Welcome to this week’s Launch Box featuring Lissie
If you like: Ellie Goulding, Brandi Carlile, Stevie Nicks, Grace Potter, KT Tunstall
American folk artist Lissie, born Elisabeth Corrin Maurus in Rock Island, Illinois, was interested in singing and music from an early age. She said in an interview: “In high school it seems like everyone has more drama than any other time in their life. So that was the time in my life where I really leaned on music as a way to stay sane.”
In her senior year of high school, she was expelled over what she described as “something stupid that I did, but it was sort of like the culmination of just a lot of negative things that had happened.” She got her diploma at an alternative outreach center. Lissie spent two years at Colorado State University, during which she’d open up for musicians who visited the city.
After spending a semester in Paris, she finished her studies to pursue a career in music, and in 2007 she produced a four-song EP. She collaborated with DJ Harry of SCI Fidelity Records on the song “All My Life”, which was featured on television shows House, The O.C., Veronica Mars and Wildfire.
In early 2008, a friend of Lenny Kravitz tipped him off about Lissie and he invited her to be the opening act for his Love Revolution Tour. Her EP, Why You Runnin’, produced by Bill Reynolds of Band of Horses, was released in November 2009 on Fat Possum. The EP was listed amongst Paste magazine‘s “Eight Most Auspicious Musical Debuts of 2009.” Her song “Little Lovin” from the album was featured in the Season 2 promo for Justified.
In early 2010, Lissie toured the United Kingdom and signed with Sony Music UK‘s Columbia Records. Little by little, things seemed to come together. She headed to Nashville to record with Jacquire King (who was fresh from working with the Kings of Leon). What came out of it was the bulk of her debut album, Catching a Tiger; 12 songs that range from bluesy-folk to unfettered pop and showcase both her remarkable voice and her songwriting chops.
Catching a Tiger was released in June 2010. “Record Collector” is an easy standout from the album. Wry, poetic narration grounded in nature, and rhyming that isn’t forced or bland. Lissie whoops and darts all over the scale, showing off considerable vocal range and expressiveness.
Lissie bares her soul on her second studio album, Back to Forever. Opener “The Habit” builds with alluring piano and charging bass drum, erupting into a swift chorus of dancing hi-hats and churning guitars.
Lissie packs in some scorching cuts like “Can’t Take It Back,” which explodes into thrashing dance-pop fury, but doesn’t abandon her vulnerable side.
On November 4, 2015, she announced her new album, My Wild West, would be released February 12, 2016. Loving what we’ve heard so far. Take a listen to “Hero” and “Don’t You Give Up On Me” from the forthcoming album.