Artist: Louisa Stancioff
Hometown: I live in Warren, Maine and I am originally from Chesterville, Maine
Latest Album: When We Were Looking
Which artist has influenced you the most and how?
Regina Spektor keeps coming to mind. I listened to her albums Begin to Hope and Far incessantly when I was young, and I loved her voice, her intricate, thoughtful, creative melodies, her silliness paired with intensity, and her unpredictable song structures. Those albums were two of 10 or so CDs that I had, so I knew every word even when I couldnāt understand or quite grasp the things she was singing about. Itās hard to pinpoint who or what has influenced me, but she definitely opened up a new sonic landscape for me that Iām always still so entertained by whenever one of her songs comes on.
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
I was once playing a house show in Paonia, Colorado in someoneās backyard with my old band, Dyado. It was a warm, beautiful night and we were singing this song we had written together that mentioned the wind whipping at the trees and right then there was a very strong gust that whipped the leaves of this huge willow tree and made such a loud whooshing sound. It all felt pretty magical with the perfect timing and everyone was laughing and cheering.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
It wasn’t until COVID lockdown times. I’d been playing music my whole life and touring around the country here and there for a few years, but never felt any sort of commitment to it career-wise. Once it was no longer an option to perform and collaborate with people, that’s when I realized how bad I wanted it. I decided I had to truly attempt to build a solid music career or I might regret it for the rest of my life.
What has been the best advice youāve received in your career so far?
The folks from the band Darlingside gave us some really nice advice a couple years ago when we were on tour with them. It’s so easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to other peoples’ music careers, but if you take a step back and compare yourself to where you were a year before, it can help you realize how far you’ve come. Now whenever I am feeling down about my career or feel like it’s not moving fast enough, I think about where I was a year before, and it always reminds me how much I have grown.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I am a water person ā I love swimming in lakes and rivers and oceans, canoeing and being on the water in general. A lot of my songs mention water in some way or other, in fact I have an entire song about a canoe race. I was actually in a river canoe race last week and I almost died. I got rescued by a kind firefighter after our boat was completely swamped and swept away. Perhaps I’ll write a song about that, too.
Photo Credit: Matt Gaillet
