Louisa Stancioff Reflects on Debut LP: “I think it’s finding the people that it needs to…” (10/16 at MilkBoy AND 11/6 at JB’s)

“You can expect lots of harmonies, lots of silly stage banter, and lots of fun arrangements of sad songs,” says Maine-based indie folk singer/songwriter Louisa Stancioff of her first...

“You can expect lots of harmonies, lots of silly stage banter, and lots of fun arrangements of sad songs,” says Maine-based indie folk singer/songwriter Louisa Stancioff of her first of two upcoming appearances in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.  On October 16th Stancioff, Molly Parden, and Eliza Edens will be performing at MilkBoy as a trio, a follow-up to their February show at City Winery, although Stancioff confesses to being a much bigger fan of standing-room venues than “listening rooms,” even admitting to being a fan of the Center City barroom in particular, which she played last year with our phriend The Dead Tongues.  And November 6th Louisa will find herself handling opening duties for alternative country outfit Blitzen Trapper at Johnny Brenda’s, who she also opened a run for this summer, playing as a duo with her cousin, Matt Gaillet.

The last time I spoke with Louisa Stancioff was this February, prior to the April release of her debut LP, When We Were Looking, which dropped courtesy of Yep Roc, and just prior to that initial four-date run with Molly Parden and Eliza Edens, which Stancioff tells me, during a recent phone chat, came together a little haphazardly: “We didn’t really know how it’d go until the tour started…  We’d gotten together like once before, because we lived kind of far apart at the time, like I live in Maine, which is really far from everything [laughs].”  However, she says that, despite the lack of rehearsals, the three liked the idea of combining their shows, as opposed to each having to come up with individual half-hour sets: “I think all three of us were sick of doing shows like that.  I think none of us were feeling that, and this is the middle of Winter: it’s freezing, people wanna be in and out and in freakin’ bed!”

While Louisa admitted during our last chat that she didn’t know Molly and Eliza super well at the time, she confessed to being a longtime fan of each.  During our recent chat she tells me that playing alongside them was quite inspiring, and also took the pressure off in some ways: “I was really excited about singing with such amazing voices…  Playing each other’s songs every night was such a thrill.  And we can share the stage banter, go off of each other and be really silly, because they’ve both led bands, and having to be the leader all the time, I get really frustrated and bored [laughs].”  When I ask if the three of them have established roles within the group, Louisa laughs, telling me, “It was literally just four nights,” but does go on to say that they each definitely bring their own thing to the table.

“Molly does all the advance stuff, like the booking…  I have the most places to stay, like I know a lot of people, tons of friends who will always host us, and we use my van…  Eliza holds it down.  She’s a really good guitar player, and me and Molly are really scared to play lead [laughs].  And she’s low-key and down for everything, while Molly’s a little more Type A, like, ‘We need a plan!’”

I ask Louisa about any reactions that When We Were Looking got around its April release that stood out, and she tells me that there was one review she especially appreciated: “No Depression wrote a really sweet review of the album, and I did a video session with them before the album came out…  That warmed my little heart.”  But she also happened to get an email just prior to our phoner that seemed to mean a lot to her: “I just had a not-super-close friend from Asheville email me, telling me she hadn’t really listened to the album much, but now she has it on repeat and it’s helping her heal, which is so amazing…  This one felt particularly poignant, and I just got the email like half an hour ago!”  She says the most meaningful thing to her is feeling like she can make an impact on someone’s life in a positive way, and when they’re moved enough to reach out, that makes it hit even harder: “I’ve done that with other people!  And I don’t do it very often, but I’ve had times where I had to tell the person how much something meant to me.”

However, Stancioff also admits that just getting the album out was a bit of an emotional process, suggesting that reactions were kind of the last thing on her mind at the time: “When I first released the album, I felt pretty depressed… like it’s all out there… like, I just threw up all over the internet [laughs].”  But she also explains that that would just seem to be part of the process, and that it eventually works itself out: “I had the album recorded for quite a long time, and I originally wanted to release it Fall of like two years ago… I’d built up so much expectation…  But I’m fine now, I had a moment of recovery [laughs],” she tells me, going on to say, “It is affecting people…  I think it’s finding the people that it needs to in the right time.”

Last month Louisa Stancioff released “Heist,” a standalone single intended to, “keep the ball rolling,” after the album drop.  While When We Were Looking was produced by Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Langhorne Slim, The Steel Wheels) at the Great North Sound Society in Parsonsfield, Maine, “Heist” was recorded and produced by Benny Yurco and Michael Nau at Little Jamaica Studio in Burlington, Vermont, and had Stancioff exploring a different side of her sonic identity: “I write a lot of different kinds of songs…  For this one, I brought my band with me, whereas I didn’t have a band for the album.”

Accompanying the new single is a music video which transforms the song about a scheming woman attempting to achieve full autonomy amidst a patriarchal society into a literal tale of two ski-masked accomplices — armed with flower bouquets for guns — on a crime spree, when things get sticky as the protagonist betrays her partner…  (Watch above to find out what happens…)  The video was directed by Stancioff and her cousin, Matt Gaillet (the one who did the Blitzen Trapper tour), who does all of her music videos, but she tells me that this one came together in an unplanned fashion.

“Matt happened to be in town visiting, and I picked him up at the airport.  I was gonna shoot it on my phone, but he was like, ‘I have my camera!’  I had two buckets of flowers, I turned the flowers into guns, I’d ordered ski masks on Amazon, I just went into it with no plan and then just started filming.  The next day I went to work and then I edited it that night.  It was all just spur of the moment, flying by the seat of my pants.”

Just three weeks (to the day) after Louisa Stancioff’s 15-date trio tour with Molly Parden and Eliza Edens plays MilkBoy, Louisa will be back with Blitzen Trapper at Johnny Brenda’s on November 6th, the day after Election Day (Something we realize during our chat…)  After those dates wrap later that week, Stancioff tells me she has a few Christmas songs that she’s excited to drop… even though she admits that’s totally not her thing: “I am gonna potentially release some Christmas music…  There are two songs and they’re not lame, they’re very cool, and I hate Christmas music [laughs].”  Stancioff says she doesn’t exactly have any plans for after that, but there are a couple things that she’s hoping for: “Opening slots generally come up last minute, like one or two months in advance, and that’s really what I need to be focusing on, but I have a ton of new songs that I’m so excited about, and I don’t know who’s going to produce them, but I love the songs!”

*Get your tickets for 10/16 at MilkBoy here.

*Get your tickets for 11/6 at Johnny Brenda’s here.

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During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

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