Lisa Loeb

Lisa Loeb

REALITY BITES

Lisa Loeb Journeys Inward and Emerges with Snapshots of The Way It Really Is
Over the course of her decade in the public eye, Lisa Loeb has racked up a number of achievements, from being the first unsigned artist to top the singles chart -- as she did with the 1995 hit "Stay" -- to co-hosting a cult-favorite Food Network show. The latter project was a collaborative effort with longtime beau Dweezil Zappa, with whom she recently split -- a topic that's touched on, albeit subtly, on many of the songs on her new album, The Way It Really Is. Loeb actually wrote most of the songs on the disc before the couple went their separate ways, but the overall tenor is introspective, the sort of looking inward that invariably accompanies such a breakup. Not that it's a drag to listen to: On the contrary, she steers clear of confessional weepiness and generates plenty of empathy -- besides which, her honeyed voice goes down as easy as ever. Loeb took some time to tell Barnes & Noble.com's David Sprague The Way It Really Is in her life.

Barnes & Noble.com: The Way It Really Is sounds more stripped-down and acoustic than your earlier albums. Was that your intention going in?

Lisa Loeb: Originally, it was going to be called Half and Half because my intent was to do half acoustic, very intimate songs with that immediate energy I really wanted to capture on CD, and half more produced songs. That's the way the album turned out, but the title changed [because] I realized the title of one of my older songs really fit what the songs were saying.

B&N.com: How does the title indicate what's going on inside?

LL: Thematically, the songs are basically about looking at things in your life and wondering how they are. Some are happy, some make you realize you need to make a change.

B&N.com: How difficult is it to get to the point where you can look at things that way?

LL: It's a process in some ways. I tend to be one of those people that takes the long way around, reading books, talking to friends, going to shrinks. Ultimately, it's best to go on your own intuition. I did everything from study with rabbis to listening to self-help tapes by Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins. Then one friend of mine -- Fabio, actually -- said, "You don't need a shrink, you know exactly how you feel." He was totally right.

B&N.com: The first song on the album, "Window Shopping," is pretty dark, with the love-as-product imagery.

LL: That's one way of looking at it. In that song, to me, the attitude is the most important thing. The person singing is getting totally screwed over by someone who's browsing in that sense. It's not about being a victim, it's more a here we go again thing. You're living life as a human being and these things happen, so you can look at them with humor or in an introspective way -- both are valid ways of doing it.

B&N.com: How about the song "Hand Me Down," which is one of the darker songs on the album?

LL: Some people think that's a relationship song, but it was really written about another woman, about not wanting to get someone else's emotional hand-me-downs. I wrote that with Stephanie Bentley, who wrote that song "Breathe" for Faith Hill. There is a bleak feeling to it, but also a sense that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

B&N.com: Is it easy for you to click with someone as a co-writer?

LL: You really can't tell until you start in. Sometimes you click as people and not as collaborators, sometimes just the opposite. It's like a round of golf, where you have to reset yourself all the time, but you can't let failure or success impact what you're doing.

B&N.com: Who else did you particularly like working with this time around?

LL: I really enjoyed working with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls. I first met her at Lilith Fair, and then around the time we started making the album, we went to her restaurant as part of the Food Network show. We talked about it, then went into the studio and worked on the song "Would You Wonder." I think our voices work really well together; the harmonies really make the song soar.

B&N.com: Are you looking forward to touring behind this album?

LL: Part of me loves adventure, so I love looking at my itinerary and seeing all the different cities that I'll be playing. I was just looking at a map of where I'll be staying in Tokyo and seeing all the different things to do around there. On the other hand, there's the practical side, like finding someone who'll be able to take care of my cats. Sometimes it's nice to be like a normal person who gets to stay home and get through a whole jar of peanut butter.

August 2004