Lisa Germano revisits the first songs she ever wrote

New album dubbed her “first daytime record”

Lisa Germano approached the recording of her new album Magic Neighbor in her usual manner – that is, by not thinking she was going to make a new album. For 2006′s In The Maybe World, she mostly worked alone at home, often at night after a day spent working in a Los Angeles bookshop, but also alongside Jamie Candiloro, a mixer and engineer for the likes of Ryan Adams, REM, and Willie Nelson, and producer of Gemma Hayes’s The Roads Don’t Love You. This time Jamie’s even more heavily involved, taking on the mantle of producer for the first time on one of Lisa’s records, and most of the album was recorded at his home. “Since I had few new songs I went back to check out old ones where the recording was too bad to use,” Lisa explains. “My friend Sebastian Steinberg convinced me that these songs were good so I went into Jamie’s house to record them…with just piano and voice.” 

Using some of the first songs she ever wrote as a jumping off point, Lisa rewrote some lyrics and added different instruments, and wrote some new ones too. Greg Leisz supplied some pedal steel magic on some of the tracks, while Sebastian chipped in with acoustic bass. Jamie did all the recording, and an album was born. Explaining the title Magic Neighbor, Lisa says it comes from a song she wrote about a neighbour who “put her two cats to sleep cause she wanted a new kitchen,” adding “that kind of action to me leads to the killing of…everything…thank god she moved.” 

Lisa is well known for her love of cats, and has often referenced them in her songs. Magic Neighbor also has its share of kitty-influenced songs, with three tracks dedicated to Lou, “the mighty one who fought cancer and always knew who he was”, namely ‘Kitty Train’, ‘Suli-Mon’ and ‘Snow’, which can be heard streaming over at the website of Young God Records, who will release the album on September 21st. “It’s a positive record about trying to be happy with all the sad shit in the world…dealing with your own fights and being the mighty one who rises above it and gives,” says Lisa. “That’s all for now folks.”

Alan Pedder