Interview with Lisa Redford!

“No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same.” – John Denver

Hello!

Photograph taken by Jeff G

Tonight I’m bringing you another interview that I carried out at this years Country 2 Country! I met up with Lisa Redford, a very talented songwriter with a great personality and I chatted to her about her songwriting process and influences amongst other things. I really enjoy listening to Lisa’s music, her unique vocals and traditional instrumentation blend well together and the subject matter of her songs are easily relatable. It is no wonder her music has received radio airplay across the world. Check out the interview below!

First of all tell me a bit about yourself as an artist and what stage of your career you’re at?

Well, I’m a singer-songwriter, I’ve released a few albums on my own, self financed, three albums and a few extra digital releases as well as a live album and an acoustic album so I’ve done quite a bit in my career so far. I’ve done some sessions with Bob Harris and he introduced me on stage in the saloon (C2C Day 2 Sunday) which was quite exciting! He’s always been very supportive of my music and when I brought my first album out he played tracks from it which was a great thing for me as I was just starting out so his support meant a lot and each album since then he’s played tracks from.

Great, what are your main influences?

Well all sorts of music really, I gravitated more towards Americana a few years ago and began listening to Emmylou Harris and Bryan Adams I’m a big fan of that kind of old country, Americana sound I suppose. Lucinda Williams, Katheline Edwards I remember her first couple of albums were really good and moving into folk and acoustic music I love as well as mine is acoustic based. Then of course there’s the old school stuff like Carol King and Simon and Garfunkel, quality, timeless songwriting.

Can you talk me through your songwriting process?

Well basically its usually melody first, sometimes I start playing some chords and I get an idea of melody over the top, thats mostly what happens and lyrics come last but every now and again I’ll get a phrase that really resonates with me and that will inspire the song. A lot of the time its pretty personal, I write about whats going on in my life and then you can make it universal so everyone relates to it.

You have a few albums out? Tell us the stories behind them.

Well the first one I did off my own back, I had a lot of friends that were musicians and it was a good way of getting my first few songs out there and it went really well, I had some great reviews and a few publications who interviewed me and featured me and like Bob Harris played my tracks and I didn’t expect it at all really as a lot of it was just played live. And the second one was called Lost Again which was more Americana, I worked with a Canadian producer and theres Banjo, Pedal Steel, Dobro, Mandolin, the full works on that album. And then the last album was a bit of both, some acoustic, some with the band, I think I found myself a lot more on that album, it was more confident and I think I was bearing my soul a bit more haha.

And what’s the strangest thing you’ve ever written about in a song?

Ooh thats a good question, I mean they’re not really strange as such, they’re usually relationship based songs or looking back, what might have been or conversations. Theres one called Music in the Mountains which was inspired by my friend’s situation she was in love with a guy, a mountaineer and she told him she loved him but he said, “I love you, but I love mountains more” and it led to a song about being in love with someone who has a stronger passion and it can make you think about our relationship with music. And then I have a few happy songs like Carolina Rain which is just about a happy moment as I think us songwriters tend to dwell on the more sad topics in life, it can be hard to write a happy song.

Yeah, when you’re happy you’re out living the moment but when you’re sad you’re usually wallowing in it so have time to write, haha!

Haha yes thats right!

Another daft one now, what are your mid-gig thoughts?

Sometimes its just thinking what’s the next song or worrying about how much time you’ve got left but I’m usually in the zone, it took me a while though as you can easily get distracted. Though there was this one time when someone fell on me whilst I was performing although I managed to carry on somehow haha!

So there you have it folks; Lisa Redford! You can find out more about Lisa on the following links and listen to her music. As she said she has released three albums which are available on itunes and I highly recommend them, you will not be disappointed!

http://lisaredford.com

https://www.facebook.com/lisaredfordmusic

I have just started blogging for Essentially Pop as well now, my first article was posted today, a review of Sophie DeBattista at Hard Rock Rising. You can check it out here:

http://essentiallypop.com/epop/2015/05/sophie-debattista-at-hard-rock-rising-300415/

Thanks

Just Zoe x