Lisa Stirling brings out “Easy,” a magical reflection on what love could be
By Kurt Beyers
Lisa Stirling’s new song “Easy” is a heartbreakingly beautiful piece of music that she has been working on since 2020. It did not come easy.
Various things — she was having a hard time getting songs produced, for one thing, and she was kind of trying to make her mind up about what she wanted to do with her career, even though she is a singer/songwriter who has a band and has performed a lot and was putting out songs.
“Easy” drops on February 29.
“I don’t know why I put that one on the backburner, because I really do love that song,” she said.
If “Easy” is not, from a listening perspective, a perfect song, a song anyone can love, it will do until one comes along.
The first slow, resounding piano notes grab the emotions and hold them in place for Lisa’s voice, soft and sultry. Up and down the scale, it’s a voice that carries an electric charge.
We don't always have to be
Tied up in a bow,
I want it strange and messy,
Like mud between my toes
“My producer and I, we finally just did it,” she said. “And I am so happy about it, and I’m really, really happy and proud of how it came out.”
The music, lyrics and Lisa’s vocals create a poetic meditation on love that is at the same time uplifting and heartbreaking. You would never guess its inspiration.
“When I wrote it,” she said, “I was actually in a relationship that felt like I was slamming my head against a wall. Nothing against him at all, but we were always in fights over everything. We had to work on our relationship all the time, and I was just wanting it to be easy.”
This was during a vacation in a cabin, booked before quarantine but happening as everything shut down.
“We ended up going but just staying in the whole time instead of going out and doing anything. There was a piano in the cabin, and I ended up writing the song while he was there. We got back, and we broke up a couple of weeks later.”
“Easy” could have been just another love-gone-wrong song but isn’t. It is, instead, a reflection on the nature of love and, like any song, is open to the interpretation of the person listening to it. If it were to get a hundred million streams — and it should, at least — that would be a hundred million interpretations.
And I wanna be 80 years old,
Looking at my life saying damn,
That was easy
Magic lies between muddy toes and 80, and any attempt to describe or explain it would constitute desecration. “Easy” must be heard.
“The way I write songs, I like to be straightforward about my feelings and what’s going on in my brain. I write very much in the moment of what I’m feeling,” she said.
She began recording and putting out songs in 2021, when she dropped four. She put out one in 2022 and then zip in 2023.
“I was going through nothing crazy or profound, but I was just having kind of a difficult year, mentally, I guess.” A job, the vicissitudes of life, a loss of focus — all joined to create, she says, “a lack of motivation.”
“So, I wasn’t doing anything to forward my music career at all, which I regret but, you know, I had to take that year to figure out myself and what I wanted out of life. It made me realize, this year, that I don’t want to do that again. I don’t want to take another year without focusing on what makes me happy.”
She has been active in music for several years. She has a band that has played a lot but has no name except that the members joke about being Lisa and the Stirlings.
“And it’s kind of stuck,” she said.
The songs she has already put out are fine examples of pop music: “Crush,” “For the Weekend,” “See You in Hell,” “Cool Girl” and “In the Dark.”
But she feels like she has matured in the intervening years.
“I think part of it is aging and maturing as a person. I also feel like my voice became a lot more self realized, starting with ‘Cool Girl,’ then ‘In the Dark’ and now ‘Easy.’ I love all the other music I’ve released, but I feel like those three songs really represent me as an artist.”
She has worked for a long time with producer Javier Cruces. She says that their work together has matured as well.
“The more we work together, the more I feel like we understand each other and can create music as a pair versus just him doing a job for me. We have really started to understand each other in the creative process.”
That, she said, is also a factor in how “Easy,” a song she wrote three years ago, came out of production this year. She gives a lot of credit to Javier and the pianist, Gonzalo Martin.
“I play piano, but just as a tool to write chords. I knew for this one I really needed somebody to bring it to life. He’s an amazing pianist, and he took the vision and ran with it.”
Next up is a song called “Trance,” which is being recorded by Lisa and the Stirlings. They also played on “In the Dark” and “Cool Girl.” More singles will come after “Trance,” she says.
Maybe, “if there’s demand for an EP, then I’ll definitely work on an EP.”
“With every single song,” she said, “I feel like I’m growing more into an artist.”
That would be growth worth listening. Connect to Lisa Stirling on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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