Lissie Maurus (born 1982), known by her stage name Lissie, is an American folk rock artist. She released her debut EP, “Why You Runnin'”, in November 2009. Her debut album, Catching a Tiger, was released in June 2010.

Early life and career

Lissie was born and raised in Rock Island, Illinois. Her father is a physician and her mother is an interior designer. She was interested in singing and music from an early age. She played the title role of the musical Annie at the age of nine. “In high school it seems like everyone has more drama than any other time in their life. So that was the time in my life where I really leaned on music as a way to stay sane,” she said in an interview.

In her senior year of high school, she was expelled “over something stupid that [she] did, but it was sort of like the culmination of just a lot of negative things that had happened”. She got her degree at an alternative outreach center. She spent two years at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, during which time she would open for musicians who visited the city. She collaborated with DJ Harry of SCI Fidelity Records on a song, “All My Life”, which was featured on television shows House, The O.C., Veronica Mars and Wildfire. After spending a semester in Paris, she finished her studies to pursue a career in music. In 2007 she produced a four-song EP that received some airplay on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic.

In early 2008 Lenny Kravitz invited her to be the opening act for his Love Revolution Tour, after a friend tipped him about her MySpace page. Later that year, “The Longest Road”, a song she co-wrote with DJ Morgan Page reached #4 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs chart. “We met under that idea that he was going to remix a song of mine (…) But we decided to work on a new song together”, she told the Quad-City Times. The Deadmau5 remix of the track was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical” category.

Her debut EP, “Why You Runnin'”, produced by Bill Reynolds of Band of Horses, was released in November 2009 on Fat Possum. One of the songs, “Oh Mississippi” was co-written with Ed Harcourt, whom she met through a mutual friend. The EP was listed amongst Paste magazine’s “Eight Most Auspicious Musical Debuts of 2009”. In Early 2010 she toured various venues in the United Kingdom supporting Ohio-born singer-songwriter Joshua Radin.

Lissie signed with Sony Music UK’s Columbia Records. Her debut album, Catching a Tiger, was released on 21 June 2010. The album was recorded in Nashville in 2009 and produced by Jacquire King. The first single from the album, “In Sleep”, was selected as Track of The Day by Q on 13 March 2010. A second single, “When I’m Alone”, was released alongside the album.
[edit] Personal life

Lissie resides in Ojai, California. She wanted to live closer to Los Angeles, and found Ojai to be “close enough to L.A. without the craziness and congestion of L.A.” She is an avid fan of fantasy literature, citing His Dark Materials and the Harry Potter series as favorites. She has a Lhasa Apso named Byron.

Text von Wikipedia (Stand 07/2010)
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