Daily Discovery: Natalia Zukerman, “Come Thief”

Natalia Zukerman grew up in New York City, studied art at Oberlin, worked in mural arts in San Francisco, began her songwriting career in Boston, and now resides, writes, plays and paints in Brooklyn, NY. Her new album (Come Thief, Come Fire) is out now.

ARTIST: Natalia Zukerman

SONG: Come Thief

BIRTHDATE: 6/25/75

HOMETOWN: New York, NY

CURRENT LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY

AMBITIONS: I’d like to do a triathlon.

TURN-OFFS: When people use the word “girlfriend” to mean just their friend.

TURN-ONS: Eyes. Kindness. Humor.

DREAM GIG: Playing at a great venue every night for a year. The same venue.

FAVORITE LYRIC: 
“I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
“Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed” – Joni Mitchell

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: I don’t think I like the word crazy but if I have to, I would probably have to say that’s me.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: “Freebird.” Asked for in every kind of venue on a daily basis.

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH:
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo- together at the same time. I wanna hear about their collaborations and watch how they interact.
Jane Goodall- pretty sure I’d never get bored of hearing about gorillas.
Oliver Sacks- he’s got the cutest lisp and the best stories.
Catherine Keener- I just think she’s stunning.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: Getting to see Prince when I was in college. Um…doesn’t get better than that.

I WROTE THIS SONG: This is the title track of my record, “Come Thief, Come Fire” and it was actually two songs before it was in its current state. The song, “Bucket” that is also on the record, had a second section that I was calling the chorus and the line was “Come thief, come fire, are you ready for what fire requires?” I knew it was two different songs but I just didn’t know how to extricate the two. I played the song for my good friend Erin McKeown who promptly said, “That’s two different songs.” So we decided to write a third one and “steal” the line from the other song. We talked a lot about the idea behind the song, did some free writing around the idea of fire, destruction, breaking of our habits and patterns and we finished the song on a NY subway going back to my apartment one night. I think it’s one of the more lyrically layered songs and it just feels good to sing all those words. They mean a lot to me too.