Lisa Easter admits she is on the fast track. She is a 20-year-old Catawba College senior, majoring in music business, and she has already released her first full-length album, "Welcome to My World," and spent a summer working on Warped Tour.
She says she wants to finish her degree early so she can be about the business of getting into the music business. "I came to Catawba with the mind-set that I wanted to graduate early because I'm 20 years old and because in the music industry, they push to have young people in the industry. I want to start working and the younger you are when you get into the industry, the deeper you can delve into it."
In addition to her album released in June, Lisa began her descent into the music business over the summer when she ended up traveling across the country on Warped Tour as the so called "merch girl" for the band, Attack Attack! She worked selling the band's merchandise at various tour stops in exchange for room (most nights a berth on the band's tour bus) and board, and tips, but mostly she says she worked to make contacts that will serve her in the future.
"When I was on Warped Tour, I felt so in control as a merch girl and so in charge," she remembers. "I met a lot of tour managers and I loved the touring side of the music industry – going to a different city every single day. It was cool. I would go to bed and I would wake up and be in a completely different city. I loved meeting the people and the audiences in the different cities had something completely different to offer.
"I made a lot of friends on the Warped Tour who were really impressed with my work ethic and the fact that I conquered the toughest tour in the music industry as a girl. I keep in touch with them and they're trying to help me since they know I'm graduating in May. They're trying to get me on the Warped Tour again."
;;;;Sample Tracks from Welcome to My World by Lisa Easter '11 ; ;
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Being on the Warped Tour gave Lisa both work experience and a reality check, she says. "I've always known I wanted to be a singer, but I always knew I wanted to go to college and get that degree. If I could pick my job in the music industry, I would want to be a performer. I love being on stage in front of thousands of people. I want that feeling of success when an audience can sing your lyrics and you can just hold out the microphone to them and they sing the whole song – every word. But on Warped Tour, I definitely noticed that it's really hard to get into the music industry as a performer with your band."
Creating her album gave Lisa the opportunity to be the performer she has always wanted to be. She worked with producers Jimm Mosher and Alan Grossman in Spencer to make the album a reality. She worked with her fellow students Jessica Drake and Justin Kamm to write the lyrics and the music for the cuts on the album.
She describes her style as pop rock alternative and says she would compare it to that of bands like Paramore, The Maine or Hey Monday. Her style evolved from sources like the Disney Sing-Along tapes she listened to as a child to her dad's love of Kiss and Queen. In between those diverse music styles, she listened to Janet Jackson, Etta James, Tony Braxton, Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald and Billy Holiday.
One of the cuts on the album, "Makeup," Lisa says, was inspired by "all of the girls from high school and some girls in college who wear lots of makeup in order to hide behind it and conceal what is actually there."
The cut on her album, "Make This Last," is about the relationship she had with her ex-boyfriend. It uses as a bridge the line: "You're the push and the pull that keeps us apart."
Lisa's album is available via the lisaeaster.bigcartel.com website and through iTunes. Although she has not yet landed a spot on this summer's upcoming Warped Tour, she's working toward that, knowing she will have her undergraduate degree in hand in May.
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Welcome to My Photo Shoot (Catawba Story)
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"Welcome to My World" Album Samples
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