PRESS RELEASE: The Life of an Independent Artist at Album Number Seven

Lisa Richards began thinking about making a new album, her seventh, in 2018 after she went to The Farwest Folk Alliance in Los Angeles.

“As an independent artist, I never know where the money is going to come from,” she says. ” I just start taking steps in a definite direction and see what unfolds. It’s the way I have lived my life. I have learned not to always discount that initial spark of an idea. Not to sweat the little details like…How will I pay for it? LOL. And to keep moving”

Folk Alliance conferences are magic. Playing songs in hotel rooms decked out with fairy lights, bodies sprawling on beds listening intently. Hallways overflowing with musicians – double basses, trumpets, guitars, young people, older people. Conversations into the wee hours. It’s an environment that kindles passion, friendships and ideas.

“This album, “I Got a Story”, grew out of this conference,” Lisa says. “Everybody has a story. My story is one of early neglect, sexual abuse, very early drug use (As a toddler I was given anti-psychotic drugs for several years).. This led me to a life of great sadness, despair, depression, seeking out drugs and booze, unable to hold down a job and desperately trying to make people love me. Once I trashed my life thoroughly, I went to a drug and alcohol rehab in Sydney at 26 and began the long ‘hero’s journey’ you find me on now. That began in Sydney, led me to NYC, Austin Texas and back to Australia over a 22 year period. I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was 30. I was crippled by a depression that told me I would never amount to anything. Within each of those stories, is a story, and each person in my story has a story. We are, as a people, story tellers. And there are so many stories in the world and so many sides to every story.

This album is a snap shot of stories. Mine and other people’s.
“I began singing in my Twenties, and like most people, I hated the sound of my voice. It’s taken me years to really understand that my opinion of my voice is irrelevant. It’s not why I sing. I sing because it liberates me. I don’t have to love my voice to sing.”

“Applying for an artsACT grant was a big leap for me. In the USA, they don’t have such things for the support of arts . Other artists encouraged me to apply and I did. The grant partly funded the recording process, I went to New York in September 2019 and recorded between US tour dates with my friend, producer Tim Bright. It was a mad idea. I have never recorded an album to such a tight time line… usually the recording part for me spills over anywhere from 9 months – 2 years. And the writing happens over an even longer time frame.

Now, it’s 2020, a year of fire, smoke, hail, floods and Covid 19. The world has morphed into a vastly different place, taking all schemes, dreams, and plans and crushing them firmly under the boot of uncertainty.

Lisa’s almost 103 year old father died in Brisbane, in the middle of QLD’s lockdown in September. “I was frustrating and heart breaking, fighting for weeks to get permission to cross the border for end of life compassionate visits and finally getting an exemption to spend 2 weeks in a quarantine hotel, 24 hours after he died. I was refused permission to cross the border to attend his funeral.” Strange times indeed.

“Yet, here I am, living in Canberra, with a collection of 10 new songs… ‘in this little city, in this big country, ‘in the middle of the ocean, at the bottom of the world’”

Early tour dates begin in November and December 2020.

For More information on the new album:
WEBSITE: https://lisarichardsmusic.com
ALBUM STREAMING: https://soundcloud.com/lisarichardsmusic/sets/lisa-richards-i-got-a-story-192-mp3s/s-3ccsb
IMAGES AND MUSIC DOWNLOADS: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sxmmgc57ekejzoo/AABp44ygEV1nelLR7_9viTFea?dl=0

CURRENT TOUR DATES
Sat Nov 14 CD Release Smiths Alternative, Canberra, ACT 2601
Sun, Nov 15  Society City, Wollongong NSW
Sun, Nov 22 The Establishment, 88 Macquarie Street, Dubbo, NSW
Fri, Nov 27  Star Court Theatre, Lismore (special guest Lucie Thorne)
Sat, Nov 28 Studio 88, 188 Brisbane Street, Ipswich, QLD 4305
Sun, Nov 29 Uralla Central School, 24 Park Street, Uralla
Fri, Dec 4 Element Bar, 380 Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour, NSW
Sun, Dec 6 Flow Bar, 31 David St, , Old Bar NSW 2430
Fri, Dec 11 Wheatsheaf Hotel George Street, Thebarton, Adelaide
(special Guest Loren Kate)