Source: Veruca Salt Official Website
NAME: Nina Rachel Gordon-Shapiro
ROLE IN BAND: Singer, guitarist, songwriter, centrifugal force.
BIRTHPLACE: Washington, DC
BIRTHDATE: November 14, 1967
EDUCATION: The Latin School of Chicago, and Tufts College in Paris
PREVIOUS JOB: Art coordinator for the Art Institute of Chicago
CURRENT HOME: Chicago, on the Gold Coast
MARITAL STATUS: "I have a boyfriend, Stacy Jones, a musician."
RESUME: Co-founder of the band Veruca Salt; left the group in 1998. Now a solo artist.
BACKGROUND: "I wouldn't say that I wasn't always this privileged. Although in some ways I was. Emotionally, yes. Jim says I hogged all the emotion."
B I O G R A P H Y
The most beautiful song I can think of right now is "Long Long Long" by George Harrison, and the most rocking song is "Back in Black" by AC/DC. When I was little I would play the Bee Gees song "Holiday" over and over and watch myself cry in the mirror. Something about watching myself being transformed by this very sad song was fascinating to me. I remember being infuriated by "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stone, and every time the line was repeated, I always felt compelled to scream out "Yes, I Can!" in response. That song was an outrage to me. Some of the songwriters that have shaped me are Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Brian Wilson, Scott Miller, Prince, and Charles Thompson.
I learned three chords on the guitar when I was 7, but I got bored and dropped guitar for many years. Then, about three and a half years ago, I was lonely and depressed, living in Chicago, and I felt the impulse to write songs and I needed a guitar as a tool. So I would call my brother and he would teach me chords over the phone. I'd ask him to play "Meet El Presidente" by Duran Duran and he would tell me where to place my fingers. I still don't really even know the name of the chords I play-- I know them as "the third chord in the chorus of 'Photograph' by Def Leppard", or "the first chord in 'We Got The Beat.' " So I bought a four-track from a man named "Spider" and started to write songs. I wouldn't play them for anyone but my boyfriend and my brother, and I probably never would have played them for anybody else if I hadn't met Louise. My friend Lili introduced us in early 1992 because she had a feeling we would connect. We did.
We played guitar and sang together for nine months before we decided to look for a bass player and a drummer and start playing shows. Our first was in July of 1993 at a small bar called Phyllis' Musical Inn in Chicago's Wicker Park. We made our first record, American Thighs, in January 1994 with Brad Wood at Idful, his studio. We felt lucky to work with Brad because he had recorded some of our favorite records: Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville, Red Red Meat's Jimmywine Majestic, and Seam's The Problem With Me. My favorite songs on the record are "Wolf" and "25" because they are honest and distilled.