Lissie

Elisabeth Corrin Maurus (born November 21, 1982),^[3] known as Lissie, is an American folk rock artist and Paste magazine's No. 1 best new solo artist of 2010.^[4] She released her debut EP, "Why You Runnin'", in November 2009. Her debut album, Catching a Tiger, was released in June 2010.

Early life

Lissie was born Elisabeth Corrin Maurus, and raised in Rock Island, Illinois. Her father is a physician and her mother is an interior designer.^[5] She has some Scandinavian ancestry.^[6] She was interested in singing and music from an early age.^[7] She played the title role of the musical Annie at the age of nine.^[8] "In high school it seems like everyone has more drama than any other time in their life. So that was the time in my life where I really leaned on music as a way to stay sane," she said in an interview.^[7]

In her senior year of high school, she was expelled over what she described as "something stupid that I did, but it was sort of like the culmination of just a lot of negative things that had happened".^[7] She got her diploma at an alternative outreach center.^[9] She spent two years at Colorado State University in Fort Collins,^[10] during which time she would open for musicians who visited the city. She collaborated with DJ Harry of SCI Fidelity Records on the song "All My Life", which was featured on television shows House, The O.C., Veronica Mars and Wildfire.^[9] After spending a semester in Paris, she finished her studies to pursue a career in music. In 2007, she produced a four-song EP that received some airplay on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.^[9]

Career

In early 2008, Lenny Kravitz invited her to be the opening act for his Love Revolution Tour, after a friend tipped him about her MySpace page.^[9][10][11] Later that year, "The Longest Road", a song she co-wrote with DJ Morgan Page reached No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart. "We met under that idea that he was going to remix a song of mine (...) But we decided to work on a new song together", she told the Quad-City Times. The Deadmau5 remix of the track was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical" category.^[12]

Her EP, "Why You Runnin'", produced by Bill Reynolds of Band of Horses, was released in November 2009 on Fat Possum.^[13][14] One of the songs, "Oh Mississippi" was co-written with Ed Harcourt, whom she met through a mutual friend.^[15] The EP was listed amongst Paste magazine's "Eight Most Auspicious Musical Debuts of 2009".^[16] In early 2010, she toured various venues in the United Kingdom supporting Ohio-born singer-songwriter Joshua Radin.

Lissie signed with Sony Music UK's Columbia Records. Her debut album, Catching a Tiger, was released on 21 June 2010.^[17] The album was recorded in Nashville in 2009 and produced by Jacquire King.^[18] The first single from the album, "In Sleep", was selected as Track of The Day by Q on 13 March 2010.^[19] A second single, "When I'm Alone," was released alongside the album; it would later be chosen by iTunes UK as their song of the year 2010.^[20]

In August 2010, her single "Cuckoo" was voted overwhelmingly to be the Record of the Week by listeners of expat radio station Heart FM Spain (www.heartfmspain.com), as a result of listener feedback, Lissie and the album "Catching A Tiger" was featured throughout the week of August 23 to 27. The single was also added to the "A" level playlist on BBC Radio 2 giving it around twenty plays a week on the UK's most popular station.^[21] The "Cuckoo" EP includes Lissie's live version of "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga, which became popular online before being included on the release.^[22]

She appeared on BBC radio's the Great British Songbook series on August 31, 2010, performing a cover of "Stairway to Heaven." The host of the show, Simon Mayo, described as "breathtaking".

Her song "Little Lovin" was featured in the Season 2 promo for Justified on FX.

She opened for Tom Petty in the nationally acclaimed benefit concert for new L.A. radio station 88.5 KCSN.

Lissie is featured on at least 4 tracks on Snow Patrol's album Fallen Empires, released in November 2011.^[23]

Her cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way' found prominence in early 2012, when it was used in a Twinings advert and in the film Safe Haven. The song was also used as a theme for the BBC Radio 4 reading of Iain Banks's Stonemouth, read by David Tennant.

Her cover of Kid Cudi's 'Pursuit of Happiness' was featured in Guy Mariano's part in the Girl and Chocolate skateboards video 'Pretty Sweet'.

Lissie appeared on "Losers", the closing song on Take the Crown by British singer Robbie Williams, released November 2, 2012. The album was produced by Garret Lee who produced Lissie's second album, Back To Forever.

On July 21, 2013 she released her video of the song Further Away (Romance Police) written by Elisabeth Corrin Maurus, Jim Irvin and Julian Emery and produced by Garret Lee, the second single from her album Back to Forever.

On October 13, 2013 Lissie released Sleepwalking, the third single from Back to Forever.

In February 2014, a fourth single, "The Habit" was added to the BBC Radio 2 playlist, and Lissie announced the release in March of an independent EP of cover versions called Cryin' To You, which includes covers of Mother by Danzig, Drakes's Hold On We're Going Home and Bob Dylan's To Ramona.

On November 4, 2015, she announced her new album, My Wild West, would be released February 12, 2016.^[24]

Personal life

Lissie resides on a 10 acre farm in northeast Iowa, moving there from Ojai California in 2015. She is an avid fan of fantasy literature, citing His Dark Materials and the Harry Potter series as favorites.^[7] She has a Lhasa Apso named Byron.

Discography

Albums

Live albums

Extended plays

Singles

Other appearances

These songs have been released on albums that were not a studio album released by Lissie.

Songs in other media

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lissie.

• Official Website
• UK Record Label Bio
• Lissie Interview, Gear- & Song-Writing-Talk german site/english videos Bonedo.de
• Interview with Lissie on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, 08/28/11