Rebecca Schiffman

I was born in New York City on April 9, 1982. I went to Spence (private all girls school) up through 8th grade and Dalton (co-ed private school featured in the movie Manhattan) for high school. Dalton is a very Jappy school. For anyone that isn’t from New York, JAP does not mean Japanese person- It means Jewish American Princess- the Jewish counterpart to Wasps.

My parents got married and had kids late. They met at IBM doing computer consulting but my dad is also a Rabbi. Our family belongs to a branch of Judaism called Reconstructionism. The daughter of the founder of Reconstructionism was the first girl ever to be Bat Mitzvahd. Until then only boys could go through the ceremony.

I studied cello for 9 years since I was 6, piano for 2 years, and upright bass for 2 years. I taught myself guitar since I was 10 or 11 but it definitely doesn’t sound like I’ve been playing for 16 years. My first band was the Meaningful and Wise in which I played guitar and cello on my schoolmate Colin Kindley’s songs. Our biggest influences (which Colin introduced me to) were the Buzzcocks and The Soft Boys. Then I was in Pearl Harbor which was a kind of punky band fronted by a Japanese guy. We played around the city for a year.

I signed to Some Records and recorded “Upside Down Lacrimosa” in 2000 and 2001 as I was starting at Cooper Union School of Art. It was released September 23, 2003.

I used to be very afraid of playing live but after forcing out a couple of performances I think I got over the hump. One milestone event was when I got invited to play at a “festival” called AugustArt. The only people that showed up to see all three acts were my close friends and family. I had lost my voice earlier that day and could literally only squeak and whisper. I had everyone come up close and sit on the stage so they could hear. I thought, no show will ever be worse than this, and since then I have been less afraid. Also, the promoter, who was very apologetic, said he was moved by my struggle or drive to perform despite the lost voice.

I graduated from Cooper Union in 2004, moved back uptown to my parents house and started a zine/blog about The Upper East Side called The UES Journal. I have worked part-time at Guild & Greyshkul Gallery on and off for the last five years.

Since 2000 I have been making chainmaille jewelry and recently launched a jewelry line called IMK. I also now maintain a blog about pigeons called The It-Pigeon, and a blog about Vanity Plates.

In 2008 I recorded my second album To Be Good for a Day with Mike Musmanno in DUMBO, Brooklyn. It will be available on iTunes January 28, 2009.

I am very close with my brother Jonathan who is 31 and a conductor. He went to grad school at Juilliard and now lives in Avignon. He is currently music director and conductor of the Avignon Opera. He likes windsurfing.