Liza Anne has always nudged her way to the front of the sea of other arguably equally as talented musicians for one main reason – I don’t feel like she’s ever lying to me. You know the feeling of lyrics being bullshit or even an “oooh” ringing false and leaving the itchy feeling in your stomach that something’s not right? Liza never leaves you feeling that way. In the slew of bands lazily labeled as indie rock, she’s somethin’ else. She’s like if Taylor Swift was less of a bloodthirsty Illuminati monster and also a million times less saccharine. She and her band create that irresistible pop feeling but with much more human specificity and range, leaving grease stains on the knees of jeans and just enough empty space in the mix to let heartsick anxiety sink in. But often in the sunshine.
I popped by Baby’s to blind her and her bandmates in coordinated Big Bud Press jumpsuits with a FujiFilm flash and asked a couple of questions about what her new single “Devotion” points to next:
You’re based in Nashville – do you feel like an odd one out as a band there or is the scene more diverse than one would think?
Liza Anne: Nashville is way more than it comes across. There is this always-growing undercurrent of nostalgia and future-gaze that cannot be boxed into one genre. It’s a really inspiring place to live.
Have you ever thought about moving? What is it about Nashville that brought you there?
LA: I always think about moving but there is something that keeps me here for a bit longer. I moved seven years ago for college and two years in, I decided I’d like experience to be my means of learning. I really do like having something rooted to come home to – as much as I find so much of myself in Paris and New York and have wonderful pockets of friends there, I can’t forge a seven-year slow growth of community in those places. I really would love to live somewhere else soon but this place has been a good home to return to. Paris will always be Paris and New York will keep moving as it does, I’ll spend a window of time in each eventually.
At what moment did you know this is how you wanted to spend your short time on earth? What would you be doing if not this?
LA: I can’t believe this is what I’m really doing. I started writing poetry as a kid and songs as a teenager but performance was always just a toe in the water, it began as a secondary thought to the catharsis of just writing my thoughts on paper – I think I’ve always known my life would be full of freeing myself. I didn’t really dive into performance until I moved to Nashville and even now I’m just still growing: I want to stay in expansion for forever.
If I wasn’t writing records, I think I would like to live really quietly and maybe teach kindergarten. I think children are really brilliant.
What do you think makes music so important to people’s wellbeing? Do you think it is important?
LA: I think music is SO important. I mean art, in general, is a necessary part of the human condition. It is this healing effort that doesn’t force you through anything too quickly. It gives you a mirror, allows the patience of process and holds space for every iteration of self. Music, or rather, art gives people room.
Did you assign the boys in the band their jumpsuit colors? What do the colors say about them and you?
LA: Kinda. We’ve all been in the same pink and red for the last two years – mirroring the colors and emotion of Fine But Dying. In between records, I wanted us to wear something new. The assignment of colors was random but I just wanted us each to have our own feeling and aesthetic for a moment.
How did you all meet?
LA: Robbie and I met freshman year of college. I was (and STILL am) a huge fan of his band Keeps, I would go to all their shows and we became friends out of just being around each other for a while. He first played music with me for Fine But Dying – I really attribute so much of the evolution and expansion of my music to his creativity. His tone would leave a gaping hole if it wasn’t around.
I met Cody through college as well but we became close two years ago when he started playing music with us, I had seen him play with other bands and was pretty immediately impressed and inspired – our first rehearsal with him was the Thursday before we played Conan, he came in right at the start of touring Fine But Dying. He is such a calm and collected person – I can’t imagine touring without his energy and attentiveness to dynamic – not only in a musical sense but on an interpersonal level. He’s a very peaceful and centered person to have around.
Josh and I met a while back (I have always been a fan of his own music!) and became best pals in summer of 2017. Quickly after, we started collaborating visually – he made all the music videos for Fine But Dying and the new one for Devotion. At the end of the last cycle, I asked him if he wanted to be in the band for real and since then, it’s felt like the first time we are all one unit. He is such a huge part of the vision, the feeling and the writing. This band, as much as it is my name, is a combination of where we all are right now sonically and emotionally and creatively.
Your stage banter is brutally honest and funny, and feels like it comes naturally to you — did that take practice / is it easy for you to speak in front of people outside of performing the actual songs?
LA: I don’t like to speak in front of people outside of being on stage. I get really embarrassed but there’s something about music that feels so empowering – it gives me this paced sense of “I can articulate myself well” that sort of just translates into whatever is on my mind that day – some nights it feels like tripping over a language I cannot speak and others it comes out right and makes people laugh. I am always surprised when it comes out sounding planned.
What does the word “devotion” mean to you?
LA: Choosing yourself, every day.
This single feels like an evolution for you – do you feel that way? What brought that on? It seems a little angrier or raw to me.
LA: It absolutely was an evolution. I guess anger is a word for it, but it just felt like a revolution and a really celebratory return to myself. Devotion to yourself can sound angry or feel like a dramatic fight of resistance when you’re in systems or relationships that benefit from you being far away from yourself. Anger is just the first layer of waking up, necessary to be felt through to get to the place of healing where you shake everything off that is out of alignment and chose to have a rooted value system that is not dependent on any outside voice.
What’s the next album going to be like? If you could assign it a spirit animal what would it be?
LA: Oh, man. More healing, more feeling. As it stands, I guess it is a butterfly, maybe. Or some other being that’s moved through an evolution to become another version of herself.
Do you believe in astrology? What’s your sign? What do you capital B Believe in?
LA: I have spent a lot of time studying astrology and do make a lot of sense of life through it – anything with patterns and proof fascinate me but belief is a very large word. I don’t believe in anything but I am curious of everything. If there’s anything I capital B believe in, it’s myself and my ability to evolve and grow and expand without any limitation except the ones I put there. I’m an Aquarius sun, Scorpio moon and a Libra rising.
What gets you up in the morning?
LA: The hope of more chances. The well of feeling that comes with being known and loved – sharing life with my partner, Josh. The ability to grow and grow more and then grow forever.