Boston-based singer-songwriter Antje Duvekot has made a name for herself in the folk music world with powerful ballads of heartbreak and longing for a deeper spirituality, but coming up empty-handed.  Below is David Shankbone's interview with the folk chanteuse.  
David Shankbone:  Tell me about your new album.
DS:  You mentioned you used to explore more dark themes in your work, but that lately you are exploring lighter fare.  What themes are you exploring on this album?  
DS:  What were you going through that made it so dark?
DS:  What personal relationships do you struggle with?
DS:  Do you believe in a higher power?
DS:  What do you believe?
DS:  Why do you miss having religion in your life?
DS:  Does the idea that our lives on Earth may be all that there is unsettle you?
DS:  You had said in an interview that your family wasn’t particularly supportive of your career path, but you are also saying they were atheists who weren’t curious about the things you are curious about.  It sounds like you were a hothouse flower.
DS:  They almost sound Soviet Communist.
DS:  What’s your relationship with them now?
DS:  Why?
DS:  That’s the reason you don’t speak with them?
DS:  That must be a difficult thing to contend with, that a career would be the basis for a relationship.
DS:  Would you say in your previous work some of your conflict of dating would have been birthed from how your relationship with your family?  How do you see the arc of your work?
DS:  Has the Iraq War affected you as an artist?
DS:  How has it affected you personally?
DS:  The struggle to be original in art is innate.  When you are coming up with an idea for a song and then you all of a sudden stumble across it having been done somewhere else, how do you not  allow that to squelch your creative impulse and drive to continue on.
DS:  When I interviewed Augusten Burroughs he told me that when he was in advertising he completely shut himself off from the yearly ad books that would come out of the best ads that year, because he wanted to be fresh and not poisoned by other ideas; whereas a band called The Raveonettes said they don’t try to be original they just do what they like and are upfront about their influences.  Where do you fall in that spectrum?
DS:  Who would you say are some of your biggest influences in the last year.  Who have you discovered that has influenced you the most?
DS:  You moved out of New York because you had some difficulty with the music scene here?
DS:  Do you feel home up in Boston?
DS:  Why do you think Boston has such a well-developed folk scene?
DS:  Is there anything culturally about Boston that makes it more conducive to folk?
DS:  Do you have a favorite curse word?
DS:  Really?!  You are the first woman I have met who likes that word!
DS:  Do you find yourself more inspired by man-made creations, including people and ideas, or nature-made creations?
DS:  What are some man made things that inspire you?
DS:  Do you think you will return?
DS:  What trait do you deplore in yourself?
DS:  When is the last time you achieved a goal and were disappointed by it and thought, “Is that all there is?”  Something you wanted to obtain, you obtained it, and it wasn’t nearly as fulfilling as you thought it would be.
DS:  What is a new goal?
DS:  How challenging is it to obtain that in the folk world?
DS:  Do you think of doing something less folk-oriented to give your career a push?
DS:  More money more problems.
DS:  What things did you encounter doing a studio album that you had not foreseen?
DS:  What is your most treasured possession?
DS:  Please!  Do tell!
DS:  You found a latex glove in a parking lot and you decided to take it?
DS:  If you could choose how you die, how would you choose?
DS:  Would you be an older woman with long hair or short hair?
DS:  Who are you supporting for President?
DS:  You don’t think Obama would have a chance of winning?
DS:  What trait do you value most in your friends?
DS:  What trait do you deplore in other people?
DS:  Where else are you going on tour?
DS:  And you have to fly up there!
DS:  Is there a big folk scene in Alaska?
DS:  So you had that sense of what Ani DiFranco must feel.
DS:  Did you like that?

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Antje Duvekot on life as a folk singer, her family and her music