Album Notes

Lisa Ellis is a singer- songwriter, producer based in the East Village New York City. Her musical studies began at the age of eight with the violin. But even before that her love of music was apparent when she discovered her family's record collection. Growing up she listened to rock, pop and soul and was also exposed to latin and classical music. The stage bug bit initially with dance and later music and Lisa started performing in local clubs as a background and featured singer. She began writing songs on keyboard. It wasn't long before Lisa realized a dream of singing with a gospel choir when The New Voices of Freedom a secular multi ethnic vocal group asked her to record with them. As a member of New Voices she sang with U2 at Madison Square Garden, appearing in their movie and record Rattle n Hum. Other credits as a member of New Voices include Give Peace A Chance with Sean Lennon and Lenny Kravitz and most recently the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards backing James Brown and Jimmy Fallon. As a songwriter Lisa has written for The New Voices of Freedom and has collaborated on songs with R & B Producer Teddy Reilly. Lisa formed her own group several years ago writing, singing and playing guitar. Her new EP displays her versatility as a singer, songwriter and producer. From the punk pop bite of "Slut" to the heavenly harmonies in "I Left You Petals" and everything in between there is an unmistakable range. Her live shows are filled with an impossible to miss energy, emotion and confidence.


"My first experience performing was in the dance world. In addition to music I'd studied dance for years. My mom and most of her family were singers and musicians and my dad was a dancer so I grew up with both influences. For some time I was balancing both but the need to be heard was stronger and overrode everything else. Growing up in an urban environment led me to the music of that culture. Though I liked rock it was only later that I could personally identify with it. Spending more time downtown exposed me to Punk and Goth culture which I found to be very exotic. Although it's a different place now I still find the streets of downtown NYC very inspiring but it's always the people that really move me. I've met some really fabulously talented vivid people along the way some of whom I've had the chance to work with. I started a rock band a few years ago called Loba. I wanted to write from a different perspective so I picked up the guitar and we kept the material very guitar based. The songs in this recording were written before, during and after the band. I began to conceive the idea of recording the EP with my friend Vinnie Miranda. We were planning on co-producing together. Though he was present for some of the initial tracking he is Dido's guitarist and had to go on tour with her leaving me with his blessing. Producing this EP was a great experience. I have produced tracks before but never any this involved. My engineer Kevin Crouse is my former drummer so he is used to working with me and was already familiar with some of the material. I was fortunate to have wonderful musicians on this recording who are good at co-arranging and understood what I was trying to achieve. They were carefully handpicked. Tommy Milmore has worked with me more than any other musician over the years. He's a veteran guitar player from the Max's Kansas City days while my other guitar player Steve Dawson is younger on the scene and comes from a totally fresh angle. Veteran drummer Thommy Price and bassist Sean Koos are from The Blackhearts, Joan Jett's band. Chris Cunningham who played Mandolin is from the Celtic band Chanting House though he's played with a wide range of bands such as the Sirens and James White And The Blacks. The recording was done on 2" 24 track analog tape. We mixed to 1/2" analog tape on a vintage Neve console."