Nine Questions

Kendra Rutledge, 18, is a senior at Mountain View High School.
Rutledge first picked up a camera when she was 14. After stumbling onto
her Flickr page, Brooklyn indie-pop band The Pains of Being Pure at
Heart, who are performing in town this week (see the feature article),
contacted Rutledge about using one of her photos for an album cover.
The band has used other Rutledge photos since, including one on the
cover of a new EP. “It’s all a bit bizarre, really,” she says.

What was the first concert you ever saw?

Ladytron, on their Witching Hour tour, at the Clubhouse in
Phoenix, when I was around 14.

What CDs are in your changer right now?

Florence and the Machine, Lungs; Imogen Heap, Ellipse;
Phantogram, Eyelid Movies; Mika, Life in Cartoon
Motion.

How many total albums do you own (MP3s, CDs, vinyl, cassettes,
8-tracks)?

In terms of MP3s, around 2,700.

Do you download music, and if so, legally or illegally?

I generally use iTunes for just about everything.

What was the first album you owned?

It was a series of Broadway songs for kids. I listened to Joseph
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat so much that I had it
memorized.

What song would you like to have played at your funeral?

Eva Cassidy’s cover of Sting’s “Fields of Gold.” It always makes me
tear up.

Musically speaking, what do you love that your friends don’t know
about? What’s your favorite guilty pleasure?

I have an avid love for Kanye West, even if he is utterly
narcissistic.

What band or artist changed your life, and how?

If I had to choose, I would say Regina Spektor. She thinks
completely outside of the box in terms of lyrics and the way she uses
her voice, and it made me delve into an entirely new branch of music. I
would love to give her a huge hug if I ever met her.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all
time?

I suppose it would be Regina Spektor’s Soviet Kitsch. I could
listen to that for the rest of my life and still love it to death.

This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2009.