Get to Know Aria Lisslo
Get to know Aria Lisslo: The 18-year-old artist who does it all and is authentically herself. Her latest release, “Whiskey N Wine” isn’t trying to be anything it’s not. Written, produced, mixed, and mastered by Aria, the song maintains its distinct voice. The artist’s confidence shows in both her music and in how she speaks. I was lucky enough to ask Aria a few questions about “Whiskey N Wine,” her musical beginnings and more. Read our interview below.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST MUSIC MEMORY?
I grew up listening to music, but the first time I really interacted with music independently was in elementary school. Everyone had to pick an instrument, so I picked the cello. I loved learning how to read sheet music. This sounds so cliché, but when music is written down, it’s like reading an entirely different language. As a seven-year-old, there was something so interesting about learning how the different lines equated to different notes. I later joined a choir, which is when I first began to sing, but I was honestly more of a sports child. I did gymnastics and soccer, and then I became more interested in music.
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO START RELEASING MUSIC?
I went to LaGuardia, which is an arts high school in NYC. I auditioned for vocal music and got in. I spent four years there being classically trained. I think I kind of lost my passion for music over the four years. It wasn’t as creative of an environment as I thought it would be. Covid, as horrible as it was, was a blessing in disguise for me artistically. I was no longer going to school and I was able to explore the things that I liked about music. At the start of quarantine, I taught myself production. I was bad at it at first, but I worked really hard to get better. I started writing my first single in June and released it in September. That whole time, I was just working on that first song, trying to make it better. I write, record, play, produce, mix and master everything I do. Because of that, there was such a long learning process.
I WANT TO PAUSE YOU THERE. YOU WRITE, PRODUCE, MIX AND MASTER ALL OF YOUR MUSIC? THAT’S SO IMPRESSIVE. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO TAKE TOTAL CREATIVE CONTROL OVER YOUR WORK?
If you look at the Billboard Top 200, there are maybe five female producers on that. There are so many female artists and it’s almost unfair that they aren’t playing as big of a part in that production process, even though it’s not their fault. I just decided that it was something that I wanted to do myself. I don’t have a manager or a creative team or a publicist. I don’t have a label. I was like, “I have complete control over my music. Why would I want to workshop it with other people who might not see my vision?” Also, I don’t know a lot of people who want to make the music that I want to make. I self-describe my music as pop, but it’s heavily inspired by R&B and Soul specifically. So, it was kind of circumstantial—and then it just became a point that I could do this myself.
AND YOU DID! YOU JUST RELEASED YOUR SECOND SINGLE. HOW DID THAT SONG COME ABOUT?
I used to release songs on SoundCloud. I don’t even like that they exist there anymore, but you can still find them online. I had this one song called “Craigslist Missed Connections.” One of the lines in that song is, “mixing wine with whiskey was not the plan, but it makes you fuzzy so I can’t comprehend. “ I liked the sound of the two Ws together, so I wrote it down in my notes. I do that all the time. It’s part of my process. But anyway, I had the line in my notes for a while. When I make a song, I do all the production first and then I write the lyrics. When I finished the track and looked at my notes, I was like, “That’s a good starting point.” It just kind of went from there, but it was always an idea that I had. I feel like I always end up stealing from myself.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE “WHISKEY N WINE” TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD IT BEFORE?
This is my most storytelling song. I would almost describe it as the beginning of a movie, when the main character wakes up and is like, “Oh my god. What happened last night?” And then the rest of it goes back into a flashback. It’s about getting drunk when you shouldn’t have and then calling the one person you shouldn’t have. I even put a voice memo in the song to signify that this person has literally called this other person a hundred times, and that other person just keeps deleting their messages.
I NOTICED THERE ARE A LOT OF NUMBERS IN THE SONG. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’RE SUPERSTITIOUS ABOUT?
I am. My lucky number is seven, and so I threw that one in at the bridge. I am so into angel numbers and all that stuff. I didn't even notice how many numbers I have in the song—but I definitely do have a lot!
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE LYRIC FROM “WHISKEY N WINE?”
I love when I write things that are visual. I have two lines that I love. The first one is, “you’re under strawberry skies/a private joyride in my mind,” which I think is an interesting way of saying something along the lines of, “You live in my head rent free.” The second one is, “bottles empty some are full,” because I thought it was a weird way of describing all the cups and bottles people leave around house parties. I just thought it was very cinematic. Those are some of my favorite released lyrics.
IF YOU HAD TO MAKE A DRUNK CALL TO A CELEBRITY, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
That’s a good question. I think I would probably drunk call Chris Evans because I feel like he’d be really nice about it. He wouldn’t show it to anyone.
IF YOU HAD TO RECEIVE A DRUNK CALL FROM ANY CELEBRITY, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
Someone really fun. I feel like Miley Cyrus would leave a very interesting message.
SHE WOULD! MILEY HAS BEEN ALL OVER TIK TOK RECENTLY, AND SO HAVE YOU. HOW HAS THE PLATFORM HELPED YOU PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC?
Tik Tok is both cool and not cool at the same time, and I say that because I feel like I’m too old to understand it, even though I just turned 18. But I had two really cool things happen to me via Tik Tok. The first was that I got a shout out from Mark Ronson. He is such a dream collaborator for me. And the second thing was that Zane Lowe, who is my favorite interviewer in the world, made a Tik Tok about me. He put up this list about 21 artists to watch in 2021. I wasn’t on it, but a bunch of my fans, who are like the coolest people ever, commented on it saying that he should listen to my music. And then he ended up playing it on his radio show and gave me a really nice shout out. That obviously would not have happened if Tik Tok didn’t exist.
MAJOR SHOUT OUT TO YOUR FANS FOR THAT ONE.
They are crazy amazing. Maybe I’m biased, but I think my fans are the coolest ever. They are so positive, and I love being able to talk to them and have conversations with them. It’s not like I'm some sort of idol who they can’t touch. It’s very human.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE FAN INTERACTION?
When my first single came out, my fans used Twitter to bully MTV into listening to me. I kind of just thought they were being cute, but they were tweeting, no joke, like 1,500 times a day. And it worked. MTV tweeted about my single. I didn’t even ask them to do that. It was all very grassroots.
YOU’RE ACCOMPLISHING A LOT WITH JUST YOU AND YOUR FANS.
I think being solo is purely circumstantial. I started my music career in the start of a pandemic. I also have grown up in an era where it is so possible to be independent and grow your career. I think Chance the Rapper really made that statement. It was more like, “I’m going to do my thing and if people like it then they’ll hop on the bandwagon and if they don’t, they don’t.”
DO YOU HAVE A MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO START A CAREER IN MUSIC?
In High School, no one messed with what I was doing. My friends had a group chat where they made fun of the music I posted on SoundCloud. Everyone at my school didn’t get it. Then quarantine hit and I kind of moved away from those people because I realized that they didn’t love me. The opinion of four people shouldn’t halt you from doing what you want to be doing. That’s something that I wish I had known sooner. Once you start listening to your own internal dialogue instead of other people’s external dialogue, that’s when the magic happens.
YOU CAN LISTEN TO “WHISKEY N WINE” BY ARIA LISSLO ON STREAMING SERVICES LIKE SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC. GO STREAM THE SONG AND MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW @TWENTYMINUTES LATER TO STAY UPDATED ON FUTURE POSTS.
