Lisa Richards is an acclaimed singer, songwriter, musician and voice teacher. She very kindly found the time to stop by the studio to discuss songwriting and play one of her songs live just ahead of a busy tour. In fact it was the first singing performance she had done for a few months after an illness-related layoff.
Lisa has been writing songs for 25 years since she formed a songwriting partnership with a guitarist and they both ended up in New York. Songwriting is how Lisa processes the world, herself and her relationships with others.
Her songwriting process typically starts with her instrument, could be a melody, a bass line or chords. When she finds musical elements that inspire her, she starts to sing and the lyrics come. Realising what the story of the song is can often be the last part of the process for Lisa. It is important for the lyrics to "sing" right - to feel good as Lisa is vocalising them.
We discussed Lisa's song, "Waiting for love to cure me" which weaves together the story of immigrants arriving into New York and making traditional pickles from their home countries with the experience of being an older woman and how the concept of love changes from the myth of love taught to young people. Lisa's performance of the song, live in the studio, with her gentle but driving guitar rhythm and Bille Holiday-like vocals is a beautiful thing!
Lisa writes songs for herself and it's a bonus if other people like them. She encourages new songwriters to do exactly that and to not curtail their creative selves or be too concerned about what other people think. To find out more about Lisa's music: https://www.lisarichardsmusic.com/