In today’s crazy, ever changing pop music industry, it’s the savvy independent artists who know the score—that the road to the top of the Billboard charts begins with a massive global viral buzz. Lisa Lavie’s highly anticipated debut album Everything Or Nothing won’t be hitting the brick and mortars until early 2009, but the charismatic, Canadian born vocal powerhouse—whose inimitable style incorporates elements of pop and R&B, with a touch of jazz on the final track “Only Heaven Will Know”--is already a superstar to millions of fans around the world who have made her series of YouTube live in the studio performance videos one of the biggest internet sensations of 2008.
With over 10 million overall views and counting, Lisa’s raw stats are both staggering and inspiring. “Angel,” the soulful mid-tempo track that is her likely first official single, racked up 1.5 million views in its first three days and is currently close to four million. The title track “Everything Or Nothing” has over a million, “Save Your Breath” tops 700,000 and “Maple Leafs” is currently over 100,000. Beyond those originals that form the core of her debut collection, the Montreal-born and bred singer/songwriter has scored hundreds of thousands more hits for her videos of various pop cover songs.
Lisa, who is in constant touch with at least 20,000 of her fans, is also a mega-hit on myspace, where her page has been viewed over one million times and her tracks “Falling For You,” “Maple Leafs” and “Save Your Breath” have each been heard well over 200,000 times. All of this has translated to strong digital sales since the release of Everything Or Nothing on iTunes last May. Within two days, she reached #20 on the site’s pop chart and #70 on all of iTunes, selling just under 10,000 digital singles and 2,000 full albums. In 2006, long before the YouTube phenomenon and iTunes attention, she was featured on two popular film soundtracks: the Kevin Costner-Ashton Kutcher blockbuster The Guardian with her recording of “The Mockingbird” and the Jeff Bridges starrer Stick It with “If I Only Knew”—a song Lisa co-wrote with Ben Margulies which is a featured track on Everything Or Nothing. Lisa has appeared on Entertainment Tonight Canada and also on E-Talk Daily; she was also featured in the Hitmakers section of BMI Magazine in Spring 2007.
Lisa’s remarkable story could stop there and still be an inspiration to millions of talented artists trying to reach the masses. But behind the music there’s a cool fairy tale element that begins with the singer holed up in her room as a kid listening endlessly to Mariah Carey, fantasizing that someday maybe she’d get her chance. She began pursuing those dreams at 15, hooking up through her brother Danny—who was known throughout Montreal as DJ Devious--as a backing vocalist on tour with the popular French Canadian hip-hop group Dubmatique. For Lavie, this taste of the limelight was “amazing, because every night we played for thousands and thousands of people. I knew this was what was what I wanted to do full time. But I didn’t know what avenues to take to make it happen.”
Lisa began writing songs and recorded a demo with $5,000 that she saved from working as a cashier. This intense musical ambition also inspired her to become, at age 19, co-owner of Harmony Karaoke, Montreal’s then biggest karaoke company. A copy of that demo made its way into the hands of hit songwriter/producer Ben Margulies by way of a chance visit to a recording studio in Las Vegas. Margulies, who was instrumental in developing and writing the first hits songs with pop diva Mariah Carey, was also largely responsible for her signing a major recording and production deal with Sony Music. He was also credited with co-production of her self-titled debut album that sold over 13 million copies worldwide and launched one of the biggest careers in pop music history. Ben and Mariah co-wrote her first three #1 singles, “Vision Of Love,” “Love Takes Time” and “Someday.” Like history repeating itself, Ben heard Lisa’s demo and was impressed, to say the least, with her powerful and emotional yet smoky voice. He began reaching out to her, but at first she thought it was a joke.
“I ignored the phone calls,” she says. “Everyone knew I grew up listening to Mariah, and now someone’s calling me saying her producer/co-writer wants to work with me?” Ben was persistent and finally reached her on her cell phone one day while she was walking through a mall. This time, she believed him, and shortly after she sang “Guys Are All The Same”—the first song Lisa ever wrote—into the phone, she was on her way out to Santa Barbara, California to start writing and recording with him. Sensing an instant chemistry, Lisa and Ben quickly evolved beyond the “famous producer discovers his next ingénue” vibe and forged a fruitful and dynamic creative relationship.
Ben was most impressed with her development as a potentially great pop songwriter. Lisa wrote the lyrics and melodies for each of the 12 songs on Everything Or Nothing, earning sole credit on three.
She and Ben are co-writers on “Save Your Breath,” “You Walked Away,” “I Remember When,” “If I Only Knew,” “Find Me An Angel,” “Can’t Sleep At Night” and “Only Heaven Will Know.” After several years of development, writing and recording, Ben looked beyond the old-school business model and decided to start his own company Boundary Entertainment to launch Lisa’s career.
“I’ve never been a producer for hire and over the years, I’ve only chosen to write and produce with artists that I personally feel compelled to work with,” says Ben, who is the executive producer on Everything Or Nothing. “It literally took me 15 years to meet another singer that is as overwhelming to me as Mariah was when I first began working with her. Lisa has an undeniably brilliant tone and a vocal quality that is beyond my ability to quantify. Every video she put up is of her just singing live, from the heart, with that incredible built in sense of believability and credibility. But I know from past experience that there’s more to succeeding in pop music than just a transcendent voice. We knew we had to come out of the gate with an album full of great songs, which is why Everything Or Nothing took a couple years to get off the ground. I’m so proud of the way Lisa has grown as a writer. She’s become a virtual one woman factory and is very knowledgeable now about making records as well as singing on them.”
Lisa, who says that nearly every song was inspired by the range of emotions she has personally experienced in different romantic relationships, loves the freedom and space Ben has given her to further develop her writing talents. “I was really nervous when I first came to California, but he put me at ease and told me to just start singing anything that popped into my head,” she says. “I started singing ‘You Walked Away’ and it became the first song we ever wrote. With most of the songs, I wrote all the melodies and lyrics and he helped develop them musically and harmonically. He loved my initial idea for ‘Save Your Breath’ and he embellished on it. Throughout our studio sessions, he gave me my space, which allowed me the creative freedom to grow.”
With formal radio promotion and tour dates in the formative stages, the gears are currently in motion to translate Lisa’s YouTube stardom into a long term career as an artist, live performer and charismatic media personality. Her first major gig since releasing Everything Or Nothing online was performing for over 20,000 people as part of Santa Barbara’s Fourth of July celebration. In the meantime, Lisa touches base every day with hundreds of members of her “family” of fans from throughout the world. “One of my 13 year old fans from Florida flew across the country to see me sing at that show,” she says, “and I was struck by just how grateful I am to be touching so many people just by putting a few videos online. The response I’ve received is validation for choosing to follow my own path, making the music I want to make and build my career as a fully independent artist. When thousands of people hear you sing, and they start singing your songs right back to you, you know you've got something."
(read less)
