It is becoming increasingly rare in the music industry to find an artist who sounds as good, if not better, in a live performance compared with to their studio recording – and Lissie is about as real as it gets.
asapmusicblog.ca had the pleasure of speaking with the singer-songwriter from Rock Island, Illinois before her sold-out show at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver at the end of December. We talked not only about her music, songwriting, and her band – but she also gave us her playlist.
We’ll let Lissie speak for herself.
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asapmusicblog.ca: Is this your first time in Vancouver?
Lissie Maurus: No, it’s my second time. I played here once before, a couple of years ago – like three years ago, I opened for Badly Drawn Boy. And my sister and her husband actually lived here for two years, so I also visited with them. They’ve since moved back to the States, so I have been here – it’s a beautiful town.
a: What is a day in the life of Lissie like?
LM: Well we’ve been on tour for over a year now, pretty much consistently. So on tour, you’re in a different town everyday, it’s sort of like eat-sleep-play, eat-sleep-play. I wake up whenever I have to, and sometimes it’s early – and I’m really grumpy. But usually we can sleep in a little, have breakfast, drive or fly to wherever I’m going, get some dinner, sound check, play a show, go to bed. I like to read, I like to watch TV shows on my computer. I just figured out how to use Skype on my iPhone, so I just experimented – I talked to my mom for free, which was cool, you know, being in Canada, it’s expensive. That was exciting! And I write – write in my journal, and write songs.
And when I’m at home – I live in Ojai, California, so a day in my life when I’m at home – I like to sleep in, but I’m jet-lagged now, so I wake up really early because I’m still kind of on Europe time. But I like to sit on my porch, have a cup of coffee, have a cigarette, check my e-mail, go for a walk – I have a dog, so he runs around the yard. I always have sort of e-mail and things to do, I keep myself busy – I can’t really relax anymore. I love to get massages though, I got one today! I don’t know… I’m almost kind of boring. I really am always thinking about eating (laughs) – when’s my next meal going to happen!
a: Like you’ve kind of mentioned, you’ve been touring over the past year. Obviously you did spend quite a bit of time in the UK promoting ‘Catching A Tiger’ as well as building up your fan base. How was the experience there?
LM: So great. It’s been so wonderful because my band and I really went full force, especially in the UK, with promo and playing shows. Last December [2009], we played to like 20 people, and this past December, we played to 2000 and sold out Sheperd’s Bush Empire. So it’s been really validating, you know, and heartening to see how – especially like the UK fan base has just embraced what I’m doing, even though I haven’t gotten a ton of Radio 1 support, which is the big station. They’ve played me a few times, but I’m not necessarily… I haven’t been so embraced by the media, to where some other artists are.
It’s just been nice, that kind of through word-of-mouth, and a bit of marketing, but basically people just realize that they like what we’re doing and have been coming to our shows, and tweeting me, and buying the album, and looking at our videos online. So it’s just been cool because we basically do what we find fits our personalities in being creative, and staying “true to ourselves” – and it’s just been nice to see really in the UK, and also Norway and Germany, the growth over a small amount of time. The people that have just gotten really excited and bought tickets, and the radio stations who have played me have been so sweet.
It’s just been completely rewarding. There’s been nothing about it that has been frustrating, really. I mean, it’s been such a blessing to have people kind of come around, and now to come to Canada and sell out this venue is so cool, because it’s our first time as a band playing here. We feel really lucky right now.
a: Do you find that there’s a difference when you’re in the UK doing shows, and between the ones you play when you come back to North America?
LM: In the States in particular, we haven’t spent that much time here really promoting my album. I did a tour in October but I got really sick, and I had a family member die, and it was just kind of crazy in the middle of the tour – and I completely lost my voice, and just ended up cancelling half my tour. We still have so much work to do in the States, so we’re not really as well known. It’s actually kind of hard in a way, because we’ll play to 2000 people in London, and maybe to like 90 people in Houston. LA and New York have been good, but I find that we have a lot more work to do in North America than we do overseas, because we put in the time there.
So the difference, I guess, is the amount of time that we’ve been able to spend. And you know, the States is just so big that even if we feel we make progress in one place, you kind of really have to go everywhere. But I mean again, with coming to Vancouver, it’s awesome because we haven’t been here before, and I think our show in Toronto is going to go really well. We’re really thankful that the Canadian audience is quicker to come into liking us than maybe the States is, so I feel like the States is behind, very behind on everything (laughs)!
I guess that’s the main difference! And being overseas, we’ve been over there so much that it doesn’t feel very foreign, but at first when we go to the UK, the food’s different, you’re jet-lagged, and you can’t necessarily go buy a toothbrush at midnight like you can here in the US. Things are open at different times, so it takes getting used to. No, it’s not that different. I think it’s where you put your energy is where you get back, so we just have to put more energy into spending more time in North America.
a: One of the other things that always seems to come up in interviews with you is your “rebellious” streak in your high school years. The song ‘Cuckoo’ – that was obviously based on your high school experience, was the music video autobiographical at all?
LM: Yeah, it was. I gotta be honest, because that video – not that I want to talk smack about anybody, but I was disappointed a bit in the people I worked with on that video. A lot of my creative ideas and creative flow [are] really respected, but for some reason on some of my videos it’s been harder because you really have to let the director and the label kind of do it, and try to just go with it. So for ‘Cuckoo’, I was really pleased with the video, with the girl who played me when I was young – she was brilliant, and such a sweetheart. I ended up liking it in the end, but I kind of didn’t quite get my vision across as much as I’d like.
But yeah, it is based on when I was in grade school, it was like I was talking too much, I blew my nose too loud – I’d have to go stand in the hallway when I blew my nose. I was always sort of… getting pointed out – I guess I sort of stick out, I always talked a lot, kind of hyper, whatever (laughs). So when I was in school, I just always did, I got in trouble, and I kind of had a really strong sense of who I was and what I was doing from a young age. So I kind of clashed with adults, they thought I should just act like a kid, and fall in line, and sort of treat everyone the same, but different people need different kinds of support – and I just didn’t get it.
Luckily, my family was great, and I had music as an outlet, and I had some really good friends. And when I was in high school, I had a pick-up truck, and so we’d just go drive around – and thank goodness for some of those good friends. ‘Cause the song ‘Cuckoo’ sort of like, finding the people in life that do pull you through, and also saying the verses that all these things, no one understands me, in the end – I have to be by myself, but then you realize you’re not alone and now that I’m older I can look back on it, and with a sense of humour and see that it’s just all part of growing up – is having all those kinds of feelings, and feeling alone, and feeling misunderstood. It’s kind of a lighthearted song about a tough time.
I’m kind of rebellious – I just have an opinion, and if somebody kind of puts words in my mouth, or misunderstands what I’m trying to say, I get defensive in that I have to talk back, I can’t keep my mouth shut. Like, no, that’s not right, I’m not gonna do it, and you’re wrong! It’s not even a pride thing, because I don’t mind admitting when I’m wrong. But I just don’t like it when people try to put some idea on you that you don’t feel is correct – it’s very stifling, it was hard for me and that’s why I turned to music. I always loved to sing, but I started writing songs because I felt like, ‘Ok, when I speak, I’m not as eloquent as when I communicate through music’. I could say the things I couldn’t say in life, with music.
But I’m not super duper rebellious. I like to drink tequila, and everyone always sort of thinks I must be wild and crazy, but probably because I’m jet-lagged, I go to bed at like 9:30 at night. I don’t really go out, like I’m so busy working that I like to have a good time, but I don’t fight, or cuss – I’m not totally crazy. I’m not a rebel without a cause, like I have a cause, but if I don’t have a cause, then I’m really easy to get along with (laughs).
a: So speaking of songwriting as an outlet both in the past and present, what’s the process of writing a song like for you?
LM: Well, it’s always kind of different, but when I used to have more time at home, I would just sort of pick up my guitar when I was feeling something. So if I’m inspired by having a crush on somebody and they don’t notice me, or if I have a boyfriend but he’s bugging me, or if I’m walking down the street and I see something that kind of stirs up some feeling in me – whether it be melancholy, or you know, inspiring. I write based on having something to say. So if I don’t really need to say something, I don’t feel like I write a lot, so sometimes time goes by and I don’t really write. But then I’ll have these really prolific periods, where I’m just writing and writing, and I have all these thoughts and all these things I want to say.
It used to be I just pick up a guitar when I’m feeling something, and just start kind of strumming it, and I come up with the chord progression, and a melody, and the words would go to some of the melody, and then once I had that I would sort of go and just write and write and write. Sometimes it just comes to you, like a lot of artists say they feel they’re a channel for something that’s bigger than them. Like somehow, when you write a song, you don’t really – when you try to write it, it’s not really as good as when all of the sudden, it just happens. I find a lot of my better songs just sort of came out, and I didn’t know where they came from. It was a feeling I had, but it was like so easy, it just blaaah – and it all just kind of spewed out!
Now I’m the process of trying to write for my next album, and sometimes it’s just revisiting old ideas I haven’t had time and seeing what I want to say about it now, and then just writing lots of lyrics when I feel like it, and then later setting them to the music. So it’s just always different, I don’t know… it’s just really hard to pinpoint. It’s like, I’ll usually come up with an idea where it’s a bit of melody with a bit of lyric and then from there, I either finish it without playing the guitar, or I have to go to the guitar to finish it… sorry, that’s kind of a scattered answer!
And now, co-writing is a new thing for me that I enjoy. That’s like someone else gives me music, and then I just improvise melodies and lyrics over that and then I’m able to go back and edit it into a song.
a: If there was a single message that you would want your music to convey, what would it be?
LM: I never used to know the answer to that kind of question, but now – I think it is hope. I think it’s like ‘Cuckoo’ for example – it’s like being at an age where you’re a teenager and you’re frustrated to the point where you’re depressed. Being able to get to the end of that song and having it be an upbeat thing, it’s like realizing as you go along and go through anything in life that’s difficult, that if you just sort of wait it out – it gets better. I think for me, I want my music to be hopeful, that people can find comfort in it and it inspires them to be able to wait out the hard times and have faith that the good times will come again. And then some hard times come, and some good times will come – see the light at the end of the tunnel.
a: That’s a good message. Switching gears a little bit, let’s talk about your band. How did you meet them?
LM: When I was working on ‘Catching A Tiger’, the drummer was an LA guy, but we made it in Tennessee and he was really fun, and nice, and a great drummer. After we were done recording and I went back to California, I called him up and was like: ‘I need to find a band!’ – but a lot of session players who record don’t really want to tour, so I [asked]: ‘Do you know any guys that I could afford, that want to tour, that are great?’ – and he set me up with a few people. So we had an audition of sorts, and Eric [Sullivan] and Lewis [Keller] were kind of paired together, and as soon as we played – we played ‘Little Lovin’ and right away, it sounded awesome with Lewis on bass and on drums, and Eric on guitar. Right away, it was like – okay, these guys have that cool vibe – you could tell right away that they were good people, and they were great musicians. It was kind of a no brainer, I was just like – awesome, let’s do this!
We started playing together in September of 2009, which hasn’t been that long, but have toured constantly since. When we’re overseas, we actually have an English drummer that we just met through my A&R guy at Columbia, who was like, ‘What do you think about getting a drummer?’ – and we were really resistant, ‘cause I like Lewis doing both bass and drums. But we warmed up to the idea, we met this guy Stewart, and he’s awesome, and a great drummer — like also a really nice person, which is important because you can meet people in the music biz who are just arrogant jerks, so it was nice that I have such good people to play with.
But yes, we just met that way, they live in California, and we were just thrown into being on tour together, so we’ve gotten really close in a year, and it feels like we’ve been together forever. They’re both awesome, they’re from Ohio and Colorado, and I’m from Illinois, but we all sort of made our way to California in the last ten years or so.
a: I think the chemistry really comes across when you see you guys live, whether it’s in-person or even on Youtube videos of you guys playing acoustic.
LM: Yeah, it’s true. It’s interesting too because Eric and Lewis will finish each others’ sentences, and they’ll both start singing the same song at the same time, independently, and it’s like – whoa! And Lewis, little things… I’ll be about to say something and he’ll say it. We spend so much time together, even some of the covers we’ve done, we haven’t really rehearsed them, we just recorded them – we somehow are in tune with each other enough to know. I might even play the wrong chord, but they’re right there with me (laughs). It’s like a nice unspoken bond that we have, I think we’ve got a good telepathy going on. Especially between them two, I mean I’m tapped into it, but they seem to really have it.
