We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa Yves a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I am one of those people. You know the ones you meet who are destined to be a creative? Someone you can’t picture doing anything else. I was born with a song in my head. From a young age, my mother would sit with me at night and say words and I would try to come up with every rhyme I could. Little did I know I was in training to write lyrics and compose music. My life centered around the piano. Once I found my voice (around age 10), I sought out any opportunity to sing/perform for anyone that would listen. I always wanted an audience. The creative spirit overtook any thoughts I had about anything else. I always say it was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because to have musical ability and talent combined with the drive to pursue excellence is a great gift that enhances every aspect of my life. A curse, because it became an unsatiable passion that consumed me and dictated the journey I took to get here. I often wondered if it would have been easier to have a “regular job” or do something less emotionally demanding. But I will never know because I have been on this creative path for my entire life. Of course I don’t regret following this path because it has brought me so much joy and wonderful collaborations with friends who are also creatives.

Lisa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Every so often, I change my main focus. I have called myself a singer, performer, pianist, composer, podcaster, producer, engineer, playwright, artist manager, radio host, teacher. My main focus as of late is in the musical theater. I have recently written 2 musicals and am working closely with a producer to get them on to the stage. My collaborators, Craig O Connor, Diana Sussman, Lisa Grant and Eva Rawiszer, have become close friends as we have worked together closely to make these musicals come alive. I was always a fan of musical theater and I knew one day I would create my own. As a Freshman in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU in 1985, I had already begun to compose some of the songs that I would later use in my musicals of 2022. Another focus of mine is composing not just for the theater but as a songwriter with another collaborator, R. Keith Swanson. We have written songs that have been heard on National TV shows, Netflix, Hallmark. It is a great joy to use my musical skills to compose music to beautifully crafted lyrics.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn in my journey is that no man is an island. You can’t expect to do everything yourself and create the best product you can. Life is about collaboration and it is imperative to learn how to communicate and collaborate with others. Once I realized that, my whole world opened up to better projects, more fulfilling experiences and I made some lifelong friends along the way. Someone I admired that first year at NYU was Adam Sandler. He lived in the same dorm as me and our paths would cross frequently. We performed in some of the same shows. I always loved how collaborative he was. I didn’t realize at the time that I was the one who was aloof and closed off. I had no idea how to collaborate with people and I wish I would have learned sooner. Thankfully, I have finally arrived. I always give my young vocal students the advice that collaboration is the key to great creations, and that it’s important to not try to do everything themselves. Taking credit for doing it all is not as impressive as you think.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish that social media existed on my journey. The ability to reach people from your own living room really appeals to me. It gave me the opportunity to have an audience even in times of quarantine. If I couldn’t perform “live”, at least I could post videos or do livestreams on social media and still reach people. It made the creative process even more fulfilling because I knew that I could put my music out in the world without the big machine of the music industry and still make an impact. When I was living in New York in the eighties, there were no cell phones or social media. It was a simpler time but very hard to reach an audience unless you were “out there” at a club on a stage. I did put myself out there a lot but it was limited. Now I feel very fortunate to be able to use social media to my advantage to share my music with a worldwide audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: lisayves.com
• Instagram: @lisayvesmusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Lisayvesmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP_TmoMKSC-W564DrIJohjg