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 highschool. 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 am not religious.
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 11 years. My first band was the Meaningful and Wise in which I played guitar and cello. We played my schoolmate Colin Kindley's songs and I guess our biggest influences 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 as I was starting at Cooper Union School of Art. For many reasons (mostly lame) it did not come out until 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 this "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 The Cooper Union School of Art which I loved. My art website is art.rebeccaschiffman.com
My pet project is The U.E.S. Journal



Buy my second album on iTunes:



Buy my first album on iTunes: