Carving Canyons

Product Information

In addition to our lovely colored vinyl pressing of 'Carving Canyons,' the Bandbox exclusive also comes with a 16-page zine dedicated to Lissie, featuring pro-shot photographs from her performance at our popup, essays about her career, as well as an engaging and revealing interview with Lissie herself, where she talks about where she was creatively and personally when she wrote and recorded 'Carving Canyons,' as well as her candid track-by-track breakdown of each song on her new album. AH: Reading the bio, you had a quote in there that really got my attention – the album’s about grief, but also ‘addressing how things are always eventually going to change. It’s a credit to Lissie’s vocal skill that she can make the lines “Hope you feel sad, hope you feel bad / I hope you’re sad” effective.

Hearts on fire is rightfully one of the last songs: it can’t compete with the other tracks, both the music and the lyrics are forgettable. We make all this popcorn that’s based on pop music, and that’s been a really good project to do during COVID, since I couldn’t really play shows.The singer looks into herself once again and shares other very personal lyrics that she managed to mould into very relatable words: “unlock the chains of love” is one of the best messages that appear in the album. Unlock the chains is about accepting change: change in the world, in the state of things, within oneself.

L: I think, just like anything, muscle memory, a decade of kind of being on the go non-stop, you kinda get used to that lifestyle, and the plane rides, and the jetlag, and the days of adjustment to get into the swing of things when you go overseas, and you’re immediately hittin’ the ground runnin’. You just need to feel your feelings and know that, eventually, you’ll process them, and you’ll get to the other side.

It was kinda hard, but once I was able to sort of get the hang of it, I’m kind of grateful for having so much time to just be, and be in my home and be with my dog and to eventually be around more for my family and friends.

As I grieved – not only for a relationship, but for the world in the midst of a pandemic – I felt like my anger made people uncomfortable, but I came out the other side empowered and ready to step back into my light. And I know that – I’ve gone through some stuff that felt like I don’t know how I’m going to get through this, but everybody has. On “Flowers,” a song where Lissie gives herself permission to be hurt but to also heal, she sings, “I’m okay.

That album has so much substance, and it’ll really suck you in, and you just really want to keep listening. Having worked for many years with producer Curt Schneider – who also has credits with Patty Griffin, Jeff Beck, and Alanis Morissette among others – Lissie knew she could trust him to help her deliver this vision again. I didn’t have to make a big to-do, I was just in Nashville, and my producer [Curt Schneider] had come from LA to get some vocals. The music evolves in a climax as the song progresses, the more one listens to the song, the more they get the idea of slowly moving towards the light. Throughout it all, Lissie pushes her personal musical boundaries, whether it be through the funkiness of Chasing The Sun, the dreamy rock of Lonesome Wines, the wistful nostalgia of I Hate This, the pacey passion of Hearts On Fire, the empowerment of Yellow Roses, or the bombast of title track Carving Canyons.