Lisa Lynne

"Quite Possibly The Most Beautiful Music You Have Ever Heard" - Windham Hill Records NEW AGE VOICE When You Walk Through The Front Door Of Lisa Lynne's California Home It Doesn't Feel Like Today. You Are Trasported To Another Time - A Time When No Televisions Or Radios Existed And Eachnight Friends And Family Gather For Live Music By The Fire. Seven Celtic Harps Line The Wall Regal As Ships On A Harbor. The Room's Corners Are Filled With Different Instruments Of Varying Shapes And Sizes. They Echo The History They Represent Each Are Carefully Tuned And Ready-To-Play. Lisa Lynne Is A Veteran Performer Who Has Toured Indefatigably The Past With Self- Produced Music Featuring Her Celtic Harp. Q Seeing Your Collection Of Harps One Feels A Sense Of History And Magic. How Long Have You Been Collecting These Beautiful Instruments? A They've Been Gradually Accumulating. Each On Has Its Own Story. In My Travels I Am Always On The Lookout For Special Instruments To Bring Home. I Have A Weakness For Orphaned Mandolins. This Room Has Hosted Many A Music Party. I Believe All This Wood The Floors The High Ceiling Actually Absorb And Retain The Vibrations Of All The Music That's Been Made Here. This Room Has An Extraordinary Sound. Q Was Your Family Musical? A There Were No Musicians In My Family But They Were Very Much Music Lovers. There Was Always Music In The House So I Tuned In To Music At An Early Age. I Bought My First Guitar In Second Grade And Taught Myself To Play. In My Teenage Years I Joined Neighborhood Rock Bands. I Loved Playing Bass Too And At Home I Would Make Up Little Instrumental Songs And Bounce Tracks With Two Tape Recorders. When I Turned 21 I As Working Full Time As A Bassist With A Band Playing Mostly Classic Rock In A Small Bar Near The Long Beach Naval Shipyard -A Place Notorious For Harboring Fugitives. We Moved Into Playing Military Bases And Biker Events. I Would Go On Tours Of Alaska And Greenland And I Saved Enough Money To Attend Musicians Institute Of Technology In Hollywood. I Was There To Study Bass But Ended Up Playing Harp The Whole Time. Q It Seems As Though There Has Been An Incredible Synchronicity In The Way Your Career Has Unfolded. What Made You Want To Play The Harp? A When I Was 20 My Friend Down The Street And I Would Make Costumes And Sneak In To The Renaissance Fair Play Our Mandolins And Make A Scene. We'd Get Chased Around By Security For Not Having Our Performer Permits. We'd Say "But We Are Gypsies! We Are Minstrels! We Need No Passes!" We Were Actually Playing Elfin Arrangements Of Iron Maiden Tunes. At That Fair I Spotted The Celtic Harps. I Froze In My Tracks. I Sat Down To Try To Play And God Overwhelmed With Heat Strangely Enough. I Could Already Play It Everything I Loved And Played Came Together On This Instrument. It Seemed Like The Mother Of All Instruments And It Played Me Really. It Was Quite Emotional. Q Most Musicians Decide To Play An Instrument And Then Look For A School Or A Teacher. It Was Quite Different In Your Case. It Seems When You Saw The Harp And Touched It For The First Time It Was Love At First Sight? A Love At First Sound.. Love At First Touch. It's About The Vibration The Large Body Of Wood And The Wood Against Your Body. Since I Was Also Involved In The Local Club Scene Doing Bass With A Heavy Metal Band I Would Bring My Harp To The Clubs And Open A Song With It. The Sweaty Fist Waving Teenagers Would Be Stunned Then Melt Right Into It. I Also Brought It To The Biker Clubs Where My Paycheck Band Would Play. The Bikers Would Congregate Around My Van In The Back Alley And I Would Pull It Out And Play Little Tunes. Q That Is Exactly What I'd Expect From The Harp Girl - Bringing Light Into A Dark Place. A They Loved It. I Would Show Them How To Hold It And Pluck The Strings - Now That Was A Sight To See! That's Really How This Crusade Started Turning People On To The Celtic Harp. It's A Relatively Small Instrument So I Could Pull It Out Anywhere. That First Year I'd Play All Day Everyday. My Back Would Get So Tired That I Would Play Flat On My Back With The Harp On Top Of Me So I Only Had To Lift My Arms. I Wanted To Get Out Of The Smoky Bars And Just Play Harp. I Would Improvise Harp Parts Over My Pink Floyd Records. Son I Was Ready For Weddings Restaurants And Storefront Windows. I Even Go Hired To Jump Out From Behind A Tree And Play While A Man Asked A Woman To Marry Him. There Were Incoming Births And Outgoing Deaths. I Played Alongside Many An Open Casket And It Was So Interesting. Somehow I Always Pulled It Off Improvising Music That Was Right For The Moment. Q It Seems That In Your Journey There Was Always A Magic Thread Connecting All The Pieces In A Most Unusual Way. When Did You First Start Recording? A My First Recordings Came Out Of Germany About Ten Years Ago. I Was Sending My Homemade Tapes To The Major Labels. At The Time All The Big Labels Had New Age Divisions But I Wasn't Getting Anywhere. Unsolicited Envelopes Were Returned Unopened. So I Thought "It's A Big World " And I Went To The Record Store And Copied Down Every Foreign Label Address I Could Find. The Very First Company I Sent A Package To Called Me Back And Off I Went To Germany And Recorded Four Records There In Three Years. It Was A Potent Time For Developing I Was Able To Experience Playing Concerts There. Those Records Broke Through In Foreign Markets But Had No Promotion Here. I Was So Young I Let The Music And The Presentation Of It Get Away From Me So I Came Home And Thought Of A New Plan. I Went Into The Studio With A Recorder Player Friend And Spent A Hundred Dollars On A Recording. We Called Ourselves "Celestial Winds" And We Sold Over 10 000 Tapes Of That Simple Music That Summer Street Performing At Venice Beach. From There We Got Asked T Play The New Universal Studio's Citywalk. I Still Get A Kick Out Of That. We Were Street Performing And They Asked Us If We Would Come And "portray" Street Performers At This Tourist Attraction. From There We Got Selected To Play The International Street Performers Festival In Nova Scotia. Imagine The World's Top Jugglers And Magicians Staying All Together In A College Dorm For Weeks. The Giant Cruise Ships Came To The Harbor Where We Would All Do Our Shows And It Was Excellent. Even The Queen Of England Was There. We Had Sold Over 50 000 Records By Then But Still Couldn't Get U.S. Distribution. We Did A Promo Spot For The Festival On A Canadian Morning Show. We Thought It Would Be Fun To Just Say That Our Records Were In The Stores Even Though They Weren't. The Stores Got Flooded With People Looking For Our Record So We Instantly Got Major Distribution Throughout Canada. Our Record Went To No. 2 On The Indie Charts Second Only To The Barenaked Ladies. The U.S. Distributors Followed Suit And We Ended Up Selling 200 000 Recordings Overall From Our Hundred-Dollar Investment. Q Truly A Cinderella Story. And All This Happened Before You Signed With Windham Hill? A Right. I Was Naively Not Involved In The Money Part Of The Celestial Winds Success. So I Ended Up Back At Square One Driving My Van From Mall-To-Mall Across The U.S. And Canada Playing All Day Every Day. I Started My Own Company Lavender Sky Music And Would Sell My CD's Right Out Of My Van. I Remember Standing In A Phone Booth At The Boise Idaho Mall When The Call Came In About Windham Hill. I Did Two Records For Them Quite A Few Compilations And Three Winter Solstice Tours. It Was A Dream To Play With The Windham Hill Artists I Had Admired For So Long. We Traveled In A Big Bus With TVs Like The Country Starts Do. Those Two Windham Hill Records Did Well But The Third Never Happened As They Were Bought Out By BMG In New York. We Saw Everything Evaporate Before Our Eyes. Liz Story And I Went Fishing Around The Empty L.A. Offices Which Were Piled High With Abandoned Furniture And Upside Down Boxes. We Were Looking For Our Promotional Materials --Photo Negatives And Such. All The People Had Disappeared Like A Twilight Zone Episode. It Was Eerie. Q You Have Now Created Your Own Very Sacred Space Where You Record In Your Own Temple-Like Studio. A Living In Los Angeles I Have Tried All The Finest Studios But They Are Primarily For Rock Or Pop Music. We End Up Spending So Much Time Chasing Microscopic Hums And Buzzes That Turn Up When We Are Tracking The Delicate Harp Sections. Once We Were Trying To Record Lute And Viol In A Top Studio. Q Let's Talk More About The Harp. There Is A Lot Being Said Now About The Healing And Relaxing Qualities Of Harp Music And How It Can Change The Mood Of The Listener. A There Are Several Organizations Of Harp Players Addressing Exactly That. Harpist Are Being Trained For Specifically The Purpose Of Accompanying People Healing And In Transition. Basically Going Into The Hospitals And Playing For The Sick And Dying. In My Own Experience I Think Its Just As Important To Do Something For The Loved Ones And Family Around The Person. I Had An Experience With The Tragedy At Columbine. I Was Like Everyone So Distraught When I Got A Call From A Friend Of One Family To Let Me Know They Were Using My Music To Soothe One Of The Critically Injured Students. I Went To Colorado Hoping I Could Play Music In Person For The Girl. She Was Never Awake That Day But Her Family Welcomed Me Into Their Private Waiting Room And I Realized It Was Just As Helpful To Be There With Music For Them. I Was Right There When The Brother Who Was A Witness Was Able To Talk About It For The First Time And The Father Was Able To Finally Let His Tears Out. I Can't Say I've Ever Felt So Blessed To Be Doing This In My Life. On The Plane Home I Was Thinking About The Girl And How Her Parents Talked About How She Loved Music So Much. I Was Thinking I Would Love To Get Her A Little Harp For Herself And Maybe Make The Long Journey Back A Little Easier. I Went Online With The Harp Chat Group And Told Them My Idea. They Response From Harpist All Over The World Was Overwhelming And Together We Bout Her A Big Beautiful Harp. She Was Paralyzed From The Waist Down But Sat Up For The First Time To Play It. So It Reaffirms My Theory That Although Hearing Music Is Nice Doing It Yourself Is A Much More Powerful Experience. I Would Like To Bring Harps Into Every Hospital For Anybody Who Would Like To Play. People Think It's So Hard Learn But It Isn't. The Harp Is The Easiest Instrument In The World Because It Sounds Beautiful At First Touch. Learning Most Other Instruments Involve A Long Period Of Hard Practice And Not Sounding So Good. But The Harp Is Its Own Spirit And Will Play The Music Directly From Your Heart. Q Is That How The Inspiration Of Your Harps For Hearts Organization Started? A Yes That Is Where It All Started. Harps For Hearts Is About Bringing In Harps And Harp Players To Children's Hospital Women's Shelters And Recovery Centers. We Do Performances And Bring In 10 To 12 Baby Harps And Make It Easy For Any One To Play Too. My Hope Is To Be Able To Give A Harp To Each Facility So They Can Stay With It And There Would Be Harp Sounds Going On Often. Which Is Very Soothing Even From A Beginner's Hand. I'm Really Pleased With It And Its All Coming Together Unbelievably Easy. Q Tell Us About Your New Record 2001 . A My Recording Has Really Been A Labor Of Love. I'm Really Into Showing The Instruments In Their Natural Setting And With Their Natural Sound. Some Of The Music I Have Chosen Is From The 1500's And 1600's. Melodies That Have Been Around This Many Years Have Deep Meaning And Go Deep When You Hear Them Especially When Played With Instruments That Have Been Around For Hundreds Of Years. There's Nothing Like Hands On Strings Deep Breaths And Wind Though Bamboo. I Was Fortunate This Time To Include Some Special Guests From The Lian Ensemble Playing Ancient Persian Instruments. They Brought Their Own Training And Culture To The Tracks. We Were All So Moved By How The Music Blended So Seamlessly Together. Q If You Could Have Three Wishes What Would They Be? A I Have So Many Wishes I'm Not Sure I Could Narrow It Down To Three But I'll Try. I Wish For Earth's Recover. That All The Entities That Operate From Greed Would Become Enlightened And Healing The Environment Would Become A Non-Negotiable Priority. Then We Would Have Enough Time Here To Reach Peace In Every Nation. Can All That Be One Wish? Then My Second Wish Is That Music Would Be Put Back In Public Schools And Be Considered An Important Gift To Children. The Music Born From It Would Be An Important Gift For The Future. My Third Wish Is For Myself I Have Always Wanted To Find My Birth Mother. I Always Knew I Was Adopted And I Always Wanted To Tell Her How I Though She Was So Incredibly Brave. To Go Through With Having Me Alone In The Sixties. She Gave Me Up So I Could Have A Better Chance. I Would Tell Her I Got Wonderful Parents And A Little Sister And Had A Childhood Full Of Love And Adventure And That I Became A Musician And I Live In Appreciation Of Her And In Peace. I Wish I Could Tell Her All Those Things I Wish I Could Play My Harp For Her I Wish She Could Know That The Blessed And Giving Thing She Did Back The Turned Out As She Must Have Hoped And That I Live Happily Ever After. read less