Diandra Interviews Liza Anne: Life Has Good And Bad Vacations

For Liza Anne, the bad times in life can feel like a bad vacation, which is why she called her newest album as such. If life comes in chapters, in a way, it comes in trips; detours and pitstops we take in our life’s journey that are not always so pretty. In our interview, Liza Anne discusses how her “bad vacation” led her to the best, most empowered place she has ever been in her life: as an artist and person. 

Diandra: Bad Vacation is about self-destruction and the aftermath of healing. What is one thing you learned about yourself at your lowest point versus at your highest one?

Liza Anne: I think at my lowest point, I learned that I cared – I think sometimes as a means of protection I distance myself from being honest about what hurts and what makes me feel sad – and when it all was falling apart, as painful as it was, admitting to myself that it hurts because I cared was a huge softening moment. And I think what I learned at my highest point is similar – it’s good to care, to feel through things, to experience the depth of something whether heavy or light so that you can feel it all.

Diandra: As an album on heartbreak, what is something you see that you need from your relationships versus what you give to your relationships?

Liza Anne: I think what we give and what we need is usually very similar.
Liza Anne – Devotion (Official Video)

Diandra: Being called Bad Vacation, how do you feel your time of turmoil was like a bad trip?


Liza Anne: It just wasn’t what I signed up for – it was false advertisement of love and safety and I just got very hurt. Anyways, I grew a lot so I guess everything can work itself out for the betterment of everyone. 

Diandra: What are 3 qualities about yourself that therapy has taught you to appreciate about you?

Liza Anne: I am an emotional person, I am strong, I am perceptive.

Diandra: Music is considered therapy. What song, off the album, do you feel offered the most clarity to you on your past struggles?

Liza Anne: I think all of them combined gave me what I needed to move forward. This Chaos was a particular catharsis, though. Something in that song really dug the dirt up on some emotions that I didn’t feel when I needed to most – it healed a lot of anger by just letting me feel the anger in the first place.
Liza Anne – This Chaos, That Feeling (Official Audio)

Diandra: Drawing and painting are also considered therapeutic. Which artists do you appreciate in those sectors of the art world? Is there a particular drawing you have seen or done that gets you emotional?

Liza Anne: Hilma Af Klint – I saw her work at the Guggenheim at the beginning of last year. On a spiritual level, I relate to the way she relates to the abyss – I think her use of shape, color, imagery – her close group of other females diving into the questions and feelings of life … in a lot of ways, her life inspires me to look to the divine with curiosity, not limit my experience of spirituality to one lens and always surround myself with other women.

Diandra: Describe the moment when you knew you had to get help and start working to get better.

Liza Anne: I think the pendulum of intense highs and lowest lows while I was touring my last record really did a number on my emotional health – in a lot of ways I was “fine” but I was normalizing existing in emotional abuse and the toll that took on my ability to trust myself, to feel safe in love, to trust anyone – was something that I didn’t even realize at the time. I have been in therapy for a while but the therapy I started in November, of last year, was the first time I felt myself actually growing from my trauma and not just retelling it as a story.

Me: WHOA THAT IS POWERFUL! Make note people! There is a difference between telling your trauma and healing/ growing from it.

Diandra: The album talks about “success” and the feeling that the higher you climb to more you want be the “greatness” others perceive you as. What has therapy taught you about dealing with people’s perceptions?

Liza Anne: I think I realized how much I cared – I had this intense social anxiety growing up, not social anxiety that made me stay home but social anxiety that made me change in every room to make people comfortable and to make people like me – how exhausting. The last 8 years of my life have been a lesson in self love and being myself in every room, every situation, and with every thing I do. I think one of the most hurtful things we can experience is turning in our own instincts for the sake of someone else’s comfort. I’m not doing that anymore, and that feels good.

Diandra: How would you define “freedom” in terms of what it means to you now versus before?

Liza Anne: Freedom is expansion – feeling like you have room to stretch – spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, ALL OF IT. Freedom is choices. It is getting to be yourself wherever you are. It is pride.
Liza Anne – I Shouldn’t Ghost My Therapist (Official Audio)

Diandra:You sing to bad days, but what would you define as a really great day for Liza Anne? What does it entail?

Liza Anne: A really great day… oh man. I don’t know. I think right now, given Covid19 – I’m pretty minimal with my needs. I just feel really lucky to have time with my partner, time with my family, food every day, a health body, space to create. I feel really fortunate.

Diandra: What is your favorite childhood memory?


Liza Anne: I used to go to camp every summer for 5 weeks – there are too many memories to count but the smell of the mountains and the chill of the morning and the sound of the trumpet playing the wake up call are easily some of the most visceral moments of my childhood.
Diandra: What is the best vacation you have ever taken and a place you have yet to visit?


Liza Anne: My dad and I took a trip together before the world shut down. I think that, hands down, is some thing that will forever mean the most to me, and I would really like to go to Thailand.

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