Lissie moved to a farm and her music became perfectly pop

The singer-songwriter is back with her fourth studio album

‘I wanted to be closer to family, I missed the seasons and I wanted to own a home and be connected to the land’

Sometimes being in the centre of the music industry machine for too long can trigger a need for change in an artist. For singer-songwriter Lissie, who had always been travelling around, it was time for her to settle down.

At 35, she found herself moving back to her native Midwest where she grew up. She opted to live and work on a farm in Iowa, which ended up resulting in her finding her roots. After some deep introspection, Lissie found herself in a permanent place, and thus emerged her forthcoming record.

She explores her pop ethos further than she has in the past, experimenting with electronics and synths like never before, which is ironic since she moved to somewhere with a much slower pace.

In Iowa she became grounded again, but landed on perhaps the most progressive music of her career. The Independent caught up with the artist about her latest single “Best Days”, moving across the country and perfecting her own pop sound.

Tell us the story behind “Best Days”.

I actually started writing “Best Days” back in 2015 when I was working on My Wild West [her last album], but could never quite finish it. Then, in 2016, I brought it to my songwriting friends Ian and Daniel in Nashville and finished it.

Simply put, I was reflecting on what we strive towards as “adults” and then perhaps upon getting those things, just trying to maintain and stay safe. And for myself, [there’s] this almost aggressive hopefulness that my future is bright: trying to find some peace with the surprises that life throws us and how I and we have no idea what incredible adventures await.

As I’ve lived with the song, other layers have surfaced for me. One is all the possible versions of reality that exist in parallel layers simultaneously and all the possible future versions of myself there could be, and the idea that maybe when we look back on the “good old days”, in our present we are living in the “good old days”. But on the surface [the song] is about having hope for the future. I also like how universal this song feels for me: it’s about my own life, but think it applies to anyone at any stage of their life.

How did you change your approach to songwriting/recording on Castles?

I went into the making of Castles very loosely and found myself really inspired working in a portable computer-based setting. The limitations of my home studio were actually a blessing. I was able to write a lot of the melodies on synths and beats, and added the organic elements afterwards. It was freeing to not be stuck behind my guitar the whole time. As I went on to work with other writers and producers on this record, I liked starting with a synth chord progression and working from there.

Why did you move back to the Midwest?

I grew up in Rock Island, Illinois. just across the Mississippi river from Iowa. I had always loved and romanticized Iowa farmland and life. In the back of my head, I always knew I would buy a farm in Iowa someday. After moving west and spending my twenties in California, I just felt ready to head back to the midwest in my early thirties. I wanted to be closer to family, I missed the seasons and I wanted to own a home and be connected to the land. My gut knew it was time to make that move. I also knew that in this day and age I could really live anywhere and travel to record and tour.

How did the move affect your music?

I’m not sure. Life in the country affords me a lot of solitude, and my time gardening or fixing up my house or doing other creative non-musical things feeds my expression in ways I can’t quite pinpoint but I know are there. I mentioned before how I started working more digitally out of necessity and also remotely because of distance. Ironically, moving to the country made me embrace technology in music in a whole new way and therefore opened up a sort of ease in making music.

What did you listen to in making this record?

It might be an obnoxious thing to be like “I don’t really listen to a lot of music”, but I don’t. The things that I was into while I was working on writing and recording this album were whittling, watercolours, gardening and watching the American version of The Office over and over again.

Is this the most pop record you’ve ever made?

Again, I’m not sure. I think I’ve always written pop songs in structure, hook and straightforward language. So it depends on how you define pop. I think that this album, overall, is surprisingly sparsely produced yet uses elements of synths and beats.

‘Castles’ is out on 23 March