Exclusive Interview with 'CONNIE LANSBERG'

Connie Lansberg is a singer-songwriter who performs with talented jazz musicians. She is known for the originality and variety of her works, as well as her inherent storytelling talent and capacity to captivate an audience. Her band’s chemistry is something else that gives her performances an allure. Over the course of countless performances, Connie and her longtime musical partner Mark Fitzgibbon (piano) have honed their working style. The close relationship between these various artists makes Connie’s music seem even more intimate and moving.

Connie Lansberg’s first original album, Deep Dark Down & Blue, is warm and uplifting with themes of secrets, heartbreak, dreams, and the excitement of the unknown. These songs, in keeping with her style, are entirely about the narratives and characters they present. Connie’s intelligent vocals and moving lyrics capture the ugliness of loss as well as the transformation of fresh starts. The music was masterfully produced by Connie and co-arranged for jazz quartet by Mark Fitzgibbon. Connie’s love of literature—she is also a published author—and her musical roots in classical church music, country, and folk are both evident in the music. Check out the album and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

CONNIE LANSBERG: I was born in Los Angeles, went to school in London where I started writing songs, and then ended up in Australia when my Irish boyfriend asked me to go with him to join his family who had immigrated. I dumped the boy and fell in love with a jazz drummer who got me started singing jazz and then my songwriting developed through that immense musical freedom and depth of harmonization. I discovered when I wasn’t confined to the pop genre, my lyric writing became more literary, which makes sense because I also write books.

2. Did you guys have any formal training or are you self-taught?

CONNIE LANSBERG: The guys I play with all had private teachers from a young age. Ben Hanlon is also a classical double bass player and he studied at a very prestigious American School, but none of us went to school for jazz. You listen to the greats, you play and you grow. You get help from teachers when you want to make a breakthrough or go to the next level, but it really is a practice that you can do on your own. Just getting in a band and playing for people teaches you so much. My partner and I are driven to keep improving and with jazz, there is no ceiling.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘CONNIE LANSBERG’?

CONNIE LANSBERG: I think classical music and wonderful books were my biggest influencers. I love story and melody, so the great songwriters, as opposed to performers, were what got me going- the brilliance of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rogers, and Johnny Mercer, to name just a very few. Their way with words and incredible melodies is what I go for but in a modern sense. I write fantasy books and that kind of storytelling slips easily into song format. As for using my own name, Jazz artists, whether vocal or instrumental, usually just use their names. I write the songs, I produce the albums, I run the band and I use different players so using my name makes sense.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

CONNIE LANSBERG: The first two original albums I would describe as lush, whimsical layered, and deep. The players I use are terrifically talented. Especially Mark Fitzgibbon, who has played on every single song, is a true master of melody, re-harmonization, and technique. He and I together have created a sound without artifice or nod to what came before. Both of us hold authenticity as the only way forward and we work with what the song is instead of trying to turn it into something groovy or hip or popular. We firmly believe these songs are what they are supposed to be. I know people are surprised at how easy they are for people to sing along with. I have twenty-five tracks out on Spotify and my first album is out on Bandcamp, all of which can be listened to for free. The stories I tell usually have a twist at the end, one that tells the listener most things, situations, and hurts can be turned around. most, not all. Everything in this world has been done, but only I can do it my way. My job is to remove all fear from my work. My job is to strip away all that is not true about me. My job as an artist is to show you my Soul.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?
**CONNIE LANSBERG:**
Ok. My style is JAZZ but it thrills me you would think of this as POP which just means popular music of the day. So, by saying these songs are POP, you’re saying they could be popular with the masses, which I very much doubt. However, it is a known fact that women’s brains really get excited by the complexity of the chord changes of jazz. I think if you are a person who listens to what mainstream radio feeds you, you would have to listen to my songs at least six times (read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink to get that) to become familiar enough to like them. If you like my songs right off the bat, you are smart, well read and your Soul vibration rate is pretty high, so well done. If you like my songs you are on the way to enlightenment! I always wrote songs that were not like anything else, so when I discovered jazz, I knew this was the beginning of making music that I wanted to hear. It took me a long time to get fluent enough in jazz, singing it too, to be able to pull in the brilliant musicians I work with now. The process was long, difficult, and fun!

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

CONNIE LANSBERG:

Music is of course all of those things. For me, Pythagoras said it best: “The highest goal of music is to connect one’s soul to their divine nature, not entertainment.”

I believe this 1oo%. My other answer is a little wild and most people don’t know why my music makes them feel good, but here it is. I am a high-level Soul Re-Alignment practitioner and take my regular jazz performances and my recorded music quite a few steps further. I am a Transformational Entertainer™, right now, the only one in the western world. Through my work with Soul Realignment and, the Akashic Records, I uncovered a unique ability to dislodge stuck energy and infuse positive energy within the soul matrix with each song I sing. I even tell my audiences what exactly I am removing and what I am infusing. The soul is an energy grid that can get its wires disconnected and its fuses blown when we do things that are out of alignment with who we are at a soul level. I am like an electrician for the soul! My voice can change the blown fuse and reconnect the broken wires so that you are getting the energy you need to take new action and manifest the experiences in life you desire. If you desire something, it is available to you. It’s only a case of raising your vibration to match the desire. Many people work with energy, but I work with it through my voice. I write songs first, then find out the energetic statement of the words and music. I decided, this year to be open about what I was doing even though the process is gentle and the show is always fun. I expect nothing back from my work. It is my job to keep writing and putting it into the world. If I have a desire to be famous or wealthy, then I have to take the actions needed that will raise my vibration to match the vibration of my desires. My job is to listen to the stories of the universe and turn them into songs. The process is a reward in itself.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

CONNIE LANSBERG:

Music owes me nothing. Music is a creation language, one I have learned to speak. It is my choice to use music as my creative tool. I know what I’m capable of through writing music. The process of writing a song, to recording it with other musicians, to singing it live with other musicians is so much fun that I can’t think what more you would want from music. I love that people are listening on Spotify without knowing anything about me, which means the music is doing what I want it to. I don’t have a family in Australia and getting on stage with people who communicate so effectively through their instruments is as close to family as I’m going to get. All I want is to keep working and creating with beautiful Souls.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

CONNIE LANSBERG: I usually start with the words. I am a words person. I find the color of the story through chords and then I decide on a rhythm which in turn can change the words, so it’s back and forth. I don’t collaborate on the words and melody, although, sometimes Mark will change a few notes so he can use the chord he wants. He also sometimes changes the tempo and I usually let him have his way. The collaboration is intense once we get into the studio. I choose the artists I do because I have an instinct for what they will add to the soup. I’m like the stock and the musicians are all the wonderful other ingredients that make the soup delicious. You could just drink the stock, it’s rich and full-flavored, but chicken, noodles, and all the spices make it truly wonderful. I write a song and Mark Fitzgibbon, Ben Hanlon, and Peter Hodges make it jazz.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

CONNIE LANSBERG: I got pulled into music quite late. I was acting before that. I’m also not Australian though I live here full time. It can be difficult to break into an already small jazz scene and be seen to be taking gigs from the locals when you don’t come from the place. I basically didn’t go to school with anyone so I don’t have that music school comradeship that happens when you go to school with other musicians. Also, the jazz police here in Melbourne seem to think I don’t write my own songs. It’s quite strange. I was a songwriter long before I ever sang jazz. I was always terrified to ask people to play with me but, now, no one says no!

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

CONNIE LANSBERG: I had heard that Spotify likes it when you put out a song every month and I had 40 songs that I had just had remixed by a talented guy in New York (that’s a whole other interview) and so I joined a good distributor and started pitching the songs to Spotify’s official playlist that is available to artists. I got the shock of my life when Devil May Care got added to an official jazz list and then it just took off. Every song has been added to many playlists until I now have over 1.5 million streams and as I said before the highest streamed jazz artist in Australia. Also, discovering I could sit down and write books was surprising and very gratifying. I have always written film scripts, I love writing movies and I decided to write a book and an album for every movie. It’s a huge project and I have no idea how far I’ll get with it, but I love the ride.