LISA TADDEO

“YOU HAVE THIS GRAND PASSION AND SENSITIVITY, AND YOU CREATE SUCH POWERFUL ART EVEN IN THE THROES OF EMOTIONAL UPHEAVAL. DO YOU FEEL MORE PEACE WHEN YOU HAVE UNITY, COMFORT, AND PROGRESS IN YOUR ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, OR WHEN YOU HAVE UNITY, COMFORT, AND PROGRESS IN YOUR ROMANTIC LIFE?”

Thank you for noticing that I open my heart. I think of true love as this all-encompassing empathy, and I’m still searching for that. So far, I’ve only experienced groundbreaking passion through friction. It’s been a great source of pain, but also a source of enlightenment in my music—which became the cathedral, the shelter where I went to make sense of things. This new record is a true heart-opener—I love music that feels like the listener and artist are processing together. I see that as my discipline now. But I think that kind of relationship is in my future. I’m looking for the kind of love that illuminates my personal life and my practice—for me the two are so intertwined.

“IN YOUR SONG ‘GOYA SODA’ I UNDERSTAND YOU DREW INSPIRATION FROM THE WORKS OF SPANISH PAINTER FRANCISCO GOYA. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ARTWORK?”

“Goya Soda” was inspired by the painting Saturn Eating His Children, which is about the connection between revulsion and desire. A favorite artwork? I would have to say Francis Bacon, but I can’t pick just one. His work is an intersection between abstraction, surrealism, poetry, destruction, truth, pain. Inside the genius of that work, there is tenderness.

“WE FIRST MET IN THE SUNSHINE OF LOS ANGELES. IF I WERE NOT CREATING MUSIC FULL-TIME, I’D MOST LIKELY BE A METEOROLOGIST. WHAT KIND OF WEATHER INSPIRES YOUR BEST WRITING?”

I suspect it’s sunny weather. I wrote “Tilted,” one of my best hits, on a sunny day. That’s a big component of why I’m going to move to LA—also to be close you, so that we can do sessions together.

“WHAT’S YOUR LOVE LANGUAGE?”

I discovered it recently. It’s touch! I had no idea! I grew up reading so much literature, and after all that, my love language is touch? I used to be so sure of myself. Being an adult sucks.

“DID AN ANIMAL EVER CHANGE YOUR LIFE?”

Yes, of course. My first real love was my childhood cat, who would sing along with me. He was my great love, and he died when I was 18. I had another cat with my ex-boyfriend called Scrunchy. He was a Maine Coon, and I lost him in the divorce. He was very chatty, and his giant paws were so fucking cute.

“WHAT IS A QUESTION YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ASKED IN AN INTERVIEW, BUT WISH YOU WOULD BE?”

So many questions are never asked! It’s baffling, really. I’m surprised that people are always interested in the same things. I miss intricate poetic questions that make my mind race to a place I would never expect. I’d love to speak more about my approach to dancing and my background in theater. People acknowledge it and then they move on, but really it’s the core of my practice.