Lisa Richards

 A LIGHT FROM THE OTHER SIDE - ONE SHEET

Lisa Richards’  6th studio album titled A Light From The Other Side marks Richards’ return to Australia after 22 years residing in the United States. With humour, sharp observations and a ferociously sweet voice, Richards explores the complexities of life through her  songs.
  
 From acapella busking in Kings Cross, living in New York with no legal status for 8 years, learning guitar at 30 out of necessity, co-writing 2 CD’s with Tim Bright (co-wrote the Scrubs theme song) to almost turning down a drink from the senior vice president of Electra Records, it’s easy to see Richards isn’t your regular run-of-the-mill singer-songwriter. With a list of greatest musical influences including Led Zepplin, Leonard Cohen and Edith Piaf, Lisa Richards is  a strong, passionate singer, whose songs are never traditional, but instantly relatable. 

After 5 US studio albums, Richards has returned to Australia to release A Light From The Other Side, an album inspired by the crumbling of her 14-year marriage, or as Richards describes it, “a tsunami of change”. She counts her migration back to Australia as the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. This bittersweet mix of optimistic and languishing emotion shines bright throughout the album. 
  
A Light From The Other Side was recorded with composer, song-writer and producer Greg J. Walker (Paul Kelly, C.W Stoneking). His and Richards musical relationship started how all good modern relationships do; over the internet. “I was surfing around the interweb listening to random tracks and I came across a song by an Australian folksinger and I thought “I love this production. This arrangement, this instrumentation…Who is doing it?”  Greg J Walker as it turns out. I saw he was with Mushroom publishing and I thought, “no way I’ll be able to make contact with this guy” but I found a website for his band Machine Translations, and I emailed him with a link to a couple of songs of mine from past CDs. He got back to me pretty quickly and wrote “I love your voice and style, yes we must work together” and so we did.” – Lisa Richards 
  Lisa has a life story that could easily grace the silver screen. From busking in Kings Cross to hanging out with Debbie Harry at SXSW and playing CBGB’s Lisa has experienced all of the happiness and misfortune life has to offer. 

  
TRACK BY TRACK 

Frank Sinatra:  A love song about dancing and kissing with a jazz pop Bossa vibe.
  

Water (Needs To Fall):  I wrote this one in New York City. My Austin life was hit by a tsunami of change over which I had absolutely no control. I had to go underground, to keep safe, I was ‘between lives’ as it were, being carried by the love and kindness of my friends who fed me and sheltered me and kept me safe. This song arose out of that space. A song about soldiers, war, regrets, being lost and human kindness and the need we have for each other. 
  
Milk and Honey:  The song I wrote about meeting my husband Greg in Australia at a café in Canberra called Milk and Honey that is sadly no longer around. 
  
Mr Happiness:  I put a post on Facebook in January. I was in the middle of a bad virus cold thing and pretty miserable and I got a bad case of the “Can I just skip January altogether?” So I posted that I was in the Mire of January and I wanted to sleep for a thousand years. My singer friend Christine Collister said “There’s a song in that and you need to write it” and so I did. 
  
You Got The Power:  Over Christmas I did a song a day challenge and I asked my people community on Facebook to suggest topics for me to write about.  My sister-in-law Liz suggested Bullying and that’s where the song ‘Power’ came from. 
  
Summer Afternoon: I am now a step-mum to 2 lovely teenagers (seriously they are lovely!) and I was thinking about how fast kids grow up and how parents have this unbreakable thread tying them to their children.
  
Walking Woman:  The story of leaving. How do you leave a relationship? That moment when you know it's over.
  
Weather: I wrote in New York City in the kitchen of my friend Irene’s 5th floor walk up apartment on East 4th and Avenue B (believe it or not), but I was thinking about the Brisbane floods and how as humans we struggle so hard try to control our environment. The weather is a big powerful force that we do NOT control. 
  
Where My Heart Used To Be: I wrote this one in Australia. It’s funny how heartache can co-exist with great happiness and for me this is a familiar state. Life is complicated. People are complicated and ultimately life and love are temporary and transient. 
  
What Lying Does: Pretty explanatory really… people lie for all kinds of reasons. 

Friends Out of Strangers: Inspired by the solo tours I’ve done in Europe…heartbreak and the kindness of people.