Interview with Lisa Matassa

My new single is coming out on the
radio and is called „I won’t Ask“, we are shooting for release
on the radio at the first week of july. I’m really excited about
it. We’re also putting it on the new EP that we plan to release in
January 2014. The most recently released single „Somebody’s Baby“
that is on the radio right now, is doing really well. It has been on
the top 40 recently and we’re real happy about that too.

That was great, „Somebody’s Baby“
is the name of that EP and it is also the title song. The video for
that song just reached over four million viewers on Youtube, so of
course, I’m very happy with that. The songs on that album are
really songs that where released back in december. I put a little
Christmas song on there as well, a song that I loved listening to as
a child and the cover of my all time favorite song, which is „I
Will Always Love You“ from Dolly Parton. Just some things that are
close and dear to my heart. As an independent artist, it is important
to keep your name out there all the time. Whether you have a new
single or an EP. Sometimes you have to work twice as hard than a
major label artist, to get your music out there and to get people to
see you and know who you are.

I do, I love writing, I have been
writing since I was young, but I don’t have a problem with somebody
elses music if I have a connection to it, to the lyrics, then I have
no problem with singing it.

Growing up in south Florida, I was
listening to artists like Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash,
Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd. I loved artists like Barbara Streisand.
There is a whole different collection of musicians that really helped
develop me to who I am as an artist.

I started singing at eight, I was
trained as an opera singer. I did that for about five years and it
really helped me to know how to breathe and where to place the voice
in the mask of my face. All of that helped me to be the singer that I
am today. I have been singing professionally since I was eight years
old, performing live since about eleven years old and I did musical
theater as well. I haven’t stopped singing since the day I was
singing in my bedroom down in Florida and my Dad open the door and my
Mom shouted „you can sing“!

I was born in New York and raised in
South Florida, then we moved back to New York

when I was a sophomore in high school.
My learning years, my development of music came from listening to
country when I lived down south. At the time when I was in South
Florida, it was totally different than what it is now. We had open
fields, farmland, we rode horses on the weekends, fished everyday
after school. It was more of a livestyle, now we live in New York and
it is totally different.

Yes, I live in Long Island, there are
about eight million people on Long Island from end to end, so it is
quite busy. I don’t mind coming to Nashville, I’m here so often.
It is even easier sometimes coming here than it is to get into
Manhatten from Long Island. I’d rather just jump on a plane for an
hour and half flight than to go shopping and be an hour and half in
traffinc on a Long Island expressway.

We have done a lot of radio promotion
tours, did a lot of concerts. I’ve had a chance to work with some
of the most incredible musicians, people that I have admired for so
long. Artists like Dierks Bentley, Erich Church, LeAnn Rymes and Lee
Brice. It has been an amazing couple of years and I’m feeling so
blessed and fortunate to be a part of it.

That was yesterday, I have so many
things I want to do before I die, and one of them is to play the
Ryman Auditorium and yesterday was my first performance at the Ryman.
It went over really well. I was there for the Jonny Cash Tribute
Special for the US Postal Service. They gave him a Forever stamp and
I was asked to perform. I was there with the Oak Ridge Boys, Randy
Travis and it was just an amazing time. I was really happy.

You know, as a musician you want to
make sure that you let people hear who you are and experience you as
an artist, for the real you. I’ve never been interested in fame and
fortune, my Dad told me once growing up, God gives everyone a gift.
It may be something that you do better than another person, it could
be the gift of writing, of smarts, I don’t know, but there is
something that you have and it is your responsibility to take it and
nurture it and share it. That’s what I do. You know the fans are
amazing in country music, they are so loyal, one of the best parts of
beeing a country music artist is getting so many great fans.

Yes I have a really great supportive
faimily. Mom and Dad have been with me since day one, they still come
to all of the shows that are in New York. I have two childeren,
seventeen and fifteen. My husband is super supportive, I’m really
blessed. I’m taking one day at a time and I’m just very thankful
to be able to do what I love and share it.

Yes, I’m working on the upcoming EP
that will be released in early 2014.

The first single off that is called “I
Won’t Ask“ and will be on the radio starting in July.

I just want to tell the fans in
Switzerland, thank you for supporting country music, I hope I get to
come over there one day and perform, thank you for the support and
God bless you all.

Heidi und Marco Duss for Country Music News International