We first discovered Lisa Jo through Whispers — an album that immediately caught our attention with its raw emotion and haunting atmosphere.
Today, Lisa Jo answers 10 questions for us, giving you the chance to get to know the artist behind the music a little better — her inspirations, her journey, and the emotions that shape her work.
“Whispers” feels like a night confession, a conversation. What emotions were living in the room while you were creating it?
Each song is tied to an event in my life and carries a different emotion on a different level… I will mention a few…
Whisper Words of Sorrow…. Disappointment, regret, a bit of anger that my father never saw who I really am. He saw who he thought I was without ever really knowing me — and yes, he lived in my home growing up… for the most part until I was 11 or 12.
Whispers of Silence… suffocating heavy weight, overwhelming, unimaginable, inhuman amounts of pain. There was a basketball of physical pain in my chest and a tennis ball of pain in my throat through the entire writing, recording, and production process that lingered for weeks following its completion. Truly the need to know if God did see me and my suffering being stacked upon me in repeated unbearable layers… death after death, violence, drugs and overdoses all around me, loss after loss, struggle after struggle, broken trust after broken trust, lie after lie, infidelity after infidelity, fear… hunger… insecurity… illness… abandonment, homelessness, hungry children… traumatic abuses and experiences all through childhood… unable to breathe and no longer wanting to. Living was literally torturing my heart, mind, and soul, but being unable to take my life because the lives of my elderly mother, blind sister, epileptic sister, and young granddaughter were 100% dependent on me for their every need.
Fading Whispers… I forced myself to be numb because it was written while and about my mother slowly dying in my home and in my arms, and if I allowed myself to feel, my mom would have seen my fear and pain and realized she was dying, which was her biggest fear. She was suffering enough. I did not let her know she was dying. I bore that pain and fear for her in silence behind my bedroom door so she would not have to… I paid for it after she passed, when the pain flooded me and took my breath away and brought me to my knees.
Whispers From Heaven… I wrote during the pain after she passed. I was also dealing with unbearable levels of guilt because I had never lied to her before, but I had been taking care of my mom my entire life. I didn’t know how not to… but it robbed me of being able to hug her and look her in the eye and tell her how much I love her and was dying with her at the thought of losing her… again… I sacrificed my needs for hers, and true to who I am, I live everyone else’s pain so they don’t have to.
Whispers of Worship… Singing Christian music has always been my strength when I am weak. It has carried me through things that would destroy others… so it is still painful, but soothing. It makes life just barely breathable again temporarily.
Your voice moves from softness to emotional explosions so naturally. Do you think singing became a way to say things you couldn’t express in everyday life?
Absolutely yes, and exactly. Growing up the youngest child, but the most gifted intellectually, in a home filled with addiction, violence, neglect, and abuse, I learned at a very young age to keep my mouth shut because any tiny innocent thing you say could trigger deadly events. This led to an entire half-century of never verbalizing how I felt about anything. It was only safe to say how I felt in songs, back then written by other singers so I could blame the song for the words… later on, writing my own…
If “Whisper Voices of Rebellion” was a movie scene, what would we see on screen during the first minute?
A long-time broken, beaten-down woman finally coming to a point where she looks herself in the mirror, watches her own tears finally stop, and within minutes sees and feels a transition within, taking her from fearful and frozen to fearless and kicking into action… then quickly, without another thought, packing a big backpack, standing tall, and without hesitation boldly walking out the door to leave her pathetic life and all the dominance behind. In a one-minute scene, she was changed forever and never feared or backed down from anyone or anything ever again.
Your music carries pain, but never without hope. Was there a moment where creating this album genuinely changed or healed something inside you?
Healing is an ongoing process that unfortunately is never completed. Pain is the price we pay for loving or caring… if it healed completely, it would mean you have reached a point where love and care no longer exist inside of you. Those I loved and lost, I will love forever. With that love will forever remain pain… same with betrayal, infidelity, etc. Just because it hurts doesn’t mean it comes with an off switch.
There’s sensuality and warmth in your production that almost feels physical. How important is texture and atmosphere when you build a song?
The ability to portray or convey sensuality and/or especially texture to a listener by voice alone, while not even present… that is true art, raw God-given talent, and it is a huge honor to learn that I have accomplished this.
Truth… when I write, produce, and sing a song, what I am essentially doing is my very best to paint such a vivid picture of my bared soul to the listener so as to make them feel and live my exact pain or emotion as if the experience I am referring to in that moment is one they barely survived themselves. So that when the song is over, they exhale in a big way and in shock and awe immediately wonder how I survived what I did that caused such a song to exist…
The goal… people need to be more aware of the depths of pain others may be carrying and try to be a bit kinder, more understanding, more patient, instead of being one more person adding to their pain. Sympathy exists… empathy is lacking in a huge way…
Your music feels fearless and honest. Was it difficult to be that emotionally exposed?
Yes, very. I spent a half-century never showing a soft or weak spot, never shedding a tear, never being vulnerable on the surface, and burying my story and my pain. I felt completely naked on the largest stage in the world. But it liberated me from the burden of secrets and shame that were never mine to carry… and I will never downplay how hard the process of self-exposure is.
It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and oddly, for myself and others who have done it, it has never been a selfish act but instead a very selfless act, done to help others, never to help self… self, at the time, wasn’t worthy enough for that kind of embarrassment… but others and their pain… worth every bit.
Which track on “Whispers” was the hardest to finish emotionally, and which one came to you almost instinctively?
It’s a tie between Whispers of Silence and Whispers From Heaven… both literally gut-wrenching to me… and Whispers of Worship flowed most instinctively without heavy emotional burden.
Your songs feel universal because they touch very human wounds. What kind of connection are you hoping listeners will leave with after hearing the album?
That they are not alone, that their pain is validated, and that expressing it is the only way to process it and come to terms with it and find a tolerable perspective to place it in so they can function and move on in a healthier way to some level or degree.
And lastly, that it really is okay not to be okay. We were not all handed the kind of lives that result in joyful, perky, upbeat personalities. Sometimes bearable has to be enough because sometimes that is the best it gets.
Just have an outlet for the pain… music, drawing, any hobby you love. I cannot say “have a good support system” — I have none, there is nobody left, they all passed away, and I am sure I am not the only one. So it’s best if you can find that support within yourself, your spirituality, nature, etc… they never leave you, they are steadfast.
If your younger self could secretly listen to “Whispers” today, what do you think she would feel first: pride, relief, disbelief, or something else entirely?
Hope… a glimpse of light in the darkness, relief that her pain would not be in vain, that it had a reason… that it was to become a lit path or map for others to find their way out from their hell.
After making such an intimate and healing project, what does silence mean to you now? Is it peaceful, uncomfortable, or necessary?
What I am about to say will only be completely understood by someone who has lived at least a portion of what I have…
The silence in my life is the loudest noise I have ever heard, and the noise around me is so silent it echoes in my soul. And both co-exist simultaneously while I am in complete solitude in a room full of people, and in a room full of people while sitting completely alone in solitude. The silence is deafening and the noise so intensely lonely.
As a final note, I feel the need to say that I have been reading press, blogs, articles, social media posts, comments, etc. about my Whispers album. Most describe it as intense, very honest, personal, emotional, my most intimate work… but they are wrong.
This album made reference to some things, exposed some pain, but did so in a vague, almost coded way. So… hang on tight because this week I am releasing my next album, titled: “Unfiltered & Unapologetic”…
This album doesn’t just make references. So much is told outright and unfiltered, and it is actually my most intense, intimate, raw, and real open truth ever written… in detail, not leaving much to the imagination.
Watch for it this week and be sure to listen and let me know what you think of Unfiltered & Unapologetic. Here is a sneak peek at the cover.
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