Liza Colby has trusted her gut since she was 19, when she moved to New York City — like countless other dreamers — to pursue music.
So she had a solid idea about the debut album The Liza Colby Sound, a rock quartet that has been together for a decade, was about to drop earlier this year.
“Just to make sure I felt really good about it, I dropped a bunch of LSD and (“Object to Impossible Destination”) passed my acid test,” says Colby.
The kind of straightforwardness it takes to reveal dropping acid on an interview is the same kind of approach Colby and her band — which has drawn comparisons to Iggy Pop, Led Zeppelin and Tina Turner among others — take with their performances.
ED Magazine spoke with Colby about the band’s indomitable sound, how the band is accepted in various pockets around the world, and the band’s single “Eye On You.”
ED: I’ve read a lot of names and sounds used to describe The Liza Colby Sound (Led Zeppelin, Jack Bruce, Iggy Pop, Tina Turner, etc.), but I’m curious how you would describe your sound?
COLBY: I really feel like saying Tina Turner and Iggy Pop are really good. It feels like we’re a classic power trio with vocals. We’re a four-piece band, stripped-down rock and roll. We’ve always been that way and I just love it. I think there’s something so powerful about being a four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band. There’s no bullshit. Everyone does their fucking job onstage and we’re a fucking machine that plows over an audience in the best way.
Huge influences for me were Tina and Iggy. I kind of say it’s like them fronting Humble Pie (1969 English rock band). I love Steve Marriott, he’s my fucking favorite. Just the toughest vocals. Tina is a huge influence — all these bands are — when you see their performance, there is a spectacle. You go to these shows and you’re like ‘Jesus Christ, this is unbelievable.’ I want people to come to the show and be like ‘I don’t know if I want to fight or if I want to fuck.’
ED: Liza’s husband introduced Liza to her bandmates, you guys got in a room and jammed. What did that first encounter look like? Is he (Liza’s husband) involved at all in the day-to-day goings of the band?
COLBY: My husband and I are super close, he’s also an artist. We like to talk down all of our artistic endeavors. The first day, at the time I told a friend I need help throwing together a band. We went in and played ‘Bad Love,’ it was very soulful. When they played it, it felt way tougher. The funny thing about the whole situation, we’ve been together 10 years but it all happened really fast. My husband is a huge, huge music fan. He’s a good barometer. If he’s like ‘Liza, I don’t know…’ he’ll tell me.
“I want people to come to the show and be like ‘I don’t know if I want to fight or if I want to fuck.’” — Liza Colby
ED: NYC has a “kick-you-in-the-face kind of grittiness” according to Liza … what was the biggest moment of doubt for the band starting out?
COLBY: I don’t know if there was a moment of doubt with our band. I’d get really frustrated early on that we just weren’t playing enough. That was a pretty easy problem to fix. Being a musician, an artist, it’s a rollercoaster of emotions. Some days are great and you feel like you’re doing everything you can possibly do in your power and you believe in your decisions and it’s awesome; other days, everything feels insane. I dropped out of college, moved to New York City when I was 19, I’ve been with this band for a long time. At this point, it’s a war of attrition. You happen to be talking to me on a great day.
ED: How would you compare audiences at your shows across different geographic regions — American to European to Asian? (Example: Does Sweden go nuts for “Eye On You” while French crowds dig “Shake You”?)
COLBY: I can’t really specify countries. I will say this, the United States has done a pretty fucking good job in breaking down the infrastructure that supports the arts and because of that, you have smaller bands, and mid-range bands and bands like my size where it’s really fucking tough to tour and make fucking money and get guarantees and have accommodations. The places we play in the states where we have great crowds — New York City, LA, Philly — it’s unbelievable, everybody loves us. The problem is when you get into middle America or some random town, people don’t know you so they’re not coming out.
In Europe, they really love the arts and they roll deep and they come out. The venues, they’re putting you up in a hotel, giving you dinner. They make it — not that any of this is easy, but they make it easier. That’s the huge difference.
ED: For those who haven’t attended, what can people expect at a Liza Colby Sound show?
COLBY: It’s a super high energy show. We like to take you on a ride, through every emotion — anger, sadness, love, heartbreak. I always try to project as much love and good energy into the audience for women especially to feel really secure in their own skin. It’s psychedelic.
ED: What do you think played into the timing to release a full-length album now, 10 years into the band’s existence?
COLBY: Honestly, it just ended up that way. I’m a big fan of a project, so those EPs are just the songs I felt were the strongest to go together at the time. This time it was an album’s worth of material. That felt amazing. We already have new shit for the next record. I have a record player at home, I love listening to records the full way through, I love the experience. I like an unadulterated experience of listening down. That was part of when we were doing the full-length, what that was going to be like. Just to make sure I felt really good about it, I dropped a bunch of LSD and it passed my acid test.
ED: StripJoints services DJs at gentlemen’s clubs nationwide, so in your own words, why would “Eye on You” be a good choice to play at a gentlemen’s club?
COLBY: It is so fucking tough. I love strip clubs. I think they’re awesome. I love watching the women. It’s so fucking dope, talking physicality and athleticism. You add on the sexuality, it’s amazing. “Eye on You” that’s what the song is about. It’s about a woman that is insanely secure with her sexuality that lands a guy and she’s going to make him hers and take control in the bedroom. The verses have this heavy, sexy, push-and-pull feel to it which honestly would be perfect for these women to dance to … And if they do, I would die.
