Carving Canyons

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a b c d "Lissie". ctnmusic.com. 22 December 2008. Archived from the original on 26 February 2010 . Retrieved 29 May 2010. Certified Awards Search". Archived from the original on May 11, 2011 . Retrieved November 14, 2009. Indie-folk singer Lissie has never rushed her albums. Her fifth proper studio release, Carving Canyons, uses that reflection to good effect. The album’s context – the loneliness at the center of the pandemic – feels almost behind the times (partly because of the surfeit of covid-based releases over the past few years). Still, Lissie primarily uses the setting to look at the fallout from a breakup that occurred early in the era. The time given to writing and recording Carving Canyons allowed Lissie full time to process, writing lyrics that offer transparency without frantic confessing, eventually leading to a possible way out of the crisis. Rose, Greg (25 May 2010). "Lissie and Ellie Goulding duet at Great Escape". Virgin Records. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010 . Retrieved 29 May 2010. In season 3 of the TV show Loudermilk that was released in 2020, she played a fictional character called Lizzie Poole who used to be a singer-songwriter in a band called Pool, but gave that career up after a negative review written by the title character, Sam Loudermilk, played by Ron Livingston. The songs that character performs in the show are previously released Lissie songs, including "When I'm Alone."

Similar to the approach of her previous records, Lissie closes out Carving Canyons with an optimistic song—the reflective “Midnight.” “I think by ending with “Midnight,” it's very open-ended,” she explains. “It's finding me in a place of peace and confidence and optimism, but there's still some moodiness there, and there's still a lot of unknown. It feels empowering. It's about being vulnerable and being open and surrendering.” AH: Yeah, I’ll get myself into those ruts, too, but one there’s one thing you want to hear, that’s all that’ll work for ya. Lissie Chart History: Adult Alternative Songs - February 14, 2018". Billboard . Retrieved February 14, 2018. Reilly, Dan (3 March 2010). "Lissie Interview: SXSW 2010 – Spinner". Spinner . Retrieved 29 May 2010. Petro, Cristopher. "SPOTLIGHT: Lissie Maurus". Performer Magazine . Retrieved 28 May 2010. [ permanent dead link]

The album’s other singles Sad and Night Moves show two other sides to its story. Sad seethes with an undercurrent of anger, matched with a certain resignation. It’s a bluesy number, and comes complete with echoing guitars that invoke the openness of the Lissie’s native American Midwest. Night Moves by contrast is upbeat, perhaps the poppiest moment of the album, with a wandering bassline and a steady groove.

Lissie’s music is often categorised as “pop”. Variations thereof: indie pop, folk pop, etc. appear to lend nuance, but if so, it’s redundant. She doesn’t seem to mind – after all, she co-owns a popcorn brand called Otts’ Pops Indie Pop, which might as well be an edible eyeroll. Lissie Takes Her California Farewell to London on 'Live at Union Chapel' Album: Exclusive First Listen". billboard.com . Retrieved 18 November 2016. Among the other things that Lissie has been working on aside from music has been her 45-acre farm in Iowa, where she relocated to in 2015 after spending over a decade in California. Additionally, Lissie has been involved in a homemade popcorn-making venture, Otts’ Pops Indie Pop, that she started with Diane Ott Whealy, a co-founder of the Seed Savers Exchange. “I always was a huge fangirl of hers, and we ended up becoming friends,” says the singer. “And then I was like, “Oh, I always wanted to start a popcorn company called ‘Indie Pop,’ and every flavor is gonna be inspired by a kind of pop music: ‘Cheesy Pop,’ ‘Brit Pop,’ ‘Country Pop,’ ‘Classic Pop,’ ‘Folk Pop,’ ‘Power Pop’—all the pops.’ And she had this family caramel corn recipe and she'd always wanted to start selling it as Otts’ Pops because her family name is Ott. L: Yeah and, I mean, talk about working with a total legend – she’s written some of the best songs ever! That was a huge honor. We again have a lot of friends of friends and kinda knew each other, but were connected through our teams to do a write. And we ended up writing over FaceTime, because it was during COVID, and it was right before Thanksgiving, and everyone was getting COVID. So November 2020 I was in Nashville, but we ended up just writing via FaceTime. With that song, Natalie, since she’s just an incredible crafter of songs, really had brought a title and a shape with her to the session, so I was able to sort of fill in the blanks alongside her via FaceTime to make the story work for me. To tell a side of my story which is, ultimately, you can’t make people love you, you have to love yourself, and you have to find the people that will. VH1 Webtools*delimiter*promotions*delimiter*Mob Wives: Lissie". Takeout.vh1.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03 . Retrieved 2015-12-13.

Tracklist

To define Lissie as an American singer and songwriter would be simplistic: she appeared in tv shows, she co – owns the music genre themed popcorn company Otts Pops Indie Pop and she owns her own farm. When the pandemic started spreading, Lissie was in her Iowa farm dealing with an impactful breakup: she decided to use the time wisely, learning to know herself better and, through connecting with nature, connecting with the deepest and more hidden parts of herself. Her upcoming album – Carving Canyons – will be out September 16 on Lionboy Records: here’s Her EP, Why You Runnin', produced by Bill Reynolds of Band of Horses, was released in November 2009 on Fat Possum. [13] [14] One of the songs, "Oh Mississippi" was co-written with Ed Harcourt, whom she met through a mutual friend. [15] The EP was listed amongst Paste magazine's "Eight Most Auspicious Musical Debuts of 2009". [16] Of her five albums in a recording career that began with her 2010 debut Catching a Tiger, Lissie regards Carving Canyons as her best as well as her most mature work yet. “I feel like in a weird way this is the first album I've made where I haven't really thought or cared about whether or not people were gonna like it. I have other things going on in my life that I'm passionate about. So I can't really let my worth be determined by how people react to it. It was really freeing to be like, ‘I'm making this because I have to, because otherwise I'm gonna explode. I gotta get this stuff out of me.’” AH: What else are you listening to right now? Who are you listening to, and who’s grabbed your ears lately?

a b c d Schultz, Paul (1 October 2008). "Music Review: Lissie, "Lissie" EP". The Trades. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012 . Retrieved 27 June 2010. On 4 November 2015, she announced the released date for her new album, My Wild West, as 12 February 2016. [25] Maddux, Rachael (22 December 2009). "The Eight Most Auspicious Musical Debuts of 2009". Paste . Retrieved 29 May 2010. AH: You were out on the farm for a good chunk of the pandemic. How did that kind of isolation affect the songs that ended up on Carving Canyons?

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L: Yeah, I think that happened very loosely and naturally, which I loved. I didn’t have to make a big to-do, I was just in Nashville, and my producer [Curt Schneider] had come from LA to get some vocals. I always feel like I sing better in Nashville, because in LA it’s dry, so my voice is always a little pinched. But then I come to Nashville, and it was all humid – the humidity is good for my vocal cords – so I was just singin’ my butt off and was able to just call up Kate and Sarah and Bre Kennedy and Madi and Natalie and be like, ‘Hey, what are you doing over the next two days – can you pop into the studio. No pressure.’ And everybody just rolled through and it was awesome! I really gave them freedom to ‘sing what you feel – I have a few ideas, but I’d just love for you to take it away.’ It adds such a dimension and a texture. I’m just so glad that that was able to work out, because it just adds more life and more perspective. It’s a group effort. AH: That kind of leads me to Madi Diaz – she co-wrote one of the songs with you, and she’s becoming a favorite of mine, too. Barker, James (September 16, 2022). "Album Review: Lissie – Carving Canyons". Narc Magazine . Retrieved September 16, 2022. Epic Scrap Metal Sessions Part 10: Lissie". bigang.no/home. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016 . Retrieved 19 February 2016. L: It could sound insensitive to say that anything good came from COVID, because obviously a lot of people died, and it was unbelievable – still, I can’t believe we’ve all been through this really intense thing. We’re collectively traumatized. But, yeah, I think, for a lot of people, there was a sort of slowing down that, for me, I haven’t done in over a decade. I just kind of have to sit with my feelings and confront myself and sort of try and grow and have self-awareness and emotional intelligence and practice self-care and do all of these things I’ve neglected for so long. It was kinda hard, but once I was able to sort of get the hang of it, I’m kind of grateful for having so much time to just be, and be in my home and be with my dog and to eventually be around more for my family and friends. I actually ended up meeting a new person who I’ve been dating for over a year who’s amazing, and I really think, had there not been this downtime, we probably wouldn’t have been able to have a relationship, because it’s hard to date someone who’s never home!

Stuttard, Asha (27 June 2010). "Lissie: Catching a Tiger". In The News. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012 . Retrieved 28 June 2010.L: You know, it’s interesting, and I feel like it’s kind of an obnoxious thing to say, but I listened to so much music growing up in high school and in college and in my early 20s in LA and I was always at concerts – I kind of feel like, once I started doing this for a living, that the thing that I listen to or go to when I’m trying to just go through my day, I’ll just put on classical music radio around the house – no singing, just music and dynamics and beauty. I watch a lot of TV, because I really like just watching comedies over and over. I listen to healthy podcasts and stuff. The Current radio station [89.3 Minnesota Public Radio], which is up in the Twin Cities, my closest city to where I live – I listen to a lot of The Current, and they’re playing a lot of Maggie Rogers, Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Barnett. I feel like there’s so much great music coming from women these days. I also tend to like to re-discover old stuff. There was a song…”Steppin’ Out,” by, uhm… AH: Well, you mentioned the songwriters coming in and singing with you, and it did make several of the songs, definitely “Yellow Roses” and some of the others, stand out. It gave them all a different flavor.