Talking with Dreamy Singer-Songwriter Eszter Balint

Eszter Balint is a singer, songwriter and violinist born in Hungary but raised mostly here in New York. Her first career was as an actress, appearing in indie films by directors like Jim Jarmusch and Steve Buscemi. In 1999 she put out Flicker (Scratchie), an album of dreamy, haunting originals about places, relationships and states of mind. Influenced by old-time country but unafraid to use samples, loops and some of the most innovative musicians around, she's created a sound that's varied, contemporary and uniquely her own. Coming off a residency last month at Pete's Candy Store, she sat down to talk about covers, life (or lack of same) in Los Angeles and why she doesn't like to get too good on any instrument.

So I saw a show you did last year, where you were talking a little about your day job at the time, which was teaching music to kids...

Oh, you saw that show? You saw my perverse version of "I'm a Little Teapot"? That's a memorable show. That's the same show where I covered "My Fault"...

Besides the Eminem, the other song I've heard you do is "For the Turnstiles." Are you a big Neil Young fan?

Yeah, I love that song especially, but I'm a big fan in general... When I first started gigging in New York that was like the first cover I did. I guess you haven't heard me do the other covers I do?

Like what?

I've done "Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." I like that one. I'm working on some new George Jones drinking songs. That's the next batch, I think.

There's definitely a country thing going on in some of your songs. Who are your favorites in that genre?

I guess just the classics?I love Hank Williams, George Jones, Merle Haggard?I'm not a huge Johnny Cash fan for some reason. And the girls. I used to listen to Loretta Lynn a lot. It's not like I'm a nerd about it though, I'm not a c&w nerd, I just like it. Tammy Wynette, I listen to her a lot, she's got an amazing voice.

How long have you been in New York?

I grew up here, actually...since I was 10 or 11. I was born in Hungary. But recently I lived in L.A. for seven years.

What was that like?

Have you ever been out there?

Just to visit relatives. Not really to hang out.

Well, that's the key there. Annihilation. Destruction. Death. The Void. It was definitely?I was at the point where I had had it with New York, you know, when you're stuck here 15 years in a row it can get to you... [In L.A.] I liked the ocean and the mountains and the desert and driving out of L.A., but actual day-to-day life in L.A., after about the first year it started wearing off, and by the seventh year I was ready to kill someone. On the other hand, in a weird way I was much more prolific in L.A., although I hated it. Writing was my little solace. A lot of the material on the album was written in L.A., although I recorded it when I moved back here.

Are you writing the music and the words simultaneously, or what?

It's a pretty separate process. I wish it weren't, because it would be easier, and more organized, if I could just sit down and in this one beautiful transcendent moment it would pour out of me all at once, but it doesn't really happen that way. There's a lot more of a kind of incoherent patchwork thing involved, where I have notes, and lyrical ideas, and then I have musical ideas and I start putting them together.

One of the things that strikes me about your lyrics is that they'll be very oblique, or indirect, and then all of a sudden there's something very blunt, like "I can't see shit."

I appreciate it that you point that out because it's one of the things that drives my stuff, that's definitely?I don't know if I would use the word "conscious," but it's a direct effort to have that push-pull, that tension between the two. I like a certain vague, dreamy quality and I like being really in your face sometimes. I love that contrast, and I'm always going to play with that a little bit. I also do that musically. I do like really simple, pretty, beautiful things and nice melodies but I really like to throw a little bit of ugliness in there.

So, do you want to tell a joke?

Wow! Did I tell a joke at Pete's Candy Store when you were there? That's my recent favorite joke... It was a really good joke, about the married couple and the guy's like pulling on the woman's?he's pinching her butt while they're taking a walk and he says, "You know, if you'd tighten this up a little bit you wouldn't need to wear support pantyhose." And she's seething with fury but she doesn't say anything. And the next morning they're in bed and he pinches her breasts a little bit, and he says, "You know, if you firmed these up a little you wouldn't need those support bras. We could get rid of the pantyhose, the bras..." And she doesn't say anything at first but then she grabs his dick and she says, "You know, if you firmed this up a bit we could get rid of your brother, the pool boy, the gardener..."

[Laughter] I remember you said something once onstage like "I'm taking advantage of the power I have as a performer here," and I was really struck by that, since a lot of people aren't as playful about that, they just kind of...

Take it for granted?

But in general, you're in front of all these people and you're the focus of their attention, you know, it's...

A little strange? Hell, yeah! Are you telling me? I know. I'm always tempted to medicate myself to the max, in those situations. Don't know how I've resisted all these years, but believe me, the temptation is strong. Never something I've been totally comfortable with, but I guess it appeals to me, the uncomfortableness of it all.

You just did this monthlong residency at Pete's?what are you working on now?

I'm really turning the corner on this new batch of material, that'll be the new album or whatever, working on a new batch of songs, performing some of them, working on them at home. Staying up until 5 a.m., on a good day. I write almost everything on the guitar, although I have a piano, and I'd like to do more stuff on the piano. I find the violin very difficult to write on. I'm just really addicted to writing on the guitar, because I'm not a guitarist. So there is a kind of innocence about it for me, which is great. I'm not really like a guitar chick. But I'm almost losing it. Not quite yet though?when I do I'll switch to another instrument.

What do you mean by losing it?

Well, losing my innocence. But there's still a kind of dyslexic approach I have on it that works for my writing.

So if you were real proficient...

It would limit me. It would probably limit me in the sense that I couldn't just, in a totally stupid, idiotic way, discover something that seemed new to me even though it's not really new, but I wasn't inhibited by knowing that it's not new. Because to me I just happened upon it, by accident.

Eszter Balint plays Thurs., March 15, 8 p.m., at Tonic, 107 Norfolk St. (betw. Delancey & Rivington Sts.), 358-7503.