8 Things You Should Know About Aria Lisslo

At just 20 years old, Aria Lisslo is already making a name for herself in New York City’s indie music scene.

A native New Yorker who was born in Chelsea, raised in the LES, and currently resides in Brooklyn, Lisslo creates a unique brand of alt-pop with underlying soul influences that’s garnered high praise from critics, and fervent support from an ever-growing fan base.

With Lisslo owning a combination of a youthful spirit, and an old soul, her songs have the ability to cross generations, as evidenced by a show at Bowery Electric earlier this year, where she won over listeners 10, and even 20 years her senior.

An artist clearly on the rise, here are eight things you should know about Aria Lisslo.

She originally dreamed of being a producer, and currently writes, records, produces, mixes, and masters her music

When it comes to music, it’s become a family tradition for Lisslo. That family connection is also why production was her first love.

“My dad’s a record producer,” she explains, “so I grew up around it. I was like that’s sick. What you do is cool. I want to do that.”

She remembers, “I would have daydreams riding the train with my dad to elementary school being like – I produced this song. Oh yeah, this song, I produced it, that’s me.”

At the age of 13 she started working on making that dream come true, learning Ableton, before moving to Pro Tools, and ultimately Logic, which is what she uses now.

She admits the learning process wasn’t easy, saying, “Before I got to where I am today, (I had) like 80 tracks that probably didn’t make it past the conception period.”

When she reached 16 she started mixing, and after deciding she was going to be releasing her own music, she taught herself mastering.

Her formative years were spent listening to an eclectic mix of genres, and eras

Lisslo has quite the wide range of inspirations, having grown up on everything from ‘70s soul, like The Isley Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone, and Dionne Warwick, to ‘90s jazz infused east coast hip-hop, like Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest, and Leaders of the New School. Like most kids, she had Top 40 radio in her ear, as well.

Unlike most kids, however, she also had a first generation iPod with a 5,000 song playlist curated by her father that included everything from TRL era pop, to ‘90s hip-hop and R&B. The iPod made its way from him, to both of Lisslo’s older sisters, and then eventually to her, which is why she jokes, “I have hand me down music taste.”

With all those genres present in her life, she says ‘70s soul remains the most influential on her.

She’s been studying the arts, and going to concerts, since middle school 

Living in New York City, Lisslo was able to attend both an arts high school, and before that an arts middle school. So while in addition to traditional classes, she says that as a middle schooler, “I studied digital art, so I learned Photoshop. That’s how I make all my artwork, because literally I got to learn for thee years while in middle school.”

It was also during middle school that Lisslo started attending concerts in the city. “I used to go to shows by myself all the time,” she remembers, “That was a big thing I did, to the point that I think my parents were a little concerned about me going to all these shows alone, because I think they thought I had no friends. I just would go out on a Wednesday night in middle school and go to a show.”

Her parents, while concerned, couldn’t object too much, as Lisslo notes, “My dad camped out on the street for KISS when he was like 12.”

She continued her arts education at LaGuardia High School, and while the music education she received there wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, she says it has helped her in her career. “I got a classical education, not that I make any music that is at all influenced by classical music, but I think it just helped me understand the language of music a lot better, and it helped me understand what music I didn’t want to make.”

When she was six years old she had a cover band 

Lisslo starting picking up instruments at a very young age, and at the ripe old age of six she had a rock n roll cover band. The band played covers of Joan Jett, Paramore, and The Pretty Reckless, among others, although Lisslo says, “There’s no evidence of this besides a few photos. There’s no evidence of the band covering anything, but I remember the band very vividly because it was one of my first times picking up an instrument, I played guitar and sang, but if you want to guess how it sounded, I didn’t know how to play guitar, so it was probably a lot of open string playing. I think that’s where my love of Fender Telecasters came from, though, because we played with a Fender Telecaster.”

The first instrument she officially learned was the cello. She remembers, “The first song I learned to play was ‘Smooth Criminal’ by Michael Jackson. I will say, I probably did not do it justice on my rendition. I was seven.”



Today her primary instrument is the guitar, but she says, “I can get by on bass, (and) piano,” adding, “I’m a good mimicker. If you give me an instrument, and tell me what to play, I can play it very quickly, but I probably couldn’t shred.”

She launched her career during the pandemic 

For many artists, the pandemic was when they put everything on pause, but for Lisslo, it’s when she pressed play.

“I actually think it was a beautiful thing to make music during the pandemic,” she says, “there was no pressure, you just put stuff out. I was just home. There was nothing but school, because I was still in high school, and making music.”

She continued, adding, “I improved my skills a lot. I’ve been producing since I was 13, but I got much much much better in that short time period, and my mixing skills improved. I just got the chance to improve on myself, which was awesome.”

She’s enjoying proving her dad wrong 

Lisslo credits her parents as being extremely supportive of her career, including giving her truly helpful constructive criticism when asked, but there was one bit of music industry 101 from her dad that she’ll probably be reminding him of for quite some time.

Her father, with the best intentions, reminded Lisslo that just because an artist puts something out doesn’t mean anyone is going to care. At the time, both her parents supported her love of music, but weren’t entirely sure if she was serious about it, and had concerns when she opted not to go to college. Lisslo then went full covert ops with her music, at least in her household – “I just put it out without telling them.”

In 2020 she released her first song, “Won’t U Be…,” which she wrote in the back of her guitar class at LaGuardia. Despite having no promotion, it made waves, big waves, getting picked up by MTV. “I just got to prove him wrong right off the bat, which was really awesome.”

It turned out lots of people cared about Lisslo’s music, and the momentum carried over to her next two singles.

“My second release got this big Zane Lowe shout out, and then the third one got a big Zane Lowe shout out, so it was nice to sort of keep proving him wrong.”

Her latest single is the recently released “Dating Myself,” which Lisslo co-wrote with Dallas Caton, and Alexandra Veltri. The title is a double entendre, with “Dating Myself” meaning both being single, and showing one’s age.

“We were talking, and I said, ‘Oh, I’m dating myself here, but I listen to a lot of ‘70s songs …’ I’ll give Alex credit for this, she went – that’s an insane title, ‘Dating Myself.’ You don’t even see how cool this is. That’s a dope title, we have to use that. Then we made the song about it. I take minimal credit for how the conception came (about), but sometimes it’s cosmic, and kismet. That’s the vibe.”

Full-length albums, and a band, are in her future 

While Lisslo has, up to now, released a string of singles, she says she definitely sees herself recording a full-length album at some point.

“I don’t think I can say everything I want to say in just singles,” she explains, “I’m a big fan of album artists, so that’s where I want to get to eventually.”

She would also love to put together a band when the time is right.

“All of the people I idolize from the ‘70s all perform in these band configurations. I think right now, the place I’m at, in these smaller clubs I try to do a much more stripped down version of my set, but I definitely think once I get to bigger rooms I want a band. I also just think nothing beats live music, when you can all get in a pocket, and in a groove.”

The support she receives from listeners is something she truly appreciates 

Superfan is a term usually reserved for a select group of fans of an artist, but if you peruse social media you’ll find all of Aria Lisslo’s fans are superfans.

“I don’t know if there’s anyone with a nicer group of supporters than me,” she gushes, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the fact that there’s people outside of my family and friends that care that I exist. That’s not a thing that I ever take for granted.”

When she released “Dating Myself” it the first new music she’d come out with in over a year, and she says, “The fact that people still cared was like, I think I’ve never cried more than release day of this song, not out of sadness, but just out of like – oh my God, people are amazing. Oh my God, people care.”

People care, and they connect with the music on a very personal level, as fans have sent her photos of tattoos they’ve had done of her lyrics. Those photos are now the wallpaper on her phone, and computer.

The tattoos, the social media reactions, and everything she sees on the internet continues to floor Lisslo, as she notes that as a child of the internet, “I grew up making fan pages of people, so to have people make fan pages of me is very full circle. It’s really mind blowing.”

 

For more Aria Lisslo, check out arialisslo.com, or withkoji.com/@arialisslo.