Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Danaë.
Lisa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started singing at the age of three. I would line up my stuffed animals and stand on the couch to perform to them while singing along to the Disney Sing-along tapes. I received my first microphone at the age of six and I never wanted to put it down! I started taking piano lessons at the age of seven then eventually started playing the violin and was very involved with other musical performance and art-related extracurricular activities. My parents both love music and were always playing their collection throughout the house, so I was constantly surrounded by it. My first experience in the music industry was my internship at Hopeless Records under Vice President of A&R, Eric Tobin, but I ended up getting a job on Vans Warped Tour to be a merch girl for a metalcore band called Attack Attack! A couple of weeks later. Eric was very supportive and encouraging that I take the job, so I ended up leaving that internship. From there, I ended up working for other bands for a few years but stopped in 2012 because I really wanted to focus on my artist career.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s been a difficult journey finding my way in the music industry, especially as a Filipino-American. I’ve been taken advantage of many times and felt like no one ever really believed in my music and what I envision for my career. It’s also been discouraging that there isn’t a lot of representation within not only the Filipino community but the Asian community as a whole. I always thought I would be able to use that to my advantage to stand out, but as I started paying close attention to who gets pushed heavily by labels, I started to doubt myself. I’ve even been told by a brand that my image didn’t fit and I didn’t think too much of it, but recently their CEO stepped down because of racism allegations in the workplace, so it kind of makes me wonder what they meant by that back then. I ended up taking full control of my career in 2016 and that’s when I started to embrace my identity, broke away from the industry mold, and started creating the music content that I wanted to showcase to stay true to myself.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I am a dark pop recording artist. I mix positive lyrics with darker tones and melodies and vice versa as it truly reflects the ups and downs of my life. I write specific to my life events but include sections that are more universal to give the audience an inside look in my personal life while finding it relatable to what they’re going through at that moment. My sound is cinematic and I love to blend different types of genres that I grew up with or am currently listening to because they’ve all shaped me into the artist that I am. Essentially, my music is a message of vulnerability. I also host a music podcast called Sound Scrub where I dissect the writing, production, and recording process of a song with the artist and producer. I focus on independent artists to create another outlet for our community and hope that the audience will discover new artists that they would like to continually support.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I will continue to release music and I have more coming out soon along with more visuals. I would love to be able to tour the world, but at the moment, we have to take it day by day, so I want to get back into live-streaming regularly. Another goal of mine is to get my songs placed in TV, commercials, and film. I would be honored to have one of my songs set the mood and storyline. I definitely plan to build audiences outside of the States, which I am working towards through social media. I’ve created a great community with people in the Philippines, so hopefully I am able to travel there soon to collaborate with artists over there as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://lisadanae.com
- Email: press@lisadanae.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/lisadanaemusic
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/lisadanaemusic
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/lisadanaemusic
- Other: http://ffm.to/lisadanae
Image Credit:
Josh Suguitan
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