Shilpa Ray

Shilpa Ray’s forearms bulge with blood when she plays her harmonium. “I have strange musical injuries,” she explains, referring to the blisters on her fingers. But none of that stops her from pounding on the accordion-like instrument, which reached the height of its popularity in 19th-century churches. “I always feel like I’m still my 14-year-old self,” she says, explaining her determination to play despite the trauma her music can cause. “I never developed beyond that in my attitude.”
Ray’s teenage tendencies are alive and well on Teenage and Torture, her second full-length with Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers, which will be released in early 2011 on Knitting Factory Records. A collection of 10 savage and sultry blues-influenced songs, the album finds Ray eviscerating her subjects (and often spilling her own guts) with the kind of sharp-tongued, smart-assed angst that keeps juvenile detention centers in business. Songs like “Hookers” and “Genie’s Drugs” aren’t dealing with kid-sized issues, but no matter the situation, Ray says, “I always have that gut reaction the way that teenagers do.”

Growing up in central New Jersey, at 6 years old Ray picked up both the harmonium and piano at the insistence of parents who wanted her to learn classical Indian music. “I really wanted to play guitar and my parents said no,” Ray says. “But I had the harmonium, so I would learn chords to songs that I liked and start to play.” At 16 she taught herself how to play The Velvet Underground’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” but it wasn’t until a few years later that she worked up the nerve to perform in front of other people.
Settling in New York City with no idea how to form a band, Ray frequented open mic nights at the East Village’s legendary Sidewalk Cafe, where she performed solo. “I started going to Sidewalk because I didn’t fit into any scene and it seemed like there you can be anybody and still get a shot,” she says. “So I went and I sang a song a capella and they asked if I played an instrument and I told them about the harmonium, so they said if you bring this harmonium down, we’ll give you a show.” Ray would soon form her first band, Beat The Devil. While the group was met with early success and local acclaim, winning great praise from many observers including Brooklyn Vegan and the New York Times, they disbanded shortly before the release of their first and only album.