Natalia Mikhailovna Schneiderman,, known in the English-speaking world as Natasha Shneider was a Latvian-American musician and actress. She was most notably the keyboardist and vocalist in the musical groupEleven, along with her partner, bandmate Alain Johannes. Shneider contributed to tracks for Chris Cornell and Queens of the Stone Age, and together with Johannes toured with Cornell on his Euphoria Morning tour in 1999 and with Queens in 2005 on their Lullabies to Paralyze tour. She died of cancer in 2008.
Life and career
Shneider was born in Riga, Latvia, to a Jewish family. She proved musically gifted from an early age and both of her parents were musicians. In the early 1970s, Shneider was a member of 'Sovremennik', a state-run pop orchestra, that featured her on vocals and piano, as well as her first husband Serge Kapustin on guitar and percussion. Her brother Vladimir Shneider produced and played piano and keyboards for the 'Singing Hearts', which was one of Russia's hottest groups in the mid-1970s, whose output and sound were heavily controlled by the Soviet authorities. Vladimir Shneider recalled: "We'd sing 37 songs about how good the Communist Party is, and at the end—if we were lucky — we were allowed to play a mellow song like Killing Me Softly or Ain't No Sunshine. But never rock." In May 1976, Natasha Shneider, her husband Kapustin, and her brother Vladimir defected to the West, arriving in New York City without finances or connections. Her son was born just two months after arriving. They took day jobs and played evening gigs around the city. In 1978 they arrived in Hollywood where they met Guy Costa, the head of Motown's Studio Operations, who introduced them to Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records. As a consequence of the meeting with Gordy they were signed to the label, reputedly the first Russian band to be on a major label. In June 1980 their newly named group, Black Russian, released an album of R&B styled pop that was well received by Billboard who highlighted the songs Mystified,Leave Me Now, Emptiness, New York City, and Love's Enough. The album was not a commercial success and Black Russian did not continue. Natasha Shneider and Serge Kapustin then divorced. In 1987, Natasha married her second husband Alain Johannes and they released the albumWalk the Moon under the MCA label. In 1990 they formed the band Eleven with drummer Jack Irons and released their debut album Awake in a Dream the following year. The group would go on to release four more albums over the next twenty years, with Irons leaving during their third album in 1995 to play with Pearl Jam, and coming back for the fifth album in 2003. Shneider and Johannes participated with Josh Homme and other artists on The Desert Sessions, Volumes 7 & 8. They also contributed to the 2002 Queens of the Stone Age album Songs for the Deaf, and joined the band as part of their touring line-up in support of their 2005 album, Lullabies to Paralyze. They wrote, performed and produced with Chris Cornell for his 1999 solo album, Euphoria Morning, and formed part of his band for the subsequent tour. The song "Someone to Die For" that Shneider wrote alongside Cornell and Johannes, was part of the soundtrack of Spider-Man 2, performed by Jimmy Gnecco of Ours and Brian May of Queen. A demo version of the song performed by Cornell and Eleven is available on the internet.
Acting career
Shneider acted in two feature films, playing the roles of Soviet cosmonaut Irina Yakunina in the 1984 film, 2010, and as Polish former exchange student Wanda Yakubovska in the film Spiker. She also had minor roles in the TV showsMiami Vice and Hill Street Blues. Shneider wrote and performed the song, "Who's in Control", for the 2004 film Catwoman and contributed harpsichord to the 2008 Louis XIV track "Guilt By Association".
On July 2, 2008, Shneider died from cancer. The news broke with a message posted on the MySpace page of the band Sweethead, of which Natasha's close friend and former band-mate Troy Van Leeuwen is a member: The following message later replaced the main page at qotsa.com: Shneider is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Legacy
On August 16, 2008, Queens of the Stone Age performed a concert in celebration of Shneider's life at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. They were joined on stage by Alain Johannes, Tenacious D's Jack Black and Kyle Gass, Matt Cameron, Brody Dalle, Jesse Hughes, Chris Goss and PJ Harvey, playing a variety of QOTSA and non-QOTSA songs. Proceeds from the concert went to defray the costs associated with Natasha's illness. In late 2009, a song she co-wrote with Johannes, "Time for Miracles", was recorded by Adam Lambert and used in the movie 2012. In 2010 the track WYUT, co-written by Shneider, Johannes and Natalie Imbruglia, appeared on Imbruglia's album Come to Life. While on his solo tour between 2011 and 2016, Chris Cornell would often pay tribute to her and play the song "When I'm Down", accompanied by a vinyl recording of the original piano track that Shneider performed for the song.
