One {fateful} day while a teenage Christina Rubino was sitting on the couch at home in Brooklyn, a commercial came on the television featuring a 7 second clip of Janis Joplin singing Piece Of My Heart…those 7 seconds forever altered Ms. Rubino’s life path.
Christina had this to say about what happened next,
“That was it. I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to be that, I wanted to explode like that. I took the last fifty dollars from my birthday money, got on a bus to the local music store and bought myself a basic nylon string classical acoustic guitar. I didn’t even have enough for the sales tax; the salesman felt bad for me and gave me a discount. That was a great day.”
She began playing in her first band by the age of 18 as vocalist and rhythm guitarist. In 2006 she joined the all female group Violator, a NYC based Depeche Mode cover band. In 2008 Violator transitioned to Josephine, an all female trio in which Rubino collaborated with drummer Tracy Thompkins and bassist Leigh Regan.
Josephine released a 5 track EP with UK based Feed That Baby Records. That was in 2009 but by September of that year, after a storm of personal problems, Rubino stepped away from the music scene.
She eventually returned to the studio with singer/songwriter Francine Bianco as one half of the folk duo Ruby and White. Halfway into recording an EP, Bianco decided to pursue arising opportunities that required her time and finances focused elsewhere. Instead of abandoning the project, Rubino pushed forward.
Her first full length album, (A)Live From The Scrapheap, was born.
“I swore most of these songs would never see the light of day. They were too personal, too embarrassing. It was difficult to even play them in front of my producer. It was only the constant nagging from my conscience and the unrelenting feeling that I must do this which led me to the decision to continue recording after Francine left. She was very pivotal to my journey with this album – had she not pushed me to start playing again and begged me to track some of those songs, they undoubtedly would still be in a drawer somewhere hidden.”
Drenched in soulful acoustic bluesy americana, (A)Live From The Scrapheap is the result of Ms. Rubino pouring her life into sound frequencies.
Rubino is a female Johnny Cash. A tasty brew 2 parts Patty Griffin, 1 part Cat Power, with a little bit of Shelby Lynn sprinkled on top.
(A)Live From The Scrapheap is the story of Christina Rubino, a strong, independent woman “who got lost trying to find herself and only found herself when she was lost.”
Go pre-order the album then connect with Ms. Rubino on Facebook or Twitter.
