Lisa Lavie
Lisa Lavie has almost 10 million YouTube video views, and her album is finally available on i-Tunes. What seems like whirlwind success for Lisa has been a long time coming. We talked to Lisa about her hit song, "Angel," her music career, and more.
The Star Scoop:
People don't necessarily know a lot about you. Tell us about how long you've been doing music, and how you got started with it.
Lisa Lavie:
Well, I started singing when I was ten years old. I never really realized that I could sing up until that point. I basically had started in school. My music teacher, we had to sing a part for a talent show that we were doing at school. He was going through all the girls to try and sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and then I was hiding in back of the guys, because I was like, there's no way I'm going to sing in front of people. He went through all the girls, and then he was going to the guys' side, and a friend of mine said, oh Lisa, it's your turn. I was like, oh no. Then my teacher forced me to sing, and so I sang, and when I was supposed to stop singing, he said, keep on going, keep on going. So I kept on singing, and he goes, you got the part. I was like, I got the part? I was completely shocked. I ran home and I'm like, Ma! I can sing! She was like, what do you mean you can sing?
I really could sing, and so I started singing when I was about ten years old but I didn't really take it seriously until a few years later when I was about 16. I was asked to go on tour with a hip hop group in Canada. They were the number one hip hop group, a French hip hop group, but they were number one all across Canada. So I ended up touring with them. It was just an incredible journey. I was like, oh my God, I really want to do this. I started writing songs. This business is very corrupt in a lot of ways, there are a lot of sharks in this business, like, we're gonna make you a star, and we're gonna do this for you and that for you, and none of that ever happened. I started becoming just a little bit jaded. No one's really gonna do anything. I started writing my own songs, and years later I got a phone call from Ben Margulies, who wrote and produced most of Mariah Carey's first album. He was like, I love your voice. He asked me to sing for him over the phone, and I sang for him. He was like, I want to fly you out to Santa Barbara as soon as possible to write a song with you. When I got the phone call, I was like, is this for real? I grew up listening to pretty much only Mariah Carey, and here's this guy who wrote and produced Mariah's stuff. I flew out with my cousin, came out here, and then we wrote a song. He's like, okay, you should not go back to Canada. You should work on an album as soon as possible. That's how I got started with everything
The Star Scoop:
A lot of people know who you are from YouTube. How would you say that it (and the Internet) has helped you as a musician?
Lavie:
Well, YouTube is very interesting. I first discovered YouTube a little over a year ago, and I saw a lot of people getting recognition. Stars were being born. I'm like, what is this all about. I was like, okay, my album was pretty much almost done at that point. Let's test the waters out, let me just throw out a song on YouTube and see how people react to it. Next thing you know, I'm getting flooded with comments. This is amazing, wow. It's a whole new way to get out in the music business without having the whole corporate structure behind you. It's an innovative way of getting your music out to millions of listeners across the world. I just kept on posting up videos, and next thing you know, I started getting millions of views. I had not thought by me posting a few videos, I'd get recognition doing that. It just happened, and YouTube is a great way to get your music out there. YouTube just elevated the whole music game, music business game to a whole new level.
The Star Scoop:
How do you think people found your videos?
Lavie:
You randomly fall upon videos. You see a thumbnail of a video, you click on it. If you like it, you could spread it to your friends. So it just started happening that way. People say it, they're like, oh, wow, you have an amazing voice. Next person comes, oh my God, my friend just sent this to me. It's so great, and the word starts spreading. It's kind of like a grass roots approach to everything. It just started spreading more and more, and now I'm going on ten million views on YouTube a year a later. I have 10 million views? It's incredible, really incredible.
The Star Scoop:
Can you tell us about the song "Angel," the background with it?
Lavie:
I wrote that song based out of a relationship, of course [laughs]. I got out of a two year relationship, and I remember just sitting down, thinking to myself, what's next? You're in a relationship and you think this is it, I am done, this is the man of my dreams, and next thing you know, it's like, no it's not, and how was I so wrong with this? I was just sitting there thinking, am I ever gonna find the guy, am I ever gonna find my angel? That just happened. [Sings]: Tell me, am I ever gonna find my....and I was like, it's cool. Nice melody. Then I just wrote the story of my past relationship. If you listen to the lyrics, extra, extra this just in I've been living a lie from the beginning. You realize this was not what I thought it was, and being deceitful and everything. Just writing in general is just a great way to get out all your emotions on a table. This is what I went through, and it's kind of like a time capsule. This is a moment in my life, and sometimes great things come out of relationships, even though they end! "Angel" came out of that relationship. Basically it's about my ex.
The Star Scoop:
For those who have never heard your music, how would you describe what they're going to hear if they choose to start listening?
Lavie:
I think what I've done with this album is I've not created one particular style. It's not like when you hear "Angel," the rest of the album is not like "Angel." It's kind of like seasons - it's winter, and then it's spring, and then it's fall. It as amalgamation of just a whole bunch of different styles. I have a jazz track which is the last track on my album. I have a lot of ballads. I have some nitty-gritty up-tempo songs. You can kind of choose. There are people who like "Angel" who won't like "Save Your Breath," and "Save Your Breath" is probably my favorite song on the album. Most of my songs are about relationships. That's where, for some reason, I tend to get my creativity. But it's not necessarily always the same subject. I think the listener gets to pick and choose, which is great in regards to i-Tunes. For the most part, I'd say my style is in the R&B/Pop genre, but with a lot of thought-provoking lyrics.
The Star Scoop:
Why do you think "Angel" is the song that became so popular?
Lavie:
I think "Angel" became really popular because first of all, the melody reaches a wider audience. It reaches a very young demographic because little kids could sing along to it, but it also reaches an older demographic as well. It's a melody that you could sing to easily, and I also think lyrically, a lot of people are in that boat. Am I ever gonna find the one? I think people relate to it a lot more. When you get to other songs on my album, the lyrics are more deep and maybe from a personal experience, so it might be harder to relate to. Also, because it's up-tempo. It's a catchy, radio-friendly type song, as opposed to a ballad.
The Star Scoop:
Since your album went on i-Tunes, what's changed?
Lavie:
It's been really great. People think, oh, she's been on YouTube for a year, and then she's on i-Tunes. But that's not really what happened. I've been working on this album for years. How long has it been? Like four years I've been working on this album. It hasn't happened over night for me. Being on i-Tunes now, it's more fulfilling of, finally! as opposed to oh my God, I'm on i-Tunes. It's been amazing reading the reviews on i-Tunes and it's doing really well. We haven't really done the traditional push, radio campaign and marketing and this and that. We just wanted to test out the waters. Let's see what happens with nothing but only YouTube, let's just put it out on i-Tunes and see how people react. It's been amazing. My YouTube friends, or fans, I don't like calling people fans...my YouTube friends are just gravitating to my album. It's just an amazing feeling to know that I've been working on this album for so long and it's being so well received. It gives me the extra push that I need in order to continue in this business. It gives me so much more motivation.
The Star Scoop:
Where do you see yourself five years from now? Where would you like to be?
Lavie:
Five years...I see myself with my third album, and hopefully touring the world, writing for other artists. I just love music, and anything that's gonna keep me motivated and in this music game - it would be great to sell millions of records, if people do that anymore [laughs]. I just want to continue furthering my career, in any way, shape, or form that I could in this music business. It's a dark business, but at the same time, it's so exciting and creative, and I love that. I see myself touring the world and trying to help other people get their careers off the ground.
The Star Scoop:
You have all these friends on YouTube and all these comments. It's probably impossible to reply to everybody!
Lavie:
Well, I know it's really hard to comment to people, but I've had a good handle on that, actually [laughs]. I have commented to probably over 20,000 comments on YouTube. I actually got suspended off of YouTube, because they thought I was a bot because I commented to too many people. They suspended my account. If you go on YouTube and you check out one of my videos, it's called, LISA LAVIE SUSPENDED BY YOUTUBE!!!, I do a parody, it's an over-exaggeration of the feelings I went through being suspended. I was suspended for a good week. I know it sounds crazy, but I was like, how am I suspended? You work so hard on something and then it's just taken away from you in an instant. I was writing to YouTube, my YouTube friends started this big petition; everyone signed it, sent it into YouTube. Next thing you know, they got in touch with me, and they're like, we're so sorry we suspended you, we thought that you were a bot 'cause you responded to so many people in a short amount of time. All I did every day was try and make sure that I'm constantly writing to everybody who writes to me. I got suspended. But I'm on YouTube almost every single day, and I reply to hundreds of comments. I just take like three hours at night before going to bed and I just go online and I just start going crazy replying to people.
The Star Scoop:
So, in the future, even if you get super famous, being involved with the fans is [still] important to you?
Lavie:
I love it. I get such a kick out of it. People ask me a bunch of questions, and I reply back to them and they're like, oh my God, you're actually replying to me. And to me I'm like, of course I'm replying to you. They think I'm untouchable, but I love replying. I know that sounds crazy but, it's almost like a passion of mine - let me just reply to everybody who writes to me. It's all about communicating with your fans and they feel like they're a part of what you're doing, instead of being so distant: I'll tell her she's great, but she'll never reply to me. It's like, no, I want people to feel like they could communicate with me, and that I'll reply back.
The Star Scoop:
For more on Lisa Lavie, visit www.myspace.com/lisalavie and http://youtube.com/user/lisalavie1