Old Lizzy Grant Interview

[TIARNZUS 4,590]

S. Where are you from?

LG. All over.

S. No, really.

LG. No really, all over. I’ve lived in Lake Placid, New York, Birmingham Alabama, Coney Island and New York.

S. Tell me about growing up? What was life like before coming to New York?

LG. Hmm. Growing up was just waiting to come to New York.

(Lizzy requested not to talk about her life before New York in any more than a general way. She did reveal she was bred and buttered in Lake Placid and sent to boarding school at 15 years old, never to return except to visit her mom, dad and little brother, who still live there.)

S. Okay, no questions about your life before New York. What’s your favorite color? Or do you prefer not to talk about it?

LG. I like blue. I like gold. (laughs)

S. You’re signed to Five Points records. How’d you get the record deal?

LG. I entered a song writing competition in Brooklyn, my first and almost only competition. And Van Wilson was a judge there.

S. Who’s Van Wilson?

LG. Van is the A & R guy for 5 Points Records. He was a judge on my night and he asked me to call him and so I called him right away.

S. What did you and Van talk about when you made that phone call?

LG. I was (pause). I felt desperate. I had a lot of questions. I didn’t know who to ask them to? I didn’t know what he did? I just knew he said he was in the music business and I didn’t ever know any one who said they were in the music ‘business’. So I thought, you know, when you find some one who’ll talk to you, you just ask them anything. So I asked him everything. I asked, do you think I can sing? Do you think I should sing? Do you think this is stupid, to want to be a singer and he said, for you no! Not for you. For most people I don’t think it’s a good life, but I think you can have an audience. I asked him, how do I do it? And he said you just play, just play and sing.

S. So you met the right guy and got the right phone number on the first shot.

LG. Yeah.

S. That’s pretty much the dream, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t know, but I hear there are a lot of creeps out there!? A lot of liars out there that might say they’re something they’re not…

LG. It’s true.

S. You only hear that in the movies.

LG. It’s true. I’m going to have to keep that moment in mind when things are hard.

S. Did you win the contest?

LG. I won my round. I didn’t win the whole thing. The song writing competition loved that for PR.

S. How do you characterize your music?

LG. Well, I say that it is in the genre ‘Surf Noir.’ One of the first producers I worked with, Steven Saint, learned a lot from Dick Dale (father of surf music, pre-Beach Boys) so the beginning of the sound was influenced by some sounds from Hawaii and surf guitars, so that’s where the surf comes from. And the noir comes from, I like old movies and I just listen to old music cause it’s good. Eh, it just sounds good!

S. What kind of music do you listen to? Who do you listen to?

LG. I like The Flamingos and I like Elvis. I feel like they are my contemporaries. They’re my friends. I like the Beach Boys.

S. Who’d you listen to today?

LG. I listened to Elvis and the Flamingos and myself. I like myself too. (laughs)

S. How many songs have you written?

LG. Oof, a hundred. A hundred good ones.

S. What would say to some one who wants to become a singer? I mean, your conditions are extraordinary.

LG. Yeah, yeah, it doesn’t usually work out like that. With that being said, I guess you gotta ask yourself are you good. Either you have to be some one who’s really good, or some one who can be better than any one else who’s around. Or if you think that music is something that you want to make a life at, well, you just do it! Just don’t stop.

S. Regrets?

LG. Probably. But all the cool people say they have no regrets.

S. What don’t you like about the music business?

LG. I’d like to feel like I knew what I was doing.

S. I hear you don’t have a manager right now? Can you talk about it?

LG. Yeah I can, I’m just not sure what to say. It would be fun to have some one who could snap his fingers and make things happen. Especially since we’ve had good magic with the project and it seems whenever some guy, some big wig gets involved then good things happen. I feel if I had a new manager I’d have some new projects going on. I got a little bored but I’m having fun making my own movies and writing.

S. Movies?

LG. I have little videos.

S. The youtube stuff. You make those?

LG. I do.

S. Tell me about one of your songs. Tell me about writing “Mermaid Motel.”

LG. I wrote “Mermaid Motel” because I was so happy. I was on such a roll. I wrote three smashing songs, in my opinion. I wrote “Queen of the Gas Station,” “Jump,” and “Put me in a Movie” in a week. And that’s how it happens. I have to wait so long, I never know how long, could be years (for inspiration), but I know exactly when I have a song, and it comes all at once. It doesn’t take long to write. It comes with the melody. It comes with the harmonies and I have to take as long as it takes that day, because then it does leave.

S. Anything else about your songs you want to talk about, anything that inspires you, or any story you want to tell about any of your songs?

LG. I don’t know, there are certain visuals that seem to keep coming up like things that are gold, Vegas or handsome guys or motorcycles.

S. You mean things that keep coming up in your songs? Is that where your head is at?

LG. I don’t know. It must be, ‘cause they reappear. …I don’t get tired of them (Laughs).

[ednafrau 831]

thanks for posting ♥ if i'm not mistaken, that's the time she was interviewed by michaeal mizrahi, who later became her boyfriend, right?

[TIARNZUS 4,590]

thanks for posting ♥ if i'm not mistaken, that's the time she was interviewed by michaeal mizrahi, who later became her boyfriend, right?

Yup!

[RileyThomas 349]

I loved this interview. Not about lips or hair, or backlash, just Lizzy.

[PrettyBaby 2,212]

S. Who’d you listen to today?

LG. I listened to Elvis and the Flamingos and myself. I like myself too. (laughs)

 

Love it! :haha:

[Tristesse 1,761]

S. Okay, no questions about your life before New York. What’s your favorite color? Or do you prefer not to talk about it?

LG. I like blue. (laughs)

S. Anything else about your songs you want to talk about, anything that inspires you, or any story you want to tell about any of your songs?

LG. I don’t know, there are certain visuals that seem to keep coming up like things that are gold, (...) handsome guys.

S. You mean things that keep coming up in your songs? Is that where your head is at?

LG. I don’t know. It must be, ‘cause they reappear. …I don’t get tired of them (Laughs).

 

It was cool to read after the MTWBT video. She is still the same after all these years.