dylan got in the early years and I really love the way Neil Young plays, that is something I really feel I want to work on. . . but no surprises tonight I guess!”

I was keen to know what genre of music they thought was taking off currently in the States? There was no hesitation in the response, “Americana!” they said in unison. “Americana is emerging as the music of the moment. Mainstream audiences don’t really know the traditional music much, they kind of know Bob Dylan but that’s as close as they get! . . . Yosi for example plays old time fiddle . . . Appalachian not blue grass and not country, but many people don’t make the distinction. What’s more fiddle sounds are very regional . . . Almost like an accent, so a Kentucky fiddler will sound different to your North Carolina fiddler” . . . Yosi took up the discussion, “I guess my Jewish background led me to learn and play a lot of Klezmer music . . . I was keen to play music from my heritage rather than other people’s traditional music. I love the history and the tradition behind it . . . I still play it by myself but it has been really hard to find other people with the same level of interest. That said, living in New Orleans, has brought out a fake wannabe Cajun style in me . . . It is such a fantastic sound.” Alynda continued almost as if they were one voice now . . . “I think it is definitely happening in America, of course lots of Americans love ‘crappy music’ but there is a groundswell of people who want something real, I think that lots of young people are feeling really confused at this point . . . There are all of these global crises going on like the tsunami, earthquakes, the credit crunch and people are beginning to wonder . . . Am I going to even be around in ten years time? . . . I guess people just want to feel calm for a while or even to feel that they are making their mark and participating with other human beings . . . Which is something we really want to be a part of.”

Alynda was in full flow now . . . “When I was really small, I used to sing Judy Garland songs and stuff from 1950’s musicals with my Dad . . . I kind of felt like I was born at the wrong time . . . Sometimes I still feel like that. I think a lot of young people in USA feel that way right now. I think we are trying to make the most of what we have left . . . Kind of, how can we make this time really creative?” Pondering briefly, she continued. “It’s important for people to have real music to get through their lives it so lonely when you don’t have music that is real or meaningful. I notice people who just watch TV or listen to pop music on the radio, I just think ‘don’t you feel lonely?’ I’m so thankful that have Otis Redding to listen to when I feel down. Y’know someone who is pouring their heart out and who makes you feel connected to human beings. Personally I want to see a star who doesn’t look like a super model someone who just connects with people cos’ they’re real . . . Someone say like Janis Joplin” . . . and then she petered out lost in thought, as if suddenly back in the 50’s. It was time to prepare for the show and as Gabe Soria so rightly said, ‘The Riff Raff . . . Hurray for them Goddamit! . . . They’re some of the holy fools that make life worth living’ AJT.

http://hurrayfortheriffraff.com/

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