Lisa/Liza is the musical moniker for Portland-based Liza (pronounced Lisa) Victoria, whose intimate, Appalachian-esque folk gifts the listener with dream-like worlds of wisdom to escape into.

New album, Shelter of a Song, is a record of arresting honesty and stark beauty that will both grab you with its melodic majesty and hold all the comforts of a familiar friend on every listen thereafter.

Check out our full interview with Liza in issue 7 of our zine – available here.

Liza kindly spoke to Secret Meeting to give some insight into what has inspired her on her journey…

Three albums I love

Michael Hurley – Armchair Boogie

I think the first time I heard this album was listening to the song Sweedeedee, a friend of mine put it on in the car, we were on a short road trip together. I just kind of remember everything breaking down time wise in that moment and really feeling like someone had captured something very heart-breaking in a song that felt very honest and real, maybe too honest in a way. And I just remember it made me cry and I went home that night and started listening to every Michael Hurley song I could find to try to repeat that moment. And most of those songs still feel that way to me when I play this record, even though I’ve listened to it repeatedly and relentlessly haha. I’ve seen Michael Hurley play three times live , and it’s always very special.

Sibylle Baier – Colour Green

I really like how quiet this record is and how much attention it gives to Sibylle’s voice, I think it’s really profound and beautiful, and also simple. I don’t think there’s a song on this album I don’t love and I like how you feel like you know the singer once you listen to it, even though that’s just a fantasy, it also proves to me there’s a lot of intimacy and truth in her writing, and that’s incredible. The story, too of how the album went sort of dormant for a while, is itself a  beautiful thing, to have something finally be recognized for its beauty after such a long time in waiting, that alone is kind of chilling, in a good way.

Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

A dear friend gave me this album on cassette in a very random way that I didn’t expect and I would listen to it every night for a while on this 2 dollar stereo I bought. I remember it being a ‘cosmic’ feeling album, and it will always remind me of that friend sort of introducing me to that part of myself.  In the last few years I spent time on a road trip listening to it again in depth- and that was very special too, it was my first time driving across Montana and basically a bunch of states I’ve never seen, and it just kind of drove home to me the beauty of that record. It feels really existential in an almost accidental way, and it’s a special record to me.

One film I love

Jeff, Who Lives At Home

I recently watched this and I really still like it. It’s about this grown man who lives at home and he’s sort of painted in a way as some kind of loser, but you find out through the movie that , that isn’t it at all. And it’s relatable I think to anyone who feels like they are behind or stuck in some way, and it’s existential too, but in a very humble way. I think it’s a pretty great little movie that’s underrated.

A book I love

Maggie Nelson – Bluets

I read this a few years ago. I don’t remember a ton about it but I remember that it was good. The author writes about their relationship to the color blue and has a very stream of consciousness kind of dialogue with the reader, and I remember it talked about grief too in a way that felt important.  It was pretty cool in my memory and really stood out as interesting and easy to read. I liked how it left me thinking a lot about the color blue and realizing how present it is in the world, unsure if that was an intended effect but it was interesting.

One song that’s important

Advance Base – True Love Death Dream

This song reminds me of a tour I went on a few years ago. It was December and we were a crew of three bands on the same label, which was comical and also beautiful, because we would arrive in strange places but always be familiar with who was around us. It was a really hard and difficult time for me. Every night, Advance Base would play this song and I would cry. The thing that was nice is that the song is so good, and his performance is so pro,  that I always knew other folks were crying also and that made me feel a lot less alone to be crying. It was nice because it was always this time of the night, that I knew it was appropriate to release a little bit of  what I was holding back.  Now it reminds me of that tour and being surrounded by friends who cared a lot about me, and that’s always going to be very meaningful to me.