When singer/songwriter Rachael Yamagata was growing up, she went to all-girls school that she says warped her into the relationship-obsessed woman she’s become, at least in the lyrics of her songs. She began singing with a funk-crazed dance band called Bumpus while she was in college studying theater. While touring and recording with Bumpus, she was also writing confessional, deeply emotional songs that didn’t fit the band’s format. Happenstance, her first solo album, was a folk/pop charmer. Her tunes have appeared on The O.C., The L Word, Grey’s Anatomy and Alias, and Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst all expressed admiration for her vocal style. Having just issued Chesapeake (Frankenfish), Yamagata will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with her.
Yamagata: Ah the schvitz. We schvitzed all over this record. Let me explain. My producer has this house, and within this house is his shower, which we call “the schvitz.” It is a shower for the gods and has multiple jets and a steam setting inside. Temperature to your fancy and there is even some way of adding healthy scents and oils to the process, but I haven’t figured it out yet. But, may I say, if everyone could take a schvitz to begin everyday, there would be no trouble in the world. We take hot water for granted, and this is the ultimate of luxuries, I tell you. I do not have a schvitz at my house, but I will always revel in a good hot shower. During a tour, there is nothing like it. One feels renewed, calm, fabulous. I am tempted to go on and on about soap and shampoo, but I will rest with the schvitz. If I had to choose what to take to a desert island, a schvitz would be on the list. After a schvitz I would be able to face any gathering of food, loneliness, crazy island people. In fact, I’d let them use the schvitz, and I know we’d get along.
Video after the jump.
