Interview with Singer-Songwriter Lisa Cerbone

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AHC:: What drew you to a life of song making?

Lisa: I always sang and then started learning how to play the guitar, but I mostly wrote poetry and fiction.  So, I decided to put music and poetry together to see what I could come up with, and I realized that the melodies and sound of the acoustic guitar created another layer of expression to the words.  For me, the sound and the words just went together so naturally.  It was also fun to put together – kind of like working out a puzzle.  


AHC: Your first album came out in 1993, were you playing for a while before this? What year did you first start writing and performing music and what was influencing you musically, lyrically, culturally and emotionally at that time?

Lisa: I started performing in the late 80’s here and there playing only my own songs, trying to find my voice.  Then little by little, I started recording when I had the money.  I think there was so much weighing on me that I felt the need to express, but I wanted to do it in an artful way.  I was discovering other singer/songwriters who worked in a similar vein and was really inspired by them, as well as through books I was reading, movies I was seeing, and just everything around me.  All of it paved the way and informed my craft.  It made me want to work on writing all the time.  In a small way, I felt that I had something to offer too.  


AHC: Your songs, lyrically, are some of the most poetic, in structure, that I can think of. Is poetry a huge part of your world? Has it had a significant influence on your songwriting style?

Lisa: Poetry is a big part of my world – absolutely.  I was an English major, so I read a lot and I think I really internalized the structure of poetry.  I also tried to use imagery in my writing to create a lasting picture.  I liked the idea of using a central image as the core of the song that all of the other images floated around.  Poetry has a way of stopping time, so we can look at a feeling or experience from so many different angles.  I wanted to do that too, so listeners would hopefully, find something new every time they listened.  The more I performed my own songs; I would hear something new too, which made it more interesting for me.  One way songwriting and poetry are different though is that in songwriting, the words have to fit the melody, so I had to learn to write a little more sparingly and let the music do the talking.  It can be a challenge to come up with a balance that feels right.  


AHC: Your album 'Close Your Eyes' is a very sad, hauntingly painful record. I've always felt a strong connection to your work because of this, and yet on your last record 'We Were All Together' I also sense a lot of hope creeping in through the cracks, in some ways it feels as if the song 'You Are So Loved' is the type of thing the characters/subjects in your first album probably needed so desperately to hear someone tell them. Is this a product of living long enough to become comfortable with living? As a songwriter, an artist, as a human being, do you feel that there has been an evolution for you from this place of rawness, a scream, to a place where, while the hope is never perfect, it's at least something one can sense and feel as available and possible? While creating that last record, did you sense a change, a shift?

Lisa: What a great question.  I am not a religious person in any traditional sense, but I feel strongly that no matter how sorrowful life can be, there is hope.  It is definitely an idea that I want to impart on my children; I want them to see how extraordinary life is.  At some point, although it is important to take a hard look at what is painful, it is just as important to figure out what you are going to do with it.  Are you going to let it rule your life and let it kill you or make you bitter?  Those were not options for me.  So, with this choice that I think comes with age and perhaps being a mom, I was able to let more light into my life and my songs.  I think I also felt that I wanted to be selective in what I put into the world.  


AHC: I hate to use the cliché term 'music therapy' with all its clinical connotations, but I also wonder, beyond this, or maybe also embroiled in this, if you see songwriting and music this way, as a type of therapy or healing mechanism? Or at least as a way of pointing out something gone wrong, life gone amiss, blows dealt, wounds suffered, wounds healed? Does music, and creating it, help you to process and make sense of a life? 

Lisa: Writing can be emotionally draining sometimes; I am not sure how much healing occurs – sometimes it does and sometimes it does not.  It can dredge up things that make me pause and wonder how the characters in my songs or I survived.  Other times, it can be somewhat healing because a feeling or experience is finally being communicated instead of buried.  When that happens, you can see it for what it is and sometimes even reframe it for a better understanding.  I think things become cathartic for me when others relate to it.  That sense of community makes the experience less isolating in the end.  


AHC: Of the records you've made over your career, which is your favorite and why?

Lisa: I think they all make sense to me given the time they were put into the world.  A musician I was working with told me that it is a snapshot of that time in your life, flaws and all.  I agree with that.  Using that idea as a lens, there is something I like about each one.  For example, I like the first because it brings me back to that feeling of being in the studio for the first time with the headphones on.  It was pretty exciting thing for me, and I remember thinking at the time, how did I even get here?  I was definitely green and still figuring out the whole process of recording and working with other musicians.

The second recording was fun because I was on an actual record label, recording in Atlanta.  It gave me the sense that I had reached some kind of “legitimacy” as a songwriter and recording artist.  The third was so memorable because I got to work with Mark Kozelek in San Francisco.  At one point, we were going across town to get two-inch tape left over from Chris Isaac’s last session.  There were some open tracks on it, so I got it for a cheaper price.  That was pretty cool since Chris Isaac’s voice is still on the tape we used for my songs. Also, having Mark play guitar on my work was a dream come true.  I saw the way he worked and learned how to create a more organic type of recording.  

The last recording was special because I did it mostly by myself, and I had never done that before.  Plus, it is a record primarily about all the people I deeply love in the world.  So, I like them all for different reasons.  


AHC: Which musicians/songwriters have had the hugest influence on you as a recording artist? Is there a particular album or song that you can't live without?

Lisa: Wow – so many artists have influenced me.  I love Fleet Foxes, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Aimee Mann, Tom Waits – the list can go on and on.  I even like some of the music my kids are listening to.  My daughter likes Twenty-One Pilots and we listen to them a lot in the car.  She is always trying to get me to sing along with it.  For some reason, that really makes her laugh.  I find them to be very inventive.  

There are so many songs I cannot live without.  Suzanne Vega’s song “Rusted Pipe” is one that I sometimes listen to over and over again.  I can really relate to that one.  Mark Kozelek’s “Have You Forgotten” and “Ruth Marie” are very special too.  The Beach Boys “God Only Knows” is magical.  Sufjan’s Stevens’ Romulus” is another favorite.  There are too many songs to list here.  

AHC: Do you have any thoughts of returning to music and possibly recording another album someday?

Lisa: Yes, I would like to.  I have started one but was busy working on my Masters degree in TESOL – Teaching English as a Second Language and started working as an ESL teacher at some of the nearby colleges, so I got a little sidetracked.  I would very much like to finish the one I started.  Many of my students have told me these amazing stories about their home countries and coming to the United States that I have been so moved by.  I would love to find a way to give them a voice in my songs in a way that is not exploitive of their experience.  


​AHC: What advice would you give to musicians-songwriters who are just starting out and struggling to find their voice, their place in the world?

​Lisa: I guess I would tell musician-songwriters to do it for no other reason other than they love it.  I am no expert on this, but for me, being open to the world around me is so important.  They should find those things that speak to them and find a way to express themselves in a way that feels pure and true.  



       
Special thanks to Lisa Cerbone for talking with us, please take a moment and visit her website. Her latest album 'We Were All Together' is available at CD Baby, Amazon & itunes.  www.lisacerbone.com 





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