L: I think, just like anything, muscle memory, a decade of kind of being on the go non-stop, you kinda get used to that lifestyle, and the plane rides, and the jetlag, and the days of adjustment to get into the swing of things when you go overseas, and you’re immediately hittin’ the ground runnin’. Those were things that I was pretty in the habit of being able to do. And then I think, even just the last two years, being such a break, that even without touring I’m getting busy. I have a popcorn company and I have a store that I opened. I have my farm and my partner and my family and my friends, my music and my dog. Suddenly, with being busy it’s like, ‘How did I do this before?’ I’m just starting to learn what it’s like again to be on the go. So I think I have felt really excited, I’m really excited to be part of a team again. I love being part of a band. Being able to see my band again and play with them is gonna feel good. I love to be part of a team. I never played sports, really, in high school. It wasn’t ‘til I was an adult that I felt like I knew what it was to be on a team. So I missed that. I’m not drinking. I’m exercising, I’m eating really good food. I’m training as though I’m an athlete right now. Because I’m also turning 40 this year! I know that’s still young. My body doesn’t put up with the things it did when I was 25, and I started doing all this stuff, so I’m a little nervous! But I’m also excited. L: It’s been four years since I’ve put out a full album of new songs. I did a lot of reissues and covers and things in the meantime. Like so many people, COVID definitely hit the big pause button, but I’m proud of these songs. They’re all true, and it was really healing for me to make this record. So I think as a musician, what I really hope, even aside from how the critics respond, or the industry, it’s more important to me, I think, that the people who get this music can then use it and apply it to their own experiences and heartaches and process, because I think that’s just such a gift. I feel honored to make music, and it sounds cheesy, but you have to feel your feelings, and if I can help people feel deeply and cry or ruminate on something in their own life – I just think that process of feeling and release is the path toward peace in this world. Is everyone taking responsibility for their emotional world and not going around projecting it on other people? I think it would just be more peaceful if more people took responsibility for their emotions and did a little bit better of a job of being right with themselves so they didn’t have to go around and be sh!tty to other people. So that’s how I feel about that! Other than that, I’ve got a popcorn company – it’s called Otts’ Pops Indie Pop, and we make pop music-themed popcorn, so we have Folk Pop, Cheesy Pop, Dream Pop, Synth Pop, Country Pop, Brit Pop. We make all this popcorn that’s based on pop music, and that’s been a really good project to do during COVID, since I couldn’t really play shows. I like to stay busy! I like a project. To define Lissie as an American singer and songwriter would be simplistic: she appeared in tv shows, she co – owns the music genre themed popcorn company Otts Pops Indie Pop and she owns her own farm. When the pandemic started spreading, Lissie was in her Iowa farm dealing with an impactful breakup: she decided to use the time wisely, learning to know herself better and, through connecting with nature, connecting with the deepest and more hidden parts of herself. Her upcoming album – Carving Canyons – will be out September 16 on Lionboy Records: here’s Indie-folk singer Lissie has never rushed her albums. Her fifth proper studio release, Carving Canyons, uses that reflection to good effect. The album’s context – the loneliness at the center of the pandemic – feels almost behind the times (partly because of the surfeit of covid-based releases over the past few years). Still, Lissie primarily uses the setting to look at the fallout from a breakup that occurred early in the era. The time given to writing and recording Carving Canyons allowed Lissie full time to process, writing lyrics that offer transparency without frantic confessing, eventually leading to a possible way out of the crisis. Barker, James (September 16, 2022). "Album Review: Lissie – Carving Canyons". Narc Magazine . Retrieved September 16, 2022.

Petro, Cristopher. "SPOTLIGHT: Lissie Maurus". Performer Magazine . Retrieved 28 May 2010. [ permanent dead link] Her cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way' found prominence in early 2012, when it was used in a Twinings advert and in the film Safe Haven. The song was also used as a theme for the BBC Radio 4 reading of Iain Banks's Stonemouth, read by David Tennant. The song was also featured in the closing moments of the first-season finale for "Good Behavior" in 2017. [24] In early 2010, she toured various venues in the United Kingdom supporting Ohio-born singer-songwriter Joshua Radin. a b c d Schultz, Paul (1 October 2008). "Music Review: Lissie, "Lissie" EP". The Trades. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012 . Retrieved 27 June 2010. Among the other things that Lissie has been working on aside from music has been her 45-acre farm in Iowa, where she relocated to in 2015 after spending over a decade in California. Additionally, Lissie has been involved in a homemade popcorn-making venture, Otts’ Pops Indie Pop, that she started with Diane Ott Whealy, a co-founder of the Seed Savers Exchange. “I always was a huge fangirl of hers, and we ended up becoming friends,” says the singer. “And then I was like, “Oh, I always wanted to start a popcorn company called ‘Indie Pop,’ and every flavor is gonna be inspired by a kind of pop music: ‘Cheesy Pop,’ ‘Brit Pop,’ ‘Country Pop,’ ‘Classic Pop,’ ‘Folk Pop,’ ‘Power Pop’—all the pops.’ And she had this family caramel corn recipe and she'd always wanted to start selling it as Otts’ Pops because her family name is Ott.AH: Yes! I get overwhelmed sometimes about how much I want to listen to something new, and I just don’t get the chance sometimes. I just don’t have the physical time. L: Yeah, she’s just absolutely brilliant. Her [2021 album] History of a Feeling is very solid, an incredible record. AH: I bet, I bet! There was a lot of co-writing on the album. Is that kind of a new experience for you? L: Yeah and, I mean, talk about working with a total legend – she’s written some of the best songs ever! That was a huge honor. We again have a lot of friends of friends and kinda knew each other, but were connected through our teams to do a write. And we ended up writing over FaceTime, because it was during COVID, and it was right before Thanksgiving, and everyone was getting COVID. So November 2020 I was in Nashville, but we ended up just writing via FaceTime. With that song, Natalie, since she’s just an incredible crafter of songs, really had brought a title and a shape with her to the session, so I was able to sort of fill in the blanks alongside her via FaceTime to make the story work for me. To tell a side of my story which is, ultimately, you can’t make people love you, you have to love yourself, and you have to find the people that will. Rose, Greg (25 May 2010). "Lissie and Ellie Goulding duet at Great Escape". Virgin Records. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010 . Retrieved 29 May 2010.

Grepperud, Amund (10 February 2010). "Lydverket elsker: Lissie" (in Norwegian). Lydverket . Retrieved 28 May 2010.

On The Go

Epic Scrap Metal Sessions Part 10: Lissie". bigang.no/home. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016 . Retrieved 19 February 2016. AH: You were out on the farm for a good chunk of the pandemic. How did that kind of isolation affect the songs that ended up on Carving Canyons? AH: Yeah, I’ll get myself into those ruts, too, but one there’s one thing you want to hear, that’s all that’ll work for ya.