about

lisahall original line-up (left to right): Nip Heeley, Lisa Hall, Paul Hopkinson, Steve Ludlam

"What's different about Lisa Hall?"

She's a band.

First uttered by a journalist around 1997 and still true today.

To explain how we got to this place, the history of the band, chronologically, began with Nip and Paul in The Actors; managed by Alistair Taylor (Brian Epstein's right-hand man throughout the Beatles' reign) and signed to a production deal with Tony Visconti (David Bowie etc.)
Steve, who'd worked with Nip in London, joined the band a little later.

Just after this, Lisa formed a band called Pride, playing local gigs, then booked a session at Paul's Foundry studio in Chesterfield to record some of her then boyfriend's songs.

Paul asked Nip to play drums and they were both immediately impressed by Lisa's beautiful, sweet voice.

Another session in the studio, without Lisa's boyfriend this time .. sneaky .. and Julianne (later to appear on the Connection 17 EP) was recorded.

Aware that something extra special was happening Steve made the move north to join us and a cassette (remember those?)
containing 5 new songs was given to Pete Darnborough at Red Tape in Sheffield (who became our manager). This was then passed on to Paul Hitchman and Jim Gottlieb in London (who became our managers), then was passed on to Sandy Roberton, head of World's End Producer Management in Los Angeles (who became our manager in the US).

Thinking four managers sufficient for anyone we stopped there.

At the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, Sandy passed the cassette on to David Kahne (Grammy Award winning record producer for, amongst many others, Paul McCartney, The Strokes, The Bangles etc.)
David was also head of A&R at Reprise Records so a deal was done and the songs that began their life in Chesterfield ended up being finished in LA's Sunset Sound and Scream studios and mastered in Hollywood.
The title track of our ensuing record Is This Real? was featured in the Nicole Kidman/Sandra Bullock film Practical Magic.

Some time passed and Paul, who had become disenamoured of electronica and all things MIDI, stepped back to concentrate on recording acoustic music at his studio. Working with the leading lights of the English Folk Music scene (Ashley Hutchings, Blair Dunlop etc) he has become deservedly highly respected. We wish him all the best.

Unable to resist returning to the scene of the crime, Lisa, Nip and Steve continued to write and record together with a pop sensibility, loops, keyboards and sequencers, electric and acoustic guitars and drums, plus a bit of darkness to balance the sweetness.

We're still committed to the pursuit of the perfect lyric, the perfect melody and the perfect chorus.

We love what we're doing and welcome you all.

It's good to be back.

Lisa, Nip and Steve 2022