Lisa Loeb – An Xperience Interview

Lisa Loeb – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: I was very excited to talk to you.

LL: Thank you.

RRX: Cool. My mom’s the cutest, right? So, last night I was like, hey mom, I’m gonna be talking to Lisa Loeb tomorrow and my Mom’s telling me all this stuff… I don’t know if any of it’s true or not. But she was telling me that you had a summer camp for underprivileged kids or something?. I don’t know if it’s still going, but Lisa’s got a good heart, she’s a great person, that’s what Mom said. Is that true or is my mom making stuff up?

LL: It’s close. in the 2000’s when I started making children’s music. Specifically my second children’s record which was called ‘Camp Lisa.’ I wanted to make a TV show about camp to let kids see how great summer camp is. Then I realized it would be better if I could actually just send kids to camp. All the proceeds of the record Camp Lisa and also whenever I can raise money to send kids to summer camp. I haven’t had my own summer camp.

RRX: Pretty cool. Yeah, my Mom is the best. She got the information half-right. Has the tour begun yet?

LL: With Lyle Lovett?

RRX: Yes.

LL: No, it’s a little over a two week run with him. I’ve got lots of shows planned coming up this year. Some with Lyle, some with a band called Straight No Chaser, some solo acoustic, some with my band. Still a lot of touring. But I love flying with Lyle Lovett. We played a concert run with him when he put out his record, ‘The Road to Ensenada’ back in the nineties, we met around then. I know my folks were big fans of him and I was a fan of him. I was lucky I got to go on tour with him then. That was almost 30 years ago. And here we are together again. We’ve kept in touch and we stayed friends all these years and this will be a really cool tour because it’s gonna be sort of acoustic and intimate and we’re trading songs and telling stories. We’ll probably end up singing or playing a little bit together as well.

RRX: Excellent. It’s 2024 and it’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by to begin with. The big hit “Stay,” that was in like 1994 or something like that?

LL: Yes, it was 1994.

RRX: I remember because I was a sophomore in high school and of course like everybody else, I had a crush on you at the time. Ethan Hawke obviously was involved. My mom seems to think you guys were roommates at some point. I don’t know where she gets this stuff.

LL: Yeah. I don’t know. No, we are friends and we lived across the street from each other. I worked with the theater company a lot and we were just good friends and fans of each other’s work as well. He was shooting the movie Reality Bites and he’s very involved in the projects that he does. He thought that one of my songs specifically “Stay,” might be a good song for the movie. And so he passed it along to Ben Stiller and all the different people, the team of people who are in charge of getting music into the movie. They decided to use it in the movie in the end credits. It was an amazing opportunity for me at the time.

RRX: I would imagine so and it seems like it’s all been uphill from there. So, I, I try not to do too much research. I try to just kind of talk and learn as I go along but I did see something… did you become a mom in your forties? Is that legit?

LL: Yes!

RRX: God bless you. I became a grandfather in my forties.

LL: Oh, wow. Yeah, I was busy making music and a lot of other things. That’s just when it happened for me but I’m lucky it did. I’ve got two kids, I’ve got an 11 year old and a 14 year old. It’s been sort of an interesting process figuring out how to tour and when to tour. What makes sense for the family. Luckily, I have a lot of different types of things I do within my career as well as being a DJ on Sirius XM, having a podcast where I interview people called “Where They Are Now” through Sirius XM. I do some acting, a lot of voiceover work, a lot of songwriting. So there’s always a lot of different things I can do. Some are at home and I also love touring.

RRX: And at some point in time, your first name becomes Grammy Winning.

LL: It was Grammy Nominated for a very long time. And then I won a Grammy for one of my family friendly records a couple of years ago. That was really exciting.

RRX: Oh, it’s gotta be, one of my friends actually won a Grammy last year and I was so happy for him. He helped write a song for Aaron Neville.

LL: Oh, that’s great.

RRX: But the coolest thing was he got to bring his 16 year old daughter on the red carpet with him. That’s gotta be the coolest, you know? Mom brought her to Disney World, but I think Dad wins!

LL: Yeah, I have to say that the getting a Grammy… I really appreciate it, especially in the field that I got it in. The nominations that we had in the past were also really great, but winning it in the family friendly music community… these are all people who are really committed to their craft and it just means a lot to be recognized by that group. But it’s also just the magic of being able to make the record in the first place.
It really is always exciting to be able to go into a room with some ideas, whether it’s by myself or collaboration with others and come out with a song. it’s so amazing. It’s just as magical as it was when I was a little kid and started writing music.

RRX: Well, like I said, I don’t wanna take up too much of your time. Is there anything that you would like to say to the fans out there to get them to come on out to the show on May 2nd in Saratoga?

LL: Uh, It sounds like you’re gonna tell them!
(Both Laugh)

RRX: Oh, I’m gonna tell him.

LL: Yeah, I think it’s gonna be fun. Personally, I’ll probably be playing as I usually do a combination of songs that people may know from the radio that I’ve written. As well as newer songs, older songs and songs that aren’t even released yet. I really like to mix it up. I’m a big fan of music so I feel like I know what to play to satisfy people who are longtime fans as well as people who may not have heard my music before at all. I think Lyle’s really great at that too. I think it’s gonna be really a good show.

RRX: Well, I appreciate it. Thank you so much and I can’t wait to see you on May 2nd.

LL: Yeah. Thank you and tell your Mom. I said hello!

Universal Preservation Hall
Lyle Lovett and Lisa Loeb: In Conversation and Song
Thursday, May 2nd -7:30pm
atuph.org

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