Interview with GoGirlsMusic.com (march 2002)
We Promise No Food Puns in this Article
It's been almost a decade since singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb made music history by becoming the only unsigned artist ever to have a Number One single. The song was "Stay (I Missed You)," which was featured on the soundtrack to the film Reality Bites. Since then, she hasn't slowed down.
She's tried her hand at acting, including appearances on The Drew Carey Show and The Chris Issak Show, as well as the film The House on Haunted Hill. Her new CD, Cake and Pie, had a single featured on the soundtrack of the 2001 hit movie Legally Blonde. In fact, I had to wait to interview Lisa until she returned from Japan, where Cake and Pie had already been released. She took time out for this telephone interview just before Valentine's Day.
GoGirlsMusic.com: First of all, tell me, how was Japan?
Lisa Loeb: Japan was incredible.
GGM: Had you been there before?
LL: I've been there five times before. For each album, I would go over there and do a couple of weeks of promotion and then go back again and do a tour for a couple of weeks. So this was the same, and I'd been there in November, last year, when the record was coming out there, and we got to go back, and it was really great. Big, nice, sold-out shows with really enthusiastic fans.
The band had a lot of fun. It was the first few shows we were doing in a while that I was doing with the band, and we have a new band member, and Dweezil Zappa was our guest guitar player (my regular guitar player wasn't available). And we had wanted to play together anyway at some point. So it was just really cool.
GGM: How's the album doing over there?
LL: It's doing great over there. The single ["Someone You Should Know"] went to Number One on a bunch of stations when it came out last year. And the album is doing well, I think.
GGM: I saw on your web site that you are filming a documentary of your Japan trip.
LL: We were going to film an official one, but we decided instead to do just our own version of it, and so we were trying to put together a lot of footage. So at some point later we'll put out some kind of DVD.
GGM: And that will be commercially available?
LL: I think so. I'm not sure about the details yet. I just think a lot of fans have been requesting some kind of DVD and more kind of footage than just music videos. So we've been trying to compile some of that stuff. It's been kind of hard because we didn't have anybody specifically designated to be a documentary-maker on this trip....
GGM: Yeah, I think I saw a picture of you holding the camera.
LL: (laughs) Yeah. I was like, "oh, this is cool, that's cool." And then I showed somebody who works with me, and he said, "You aren't in any of the footage!" And I'm like, oh no! But you know, we're all so busy doing things, that it's hard to put it together.
GGM: And how long were you over there?
LL: For ten days this time. We did two shows in Tokyo, and then we played four other cities.
GGM: Are you over the jet lag now?
LL: No. I'm totally jet lagged.
GGM: Really?
LL: Yeah. I get really, incredibly sleepy around five o'clock, eight o'clock at night, and then again around eleven at night, and then I wake up bright and early at six in the morning. If I'm lucky to sleep that long.
GGM: That must be really tough when you're getting ready to plan your spring tour.
LL: Oh yeah....have you ever had that kind of jet lag before?
GGM: Coming back from Barcelona. But I don't think the time difference is the same as coming back from Japan.
LL: Yeah, it's sort of inexplicable. They're seventeen hours ahead of us.
GGM: Speaking of this tour coming up, are you really going to bake things onstage?
LL: I think there will be a portion of the concert, we're trying to figure out the logistics right now, but I really wanted to do a tour that appeals to all the senses. I love the Food Network and watching baking, and I just thought it would be a fun, different way to do a tour, where we actually make a pie onstage and also play music.
GGM: They might still sell those E-Z Bake Ovens, you know.
LL: Oh, I know. We wanted to get Viking to make us a special pie oven. One of my friends is a chef who works with Viking a lot. And we were like, oh - we need get a special pink Viking oven made! Like powder pink. I had my refrigerator made powder pink.
GGM: That would be cool.
LL: But E-Z Bake would be good. Like a big, E-Z Bake oven. Light bulbs that cook food.
GGM: Now that you're getting ready to do this tour, how nervous are you about traveling? I saw that you were one of the people evacuated from the Atlanta airport last November.
LL: Yeah, I wish more things like that would happen - I don't know if security is tight enough, actually. But I do love to travel, and I think it's probably as safe as it ever was. You know, I think that people have an eye out for bad things happening and are trying to prevent it. I wish that security were stronger than it is - I don't understand why they have to wait until 2003 to have all the security measures in place. That doesn't make sense to me because it's people's lives, but at the same time, I really wanted to go to Japan. And I'm sure I'll want to fly to a lot of other places, too.
GGM: What was security like for you at the airport, going to Japan?
LL: It actually was really easy. It was no big deal. They did x-ray all the bags, but that's the standard for them. On the way back, we didn't even have to show our passports.
GGM: Really?
LL: Yeah. Not before we got on the plane.
GGM: But coming back in?
LL: We did have to show them to Passport Control, but actually checking in in Japan, we didn't show our passports until we were just about to get on the plane.
GGM: Wow.
LL: I know.
GGM: What is your schedule like now as you prepare for this tour? Is it the same every day?
LL: You know, it really varies. It is a little bit overwhelming, because I'm also remodeling a house. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I wake up and make a zillion phone calls, and I keep trying to organize my office because there are so many things going on. It's actually just a mishmash of things. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do interviews all day. I do have an assistant that helps me with things like errands, but then I have a number of errands that I have to do on my own. (Drops her voice to a whisper) And with Valentine's Day coming up and whatnot...
GGM: Oh, of course.
LL: A couple things have to get done! Then of course there are the really boring things, but things that have to be done, like get my hair and nails done and go to the gym. I work with this really great sports facility that does a lot of physical therapy and training with professional athletes, and it's really cool. I get to work on balance, fitness, stability. It's fun to go there and sort of keep my life a little bit centered.
We've also been doing really fun things. Last night, Sheryl Crow had a private birthday party and concert in L.A., and we went to that. Tonight we're going to a fun party with a lot of golf pros. On Thursday night, we're going to go see Billy Connelly, a Scottish actor and comedian. So it's a lot of things, everything from interviews to girl things to practical things like dealing with my house, getting security doors installed and overseeing work being done and taking care of our kitties.
GGM: Your cats?
LL: We have two kitties. Very cute. I never got cats before because I was always so busy, traveling and working. Finally we ended up getting some kitties last September. And actually, having a cat reversed the reasons not to have them. It made me spend more time trying to relax and breathe and you know, not be so busy all the time.
GGM: Let's talk a little bit about the CD. I've listened to it, and one thing that struck me right away that I really like about it is how you move back and forth from the acoustic songs, just you and your guitar, to these full band songs. Which style is your favorite, just you and your guitar, or the full band?
LL: You know, it's hard for me to choose. All the time, I hear from other people that they like when it's simpler, with just me and my guitar. So on the album, we really tried to focus on doing the best thing that we could for each song. And I personally like songs like "Drops Me Down," where you get both elements - parts that are acoustic and then parts where it builds into this kind of rock song with guitar solos and things. So I think that somewhere in the middle is what I like.
I also like the song "Everyday." That's sort of a live rock band performance that creates a mood. I don't know. It's really hard to choose. I was just on tour with my band, and it was so much fun to hear everybody play and just joke around onstage, but there is also something very easy and satisfying about playing just by myself onstage and communicating with the audience.
GGM: Do you have a personal favorite song on the CD?
LL: Ummm....(thinking)
GGM: They're all your babies?
LL: They're all my babies! Everybody says that. I like "Drops Me Down" and "Everyday," the two songs I mentioned. I just feel like they have a feeling. And they were collaborative efforts in terms of the recording on "Everyday," and part of the songwriting was collaborative.
It's like, I keep using this image, but it seems to express what I mean....like sometimes in the past, when I've done records, and I listen back to songs, I don't listen to them a lot because it's kind of like staring at yourself in the mirror. You know, you're like, ugh, enough. But with these, because I got to work with so many different people, and the recordings were done fairly quickly, I like listening to them because it's kind of like looking at pictures of groups of friends, you know, like from a trip or something like that. I listened to "Everyday" on headphones for the first time a couple of months ago, and I hadn't realized all the cool things that the keyboard player was playing. So it's fun to check it out.
GGM: "She's Falling Apart" is a very specific and very real song. I've actually done work with women who have eating disorders, and it just really hit me. Do you mind telling me what inspired that song?
LL: Well, actually, it's interesting. I wrote it with two men, and one of the men had a niece who had anorexia, and when we got together and were talking about what we wanted to write about, he suggested writing about anorexia. I personally haven't had any specific eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia, but I have found myself, even as recently as a couple years ago, being so obsessed with food and worried about it and gaining weight, being so worried about it that I can't even concentrate very well on real life. So I understand that.
In fact, my album title, Cake and Pie, is sort of a reference to it. I went through a lot of work with nutritionists to stop being so obsessed about food and not to be scared of it, and just to be moderate with it. And by eating cake and pie and whatever else I want, and keeping in mind it's good to eat steamed broccoli and some other healthy things, and protein and a variety of things, I actually lost weight and keep my weight down by being moderate.
But I haven't ever really been able to write about a specific subject matter, and I felt like this was a really important subject and a good time to experiment writing with other people. One of the guys - the one who suggested the topic - he's more of a country writer. And he has a little bit more experience writing stories and specific types of stories. With his experience and my experience and the other guy's, it was a challenge and something that was very meaningful to me. Even for people who haven't suffered any eating disorders, anybody who's ever had anything that they keep to themselves, I think that the song sort of touches upon that sad, stuck feeling.
GGM: And the isolation. You really captured it there.
LL: Exactly. The isolation and not being able to solve anything and just seeing it happening. At least that stage in the process.
GGM: Going back a little bit...I had never seen The Chris Issak Show before, and VH1 did this marathon, and I taped a bunch of episodes, and I saw you in it. Do you plan on doing any more acting in the future?
LL: I hope to do some more acting in the future. I would like to be a part of more projects where they tell great stories. I love seeing really great movies and TV shows, and I'd like to be a part of one. I haven't done a whole lot of acting on TV or in film. I'd like to do more. I used to do a lot when I was growing up. I switched to music - my main focus is music. But I would like to do more if the opportunity presents itself.
GGM: That was a great opportunity. You got to do both there, acting and being onstage.
LL: Exactly. I was supposed to do a Broadway show actually, in the fall, and I had to back out of it. It was Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. I had to back out of it because my album was supposed to come out and I was supposed to be on tour, and I couldn't commit to doing the show. I had done the workshop of the show, but I couldn't do the show. And then it turned out that the show got cancelled anyway after what happened on September 11th. But I would love to do live stage work as well.
GGM: As you involved with the design on your web site at all?
LL: Yes, I am.
GGM: Okay, I had a question. What's the "icing" on the web site?
LL: Did you go in there?
GGM: I went in there, I don't know if my modem was too slow or what, but I tried clicking on the bouncing ball of yarn, and nothing was happening.
LL: What it is - actually, I should explain it, that's a good idea. I should explain it on the web site. It's for cats. It's a cat toy. My cat sits on my lap when I'm at the computer, pawing at the arrow all the time, and I thought, oh, we should have like, cat toys. Something that's moving around that cats can watch. Right now it's just a cat toy, but hopefully in the future there will be other fun things and contests.
GGM: Oh, okay! I was looking for a food-related explanation, so...
LL: No, I always have some cat-related thing with everything that I do, and I wanted the site to look really 60s with those colors. Brown and pink is my favorite color combination, but I like the brown and the blue and the brown and the green. And the designer helped come up with those really cool styles. I like that fun and sophisticated style. But that ball of yarn is for your cat to look at.
GGM: Okay. There we go. Now, do you know where you're going to be on your tour? I saw the Japan tour dates on your site.
LL: We are still putting together our tour. I know for sure that I'm going to be playing in Texas on March 3rd. But people should just keep checking www.lisaloeb.com to see what our tour schedule's going to be. We're still in the process of planning it.
GGM: Well, I'll definitely keep looking out for those and I'll definitely catch you if you come to this area.
LL: Great!
GGM: And that's all I've got. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me!
LL: Thank you! I appreciate it.
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An interview with Lisa Loeb about her new A&M Release, Cake and Pie
by Jennifer Layton