CD Revolutions Your Guide to Emerging Music
Summer 2000

Robin Spielberg and the Healing Powers of Music

by Bill Campell
cover story & interview

North Star Records' pianist/composer Robin Spielberg has been on an incredible ride. Starting outplaying piano in hotel lobbies to support herself as a struggling actress, Spielberg has now gone on to sell close to 300,000 CDs and establish herself as a pianist of note and merit. Her latest and eighth release, Beautiful Dreamer, is a collection of lullabies dedicated to her daughter, Valerie, who was born four months prematurely.

Robin Spielberg: I have always been playing the piano. I began piano lessons when I was seven, but I have memories ofplaying before that, walking up to the keyboard and kind of tinkering around. I've always had a good ear, so since I was akid, I've been able to pick up what other people were singing or what was on the radio and just play it on the piano. So, thatis something I kind of figure you are born with. I come from a very musical family. My grandfather and my great uncle were professional musicians, and I think a whole slew of them out in Russia were doing a lot of performing and recording.

Bill Campbell: But it wasn't necessarily a plan of yours to become a professional musician?
RS: I took it very seriously. Yes. I was a goal of mine. I was classically trained. I also took on other interests. I've alwaysdone theater--acting work. I took ballet, I took organ lessons, I took violin lessons in addition to piano lessons. So I was abusy kid. When I was in college I ended up majoring in theater.

BC: Right, at New York University. It's funny, because I'm thinking that someone who goes to NYU for theater must be really serious about acting.

RS: Yes, and I spent 10 years as a professional actor, and I acted in 60 plays off-Broadway and a couple of small movies. Iwas playing piano in piano rooms int he city to support myself while I was struggling as an actor,and I was playing somany hours that it eventually became my world. At the time, I was writing a lot of music for the theater, cabaret songs, a lotof music with lyrics. So, in addition to playing a lot of the standards and show tunes, I began to bring in my own
compositions. And people had a great response to them. Because I come from a background of both classical music and
loving Broadway theater, I kind of blend the structure of classical music and the strong melodies of musical theater.

I ended up making my first CD in 1993. I was still workgin in piano rooms and still doing acting work, but I made Heal of
the Hand and sold it to fans and people who started signing on to my mailing list.

I'd sent a copy over to North Star Music because I'd heard they put out a lot of fine instrumental music. And they loved the
record. I met with the president of the company the following week, and they signed me to a six-record deal. So, that's how
the whole recording part got started, and one thing started snowballing into the next. Once you have a recording it seems
that the next logical step is to perform, because people who have the recording at home then want to see you live. For a
while, I had one foot in and one foot out with the acting, but, then, music just pretty much took over.

BC: I do have one NYU question. Because you studied under David Mamet and William H. Macy...

RS: When I was studying under Bill and David, David was well-known as a playwright. He had not yet won the Pulitzer Prize. He had written a couple of films, but Speed the Plow and Glengarry Glen Ross were yet to come. And Bill had done a zillion things in theater, and he was making a lot of money doing voice-overs, and his career didn't really skyrocket until Air Force One and Fargo. So, he's still a pretty regular guy, a really good guy.

BC: So are you still involved with The Atlantic Theater Company (of which she is a co-founder?)

RS: I am. I just wrote the music for two of David Mamet's children's plays, The Frog Prince and The Poet and the Rent,
and our third-year acting students did the plays.

BC: Was Balloonland (a children's musical) the first time you wrote a musical?

RS: Balloonland was a musical that I wrote with someone I knew from college. He wrote the story, a wonderful story, I set
it to music, we made it a musical. Atlantic did a workshop in Vermont, and then we ran it in New York. It did really well. That was really the first full-fledged musical I wrote.

My ties are very much to the theater, and I love the theater. But the first record has taken me on this journey to do doing
instrumental music, and people I talk to are suprised that I have hundreds of songs with lyrics. I think, in another life, if I
could've taken another directions, I would've picked up the guitar and become a singer/songwriter on the folk circuit.

But that wasn't my story to tell. People just became enarmored with my solo piano work so I started doing records like that
and I have eight now. I try to mix things up a bit. I have two solo piano albums of original compositions, and I have one that
has some ensemble. I have two for holiday that have some ensemble work. I have one of standards and show tunes. And
then this one, the lullabies, which is solo piano arrangements of children's songs, songs that I feel are soothing and
comforting for little ones.

BC: So you've sold something around 250,000 CDs?

RS: Yeah, between that and 300,000.

BC: And, you've done it all without major promotional campaigns.

RS: That's true because I'm not on a major label, and so there's no charting or ads or anything. It's mostly word-of-mouth.

BC: You use the internet too, right?

RS: I do. I was one of the first artists in my genre who was on-line before any of my friends were. I've had a site since 1995.

BC: How does it help you?

RS: Well, initially, it was just a place for people to go for information. If people wanted to know more about me or my
recordings. At shows, if people signed up for my mailing list, I would ask for their e-mail addresses as well as their regular
address. So, what people on-line get is my on-line newsletter which comes out four times a year.

It's a great way to stay in touch with people. Early on, it also helped me with radio play. I was able to look up radio stations
on-line, see who was playing instrumental music, and contact them that way. When you're an indie artist, just starting out,
and you don't have all the financial resources, you're always looking for ways to save money and be more efficient, and the
internet has been a great way to reach radio without bothering people. Because people in radio often keep crazy hours,
and you're not always able to reach them. You could drop an e-mail, that way they can reach you at their convenience. And
now, as time has gone by, people have become more and more comfortable with ordering things on-line. So, we've seen
an increase in sales. In the beginning, people would go and listen to sound bytes, but they really weren't ordering anything.
Now, I'm finding that people are ordering on the Internet.

BC: And you met your husband that way?

RS: I did meet my husband that way. I met him on AOL. It's funny; I wasn't in one of those dating things. I was in a chat
room called 'New Jersey', where people were talking about which part of the state they lived in, what they did for a living,
nice places to go on hikes, things like that. He was in there as well. I was just learning what a chat room really was. It must
have been no more than a 5-minute exchange. we were the only two people in that chat room that lived in the same county,
and we were both artists. He's a photographer and a musician. We chatted for a while, and he actually went out and
bought my first CD and gave me a ring after he listened to it and told me that he loved it. And, that's how we started. And ,
now, here we are: married and with a baby.

BC: Here's a quote I read that I felt was kind of interesting: "Spielberg uses the piano as an instrument of emotional
expression, vision and heart communication".

RS: That's a very nice quote.

BC: It's a pretty lofty statement.

RS: Well, I would say when people come and say "Oh, I really want to sit on the side and watch your hands as you play", I
think it's funny because I feel that my hands are the last part of me that's involved in the whole thing. Yet, when I see a video
of myself, or see myself on television, I'm always looking at the fingers because they look like they are doing all this work. I don't have any awareness of what my hands are doing, but I can understand why an audience member would find it
fascinating to watch a pianist's hands. But, when I'm playing that's not what it feels like. There's more of a connection with
the instrument really being a part of your body, part of yourself, and it's coming out through the hands, but hopefully, it's
coming from a deeper place.

I think I learned at an early age that the piano is a place I can go to comfort and for healing and for expressions, whether
that be anger, frustration or joy. I remember being a kid and being mad at my parents or geting into a fight with my sister
and going up to the piano and playing and feeling better. There are negative ways of expression--you could pick up a gun.
But people can also pick up a paintbrush and express themselves.

It became an incredible discovery for me. Times in my life when I've been incredibly sad or very lonely or extraordinarily
happy, those are the times when I feel a pull to go to the piano and write and to play. It's really a pleasure to know that
people who are listening to the music feel that too. I feel that I've succeeded in communicating whatever that was. People
will say that was a sad song, or that really touched me, or that song was hopeful, and I say, "Wow, that's exactly what I was
feeling". You're often not able to communicate that. Sometimes I look at a painting--it's very visual, the artist may have been
sad or angry and I say, "What a pretty picture". You don't necessarily have the same interpretation. It's not necessary for me
that people have the same exact one, but I'm noticing that very often they are getting exactly what I meant, and that's great.

BC: In concert, you introduce each piece with a story?

RS: I do. I tell stories during the concert. It came by accident. In the beginning I started announcing the title of each
song,and, then I would explain , "Well, that's a weird title, and this is why I call it that". And, then, I would find myself
explaining it further. After the concerts, people would say that they really enjoyed the introductions, that they gave them
insight to the music. So, I was encouraged to do it more often. I don't do it for every song.

BC: Did you do that at Carnegie Hall?

RS: Yes.

BC: How many times have you played there?

RS: Twice. June's concert will be my third.

BC: What was that like, the first time?

RS: It was really thrilling. There are two halls at Carnegie Hall. There's a really huge one and then a smaller one. That's
where I will be playing. It's intimidating only because you hear so much about Carnegie Hall. I definitely had butterflies, but
once I got on stage it was just like any other room. Well, it's NOT like any other room because it is beautiful and
acoustically perfect and has all this prestige, but I did the same show I would do anywhere else. So, it wasn't as scary
once I got out there.

BC: So, you're a pianist, a composer, an actor, and you've actually produced as well?

RS: I produced a number of my records, including the lullaby album, and I co-produced a few others.

BC: How's being a producer different?

RS: Well, when you're working as a producer with another artist your job is basically to bring out the best music from that
person. A lot is involved. When we did Mother, there were three producers on the record, and each of us had an equal
stake in the recording; we ended up pretty much producing each other's tracks. If I needed help on an arrangement, one of
the other women would come and give their outside opinion. And then, I would do the same.

In producing my own work, that means I select all the material, I decide what's going to be recorded, I decide the
sequencing, what everything is called, what the CD packaging is going to look like, pretty much everything from start to
finish.

BC: And, you prefer to have that control?

RS: Well, I don't see why anybody wouldn't want to. Because as a painter, I don't think you'd want someone else saying,
"Oh, I don't think you should use so much purple there." Sometimes, people say that you're a control freak, or whatever, but
if you are a Kevin Costner ---if you have that kind of clout, you're going to want to direct and write it and produce it and star in it, because you're going to be able to tell the story the way you want it to be told. Without having too many cooks in the kitchen.

Sometimes, it's marvelously freeing to have someone on the outside. And I love working with (producer) Steven Miller.
When he is in the studio with me, I know I can trust him implicitly. And I know I can just sit at the piano and play and not
second-guess him. When you know someone like that, it's really great,and if you can find that kind of relationship, it's worth everything. I feel fortunate that I have that with him.

BC: So let's talk about Mother. Was it the PBS Special, "The Soul of Christmas," were you met Susan McKeown and Cathy Ryan? Did you just instantly hit it off, and say, Mother!

RS: we kind of hit it off right away. We came together and did that record and wanted to work together again. The project
was just sort of born. Susan thought it might be nice to doa tribute album of some sort and somehow mothers came up.
We decided to look for songs about motherhood, and we really couldn't find any. So, we decided to write some. It was a
combination of traditional songs and writing our own.

BC: Were any of you mothers when you decided to do it?

RS: Well, Cathy has a 20-year old son, and Susan is married with no kids. And my husband and I were just talking about
starting a family. So, it was really good timing. I became pregnant during the recordig. I was pregnant with twins, and I had
a difficult pregnancy and delivered early. One didn't make it and the other one did; and she had to stay in the hospital for a
few months. Through that whole time we were playing music for her inside the hospital and noticed that her vital signs
improved with the music on. So, I decided that I really wanted to do a recording just for her, and that's how the idea of the
lullabies CD came up. One followed the other really naturally for me.

BC: We did a story about your experiences in the 'Sneak Preview' issue, which gave me the impetus to do this interview. It's a very interesting story, so to speak.

RS: I think it's an interesting story to people...it's ongoing. The baby was so incredibly small and had such a small chance
of survival. I think that, in addition to wonderful medical care and a good deal of prayer and luck, music helped to pull her
through. That was the opinion of everyone there. Someone recently sent me an article about the power of music over
babies who are sick, and all these scientific studies in medical journals talking about how music helps them improve. I got
to see that first hand.

BC: Since almost all of your albums have a theme, what's the theme for the next one?

RS: Well, it's called Dreaming of Summer, and that's kind of what I do all year when it's not summer.