We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lisa Selle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lisa below.
Lisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Isn’t time funny? It goes so slowly sometimes and too quickly other times. I wish I would have started singing and performing sooner. My insecurity got in my own way when I was younger. I used to have massive stage fright. I was terrified to be in front of a crowd. Like, kneecap-shaking terror. I’m an introvert for sure, living in a world of extroverts. Well, actually, it’s really not a world of extroverts; they’re just the ones who get all the attention. But us introverts have worthwhile content to share as well…it just takes us longer because we’re reluctant. I did a lot of playing guitar and singing in the privacy of my kitchen while daydreaming of one day being in front of an audience. I sort of knew if I could ever share the openness that I felt when I was alone with other people, they would enjoy it. But there’s something in me that really struggles with letting my guard down around other people. I’m getting there now, though! I played a show last weekend, and I was able to enter that almost spiritual state that music can guide you to. It’s something like zen? Or flow? I was playing a song I wrote, and I went somewhere else…in front of a crowd. The place got silent for a few minutes, which is really hard to capture as a performer in a bar setting.
I’ve always played music. When I was six years old, I asked my parents for piano lessons. I learned guitar when I was in college, and I joined an a cappella group at that time also. A cappella really helped me develop my singing ear. There were twelve of us in that group, and I would get really nervous before a solo, but singing with a group of people is much different than standing up there by yourself. After that, I played with a few bands here and there, including a teacher band called The String Resistance for a while. You can probably still find us on BandCamp. It was really after the Pandemic that I started performing solo. I got hooked up with a few farmers markets around town, and those are really good venues for a beginner because people aren’t really listening. They’re just walking by looking for vegetables and stuff. So you can practice without really having to worry about being judged too harshly. And I made pretty good tips!
After that, I decided to give it a shot. My first regular gig was at BrewAbility in Englewood, Colorado. That place is magic. The owner is a former special educator who hires people with special needs. I’ve been playing there roughly once a month ever since. I’m also a teacher in my “real” life, so I don’t have a ton of time to commit to my art, but I do what I can and the gigs seem to fall into place now. I have a nice little list of regular places that I play. If I had more time, I would be able to schedule a lot more gigs, play a lot more open mics and meet more people, write a lot more. If only… I have also noticed that my voice has matured and changed. The more I sing, the better I get. I have a lot more control than when I was younger, and it would have been cool to see what I could have done with my voice if I had more time and training. They say the human voice peaks around age thirty, but I’m defying those odds! Thirty, schmirty.
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?
There’s just something about music. It resonates with us on a deeper level than anything else — it’s connected to our souls. Art and creativity are what make us human. In this new world of AI and Chat GPT, our society is again faced with a question of man vs. machine, and I refuse to believe that robots can ever replace the human spirit. People come out to hear live music from a human being for a reason. It helps us reconnect to who we are. I can offer original songs and unique mash-ups that no one has ever heard before. I’ve taken to telling audiences when I play an original that I haven’t yet recorded, “I’m going to play you a new one now. You can only hear this song right here, right now.” There’s something really cool about the transience of the moment that the performing arts creates. It only happens right here, right now. We are the only ones who get to experience this moment, here, together. I make up unexpected mash-ups that I would be really surprised if anyone else in the world has done. For example: Amos Lee, Nirvana, Lovin’ Spoonful, and The Stray Cats. Or Sublime, AJR, Jax, Kendrick Lamar, and Chappell Roan. My originals are from my own brand that I’ve dubbed Acoustic, Organic Americana. It’s taken me a long time to find my voice, but I’m starting to own the fact that I’m the only one in the world with my voice, and if I don’t share it…it’s lost. There’s a line in a Walt Whitman poem about how humanity’s “powerful play goes on”, and we each “may contribute a verse.” So…like Morgan Freeman’s character in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION says, “Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.” My music is me gettin’ busy livin’. Maybe in some small way I could inspire others to do the same.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
There are these moments when you know you’ve connected with another person. There’s a little light that comes on in their eyes. To know that you sparked that light is a really cool thing. It happens when I’m playing a song that I wrote, and my words reach someone. I’ve had people approach me afterward and tell me that my lyrics made them cry. I’ve seen people laugh out loud at lines in my songs. I’ve seen couples give each other a knowing look after a chorus that I’ve written. All of those things keep us connected as human beings. Art and creativity come from our souls. As a teacher, I am really worried about the prevalence of technology in our world. It’s making our kids less creative. They don’t think. They spend so much of their time passively entertained by their iPhones and social media, where they learn that it’s funny to ridicule people, to post criticisms, and that they only have to pay attention to others for a few seconds at most. Live in-person performances make our souls deeper, enrich our attention spans, and improve our appreciation for creative expression.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I’m a total book nerd. Again, I’m afraid for our future as a species, because books are dying. Today’s kids don’t read. Why would they when they have a tiny computer that infinitely entertains them, and it’s attached to their hands at all times? Books make us better people. I just finished LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garman, and while it’s not a book about entrepreneurial thinking, it could be considered a book on feminist philosophy. As a female musician, I am in the minority. I have three kids, and I definitely had to take breaks in the progression of my musical aspirations after having my children. Men don’t have to do that. And now that I’m fifty-one years old, I’m not as, shall we say, “visually appealing” as I used to be. It’s tough out there for a middle-aged woman. And then I look around and see that there are middle-aged men all over the local music scene. It’s kind of a trope — the grizzled, cigarette-and-whiskey-voiced, gray-haired old blues dude. So why not me? Well, except for the cigarette/whiskey part. Also the “dude” part.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://songbobbin.wixsite.com/pinebeetles
- Instagram: @songbobbin
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093629660378
- Youtube: @lisaselle2266
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/lisa-selle-161888481
- Other: Spotify:
Bandcamp:
https://lisaselle.bandcamp.com/
