Conversations with Lisa Selle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Selle

Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My parents say I begged them for piano lessons when I was little. I got to choose the piano we would buy, and the choices were a bright shiny new one at our little town’s music store or this huge heavy oak one from an old man who kept pianos in what I remember to be a long, skinny warehouse. Now that I recall, it was probably a storage unit. As a six-year-old, I chose the heavy oak one. I still have it today. It has NOT been easy to drag that thing around with me everywhere I’ve moved, but I just can’t let it go. I went on to play soprano saxophone in the jazz band in high school, and then to learn guitar and join an a cappella group (Room 46 at Colorado College). Guitars are a lot easier to drag around than pianos. Post-college, I played in a few bands along the way — an all-female band called Ovary Action, a group called Zen Remedy, and an all-teacher band called The String Resistance. COVID hit, my husband and I bought a house in Littleton and moved out of downtown Denver, and I started practicing more on my own. It’s intimidating to play solo. You can kind of hide behind a band, but on your own…not so much. Nevertheless, after walking into BrewAbility in Englewood one day and seeing a soloist who was performing there, I summoned up the guts to talk to the owner, Tiffany Fixter. She gave me a shot, and I played my first solo gig there about three years ago. I’ve been playing there once a month (ish) ever since. That gave me the courage to play at the open mic at The Alley, where I landed another solo gig. From there, I decided it couldn’t hurt to just ask restaurant managers about live music. Sometimes they say ‘yes’! It still feels like Imposter Syndrome to say that I’m “a musician”, so I guess I’m still on the journey. But I guess that’s one of the many cool things about music: it’s always gonna be a journey.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Some of the struggles along the way — Impostor Syndrome, stage fright, laryngitis, and LOTS of rejections. It’s weird; even though I play regularly at multiple venues, even though I get paid to play there, I can’t call myself a musician. I just strum some chords and sing. I just write what feels good. So there’s no way I could measure up to people who are REAL musicians, right? I’ve had to battle serious stage fright…like, kneecap-shaking stage fright. Maybe you could call it courage when you go ahead and do it anyway, even when you’re terrified. And I swear, every single time I catch a little cold (and I’m a teacher in my “real” life, so I’m around a lot of humans), it attacks my vocal cords. I always wonder what the uber-famous musicians do when they’re on tour if they get sick, because I lose my voice every time. I’ve also been rejected plenty of times. I ask and get ignored. I’m not a youngster anymore, and I see their eyes pass right over me. I enter songs in songwriting contests and get crickets. It seemed like the move from not performing at all to performing regularly was a smooth upward curve, and then I hit a plateau. I’m playing lots of bars and cool local venues, but not really places where people are solely there to listen to music. The few times I’ve performed for an attentive audience have been terrifying but also really gratifying. I’d like to get to that next level, but it is hard to get a foot in the door at bigger stages in front of crowd of music lovers.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a singer/songwriter, so my original songs convey messages that are my own. I write about everything from the classic songs about relationships, to the increased number of orange cars I’ve seen on the roads lately, to my disgust with our school board, to psycho stalker women, to conflict resolution, to being an introvert. I have a song about my Uncle Jimmy that includes yodeling. That usually gets the bar’s attention — turns out yodeling and beer go pretty well together… I also do unexpected covers and mash-ups for a middle-aged white lady. For example, I cover the Beastie Boys, Kanye West, and Rage Against the Machine. My mash-ups are eclectic and tend to surprise audiences. I created a Violent Femmes/Billie Eilish/Lizzo mash-up, a Radiohead/Arizona Zervas/blackbear/Gayle mash-up, and my personal favorite: a Marcy Playground/21 Pilots/Janis Joplin/Beatles mash-up, among several others. But it’s my voice that people always notice. It’s lucky and wonderful that I have this natural gift of a voice, and I have to daily remind myself to let this little light of mine shine. Us introverts usually don’t opt to be on stage.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I wouldn’t say I’ve had a mentor. I can’t really imagine what that might be like. But I’m curious. I would love to have someone offer me a helping hand. When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Networking is a matter of putting yourself out there and being ready for rejection. You have to shrug it off and try, try again. I remind myself that we’re all just people, and honestly none of us really knows what we’re doing. So how can it hurt to ask someone for a gig? The worst they can say is ‘no’, and then you just keep looking for other people to ask. Keep applying, keep trying, keep going. I’m reading this book right now called CRITICAL HOPE by Kari Grain. She writes about this musician named Vanessa Richards who works to bring people together through music. She talks about the childlike joy that music brings, the numbers of times she has had people sobbing on her shoulder because they tapped into the voice they have lost through the years, and the tendency for this world to beat the music out of us. I’ve had such an uphill battle just getting outside myself to share my music with the world around me. But it’s an internal battle. How much more dynamic could I be if I worked more FOR other people through music than just working against my own self? I can’t help but cry every time I see little kids sing. I don’t know what it is, but I think it has something to do with the world silencing our voices, especially women’s voices, and how innocent and pure we were in our youth. How unafraid and open and honest we were. Could I find a way to bring that to others through my music? So I guess, to bring it back to the original question, books are my mentors. When I read about other people out there doing amazing things for others through music, I get inspired.

Pricing:

• $200 for 1-2 hours
• $250 for 3 hours
• Lisa Selle beanies — $25.00

Contact Info:

• Website: https://songbobbin.wixsite.com/pinebeetles
• Instagram: @songbobbin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093629660378
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lisaselle2266
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/lisa-selle-161888481
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5le4OMjcVLWWkN0A712m3g?si=fEQcxqZ-RD-70nSs4oP8LQ

Image Credits
Pamela Dawn Boseman Becker
Camdria Low