Lisa Germano is performing at Schuba's on 6.18 & 19.
Fluid and staggering, the songs on Lisa Germano's first new album in four years, Lullaby For Liquid Pig (Ineffable/iMusic), float in
and out of the listener's consciousness, heightening it and then sending it plummeting to the ground, sometimes in the same song.
Themes of addiction are thick as smoke and Germano's trademark breathy and distantly emotive vocals communicate the
seriousness of the subject matter without judgment.
Gregg Shapiro: When I interviewed you a few years ago, you were about to embark on the Suffragette Sessions tour with Amy
Ray, Emily Saliers, Jane Siberry, Jean Smith and others. Was that a good experience for you?
Lisa Germano: Oh, yeah! It was great. It was just fun. There's no reason beyond that we were all artistic people and it was kind of
amazing to hang out with these people for two weeks. We all played on each other's songs. When you just meet somebody it's so
different than actually playing on their music. It would be so beautiful when all of a sudden one night somebody would play on
something that they didn't the night before because they had been thinking about it. By the end of the tour we were all playing on
everything and it was really cool.
GS: If you were invited to do something like that again, do you think that you would?
LG: There would be no reason that I wouldn't unless I was busy. It's not anything that I think about or think about putting together.
But if somebody were to call me … (laughs). I always have a problem with things that are in boxes, like women's festivals. I'm going to
go do a women's festival in France, but at first I wasn't interested because I just don't like that kind of thing. But they sent me their CD
of what they did last year, and I thought it was really well done and I liked it, so I thought, 'Well, screw it if it's a women's festival or not,
it's still music.'
GS: Would you say that playing as a member of John Mellencamp's band, and also as a part of the Suffragette Sessions, makes
you a good team player and prepared you to be a part of Neil Finn's band?
LG: I think all the bands that I've played in have led to that. You do have to be a team player, but I always was. I don't think I had to
learn that so much. I had more of a problem learning how to be an individual. I come from a family of six kids, so you have to learn
how to be a team player (laughs).
GS: So it was harder for you to learn to be a solo artist?
LG: Yeah, way harder. I waited until I was 31 to even do it. Now it's easier because to me it's more direct and I have more of an
identity there. Until I could create that, I was always too scared to do it. Being a team player was almost a wimping out. Now it's just
fun. Neil's thing was one of the highest experiences.
GS: More than four years passed between the release of Slide (1998) and your new album Lullaby For Liquid Pig—what were
you doing during that time?
LG: I was just writing. And working and living. Maybe this is one of my problems, but I never think of what I do as my career. Like
(in an official sounding voice), 'Let's plan out the next record. What's your strategy for marketing this?' If I've got something to say, I
write it. After Slide came out, I got dropped from 4AD, but we all knew that was going to happen. I'm still really great friends with Ivo
and Robin (at 4AD). That happened, and then my manager and I split up because I wasn't doing anything. Then my accountants
dumped me. It was like this machine just broke. I wasn't really thinking about finding another record deal. I just went, 'Fuck it. Do
something else for a while and see what happens.' I was working full time at a bookstore, and I still sub there sometimes, and then I
would come home and record. It took two years before I felt these songs made any sense.
GS: When you were working in the bookstore were there people who would recognize you and talk to you about music?
LG: Not very often, but it's always really shocking when they do. That's actually how I got hired there. I kind of knew things were
going down a bit and I thought maybe I could try something else. I was going to go apply to gift wrap, because it was Christmas, and I
didn't have any skills. I hadn't worked a job like that in over 11 years. I was outside by the magazine stand, and I was thinking, 'How
can I try and push this?' And this guy came out and he said, 'You're Lisa Germano, right?' And I said, 'Yeah? That's weird, nobody
ever recognizes me.' And he goes, 'I'm such a fan.' And I said, 'I'm going to go in there and apply for a job gift wrapping. Do you
know anybody in there?' And he goes, 'Well, I'm the manager. So, you're on.'
GS: That's amazing.
LG: I can't sell records, but I can get a job at a bookstore (laughs). I loved it. From there I just learned how to work there and they
kept me on. Now when I work I'm an assistant manager. I really like it.
GS: People talk about having something to fall back on and you really do.
LG: Well, yeah, although it's nothing that I can fall back on that I can make a living at. When I was working there full-time, 40 hours
a week, I couldn't pay the bills. I have no idea how any of us survive.
GS: You mentioned being dropped by 4AD. Your new album, Lullaby For Lullaby Pig, is being released on Ineffable and iMusic.
What can you tell me about your new label affiliation?
LG: Many times during the time that I was writing this (album), Tony Berg would come in (to the bookstore), who at the time was an
A&R guy at Geffen. I've known him off and on and we know people in common, and he would say, 'What are you doing?' And I said,
'I don't know. I'm just writing.' He said, 'I have this idea for this label someday and I don't know if I'm ever going to get it together, but I
swear that you're the perfect artist for it.' When I got this record to a certain point that I felt like I was actually going to make it into a
record, Tony was one of the first, of six or seven, people that I sent it out to. This one guy from England called me and said, 'Oh, no,
no, no, don't put this out. I'm such a fan, but this is not a good record.' And it was fine, I appreciated his opinion. He said it was too
dark. In the same hour, Tony called and said, 'This is the most beautiful record I've heard in years.' I wasn't searching for a label as
much as, 'Does anybody hear anything? Do you think it's worth putting out on a label or should I just put it out myself?'
GS: Your songs do tend to be of a personal nature and the new album is no exception. The song 'Pearls' for instance, opens with
the line, 'Falling fast / Raise your glass / Fill your open sores' and then concludes with 'Hate will grow / Into blossoms of no / Take you
lower than low / Hate will grow / With your alcohol glow.' This is somewhat difficult terrain—what brought about the songs on the
album?
LG: At first, some of the time when I was writing some of this stuff I was looking at the drinking thing, wondering if I drink too much.
I'm Italian, we were brought up drinking wine. I don't think anything of it. When I'm in Europe, I never think twice about it.
GS: Sure. It's served with meals.
LG: Yeah, it's just part of the day. At a certain point I was looking around at a lot of people and looking at myself and wondering if I
had a drinking problem. I was thinking about it a lot. I noticed that three or four songs were about alcohol. 'Pearls' was one of them. I
don't think that getting drunk is about you are an alcoholic and you can't stop. I believe that I can stop, I just want to find out why I
didn't when I didn't. For me, there are usually reasons. I can't speak for other people. On the record I took it back to childhood and
home. 'Candy' is about alcohol and so is 'Liquid Pig.' I wrote those to mock my behavior so that I could look at it from a distance. I
wasn't really dwelling on alcohol. Then when I wrote some other songs, the reason I ended putting them on a record together was
because I realized that this record is about behavior. It's about the behavior of a possible alcoholic or anybody who could get
addicted. The song 'Paper Doll' is about me letting a friend of mine take complete advantage of me, and that's the same type of
behavior that a person that might let alcohol or heroin take advantage of them. I think people need to look at why they are addicted
instead of that they're addicted. I think a lot of people may feel like they're alcoholics because everybody's telling them that they are.
It's like if you have wine at lunch, somebody is going, 'tsk, tsk, tsk.' There are also songs on the record that sound like they are about
alcohol, but they're not. 'Lullaby For Liquid Pig' is a love song about a man and how I needed a fix of him all the time and I needed
him so much I was thirsty for this person to fulfill my life. After he was long gone, I realized that that could be how some people feel
about alcohol.
GS: Lullaby For Liquid Pig also maintains what I consider to be your very distinctive and cinematic sound—sort of like a punk rock
Nino Rota.
LG: I like that.
GS: How would you describe your songwriting style?
LG: I think it's cinematic. Atmosphere and color are very important to me. I have to have beautiful colors around me. In my
apartment there are blues and reds and flowers. When I make music, I want atmosphere. I want some wine and good food cooking.
You just play and experiment and all of a sudden maybe something will break. There are a number of tracks where this amp that you
plug things into kept breaking and it would have this sound like (makes garbled noise). Most people would throw that out, but I was
like, 'Oh, my God, that's how I feel about this song.' I would have to record it very quickly because it would stop doing it and you could
never get it back again (laughs).
GS: You found something musical in it.
LG: Yeah, and I found something emotional in it. Whenever I try to create the sounds, I go for emotions. Sometimes I can't find it
and it takes a long time and sometimes it comes really quickly. It's just a matter of experimenting and waiting for your soul to tell you,
'There. You did it.'
