Interview: Hopping Dimensions With Libby Tisler
Interview by Lindsey V. Britt / Photos by Tracey Tisler
Rhode Island native, now Nashville-based, indie-pop artist Libby Tisler has just released her debut six-track EP Hopping Dimensions, which includes her songs “End of an Era” and “Age of Reason.”
Your EP Hopping Dimensions comes out next week. How excited are you for its release?
I’m so excited. I feel like I’ve been counting down for so many months now. The fact that it’s happening next week it doesn’t feel real. But I’m just so excited to have it out in the world and out of my hands. Then it’s more up to everybody else what happens with it than me so I’m really, really excited.
What inspired you to write this project?
Back maybe in 2020 or so, I was still in college at the time. I went to school in New Orleans, which was fabulous, but I had a dream that felt super lifelike. And I woke up and I was like running through a hedge in the dream, and it felt super weird and super real. And then I woke up and I saw some scratches on my legs and I knew there was no correlation. But in my mind I was like, what if I could hop dimensions? Super conceptual but it kind of sparked the idea of if it could be possible to hop dimensions. And kind of more is possible and I can just chase my dreams, and not feel so held back and constrained in everything. It’s just all about dreaming big. I call it kind of like a coming-of-age story cause it feels just following my life of growing into myself, chasing my dreams and feeling more is possible. Kind of a weird start to the EP but I wrote the title track first and the rest just flowed from there.
I watched your lyric videos, including the one that came out today for your song “Visine”, what is it like making those videos?
Thanks for watching. It was really fun to make. So actually my mom she filmed all of the videos, took all of the photos, which is a really fun moment to share with her. She’s also a super creative person. So we had a lot of fun especially for “Visine.” I mean that’s my happiest song I feel like I have written, it’s all about being in love and being super happy. It was gorgeous, I think it was a Friday, so it felt we’re going into the weekend. I had this dress on that I just loved, and had this beautiful open kind of nature field that I had found on Google. Oh gosh, the sun was so pretty that day and I was just trying to channel love and good energy, like all the happiness I feel in the song, I was just hoping to get across in the lyric video. For any of my previous songs, my lyric videos haven’t had me in it, so I thought it’d be cool to have it be a mix of like music video visual with the lyrics. It was super fun and I do them all myself which is kind of fun. I edit them all on my own and put the lyrics on so it’s super DIY but really honest to me. So I feel like it fits the debut EP really well.
How did you get started in music?
I’ve always loved singing and listening to music. I don’t know, it always had a really super special place in my heart growing up. I was just inspired by music and I loved chorus and all that sort of stuff as a kid. It’s funny, I grew up in Rhode Island. I was back there sometime over the summer and I found an old journal of mine. I was reading some of my old diary entries from second grade to my boyfriend and they were hilarious. I was so dramatic. But I found a journal entry of me being like “OMG I just had the best idea for a song” and it’s like the most ridiculous terrible song you’ve ever heard of. I feel like I started fiddling around with writing, especially lyrics earlier than I realized. As a kid, I’d write lyric ideas down. But then I had a really good friend in middle school and she ended up moving away, but she played guitar and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I was like, that’s so awesome I want to do that. So my dad had a guitar laying around in the basement that he had but didn’t really ever learned how to play. So I picked it up one day asked if I could start playing it. And my parents were kind enough to book me some lessons and from there, I just always started playing, started writing songs. I think the first song I really wrote for real, for real is when I was fourteen and ever since then I’ve just never stopped. So that’s kind of a little long backstory about what got me into making music.
I heard that you’re an Olivia Rodrigo fan, what’s your favorite song of hers?
I have like two answers for that, favorite sad song that I like to scream in the car when I’m in my feels is “traitor.” I feel like that one’s super emotional. But “all-american bitch” is my favorite upbeat jam. That one has good energy. It’s super fun to also sing along. I saw her in concert with two of my best friends in March and it was such a good show. She’s a really great performer and songwriter as well.
Who are some of your musical influences?
I feel like it’s interesting because all the stuff that I grew up listening to as a kid that my parents would play. I didn’t realize until later in my life how big of an influence it had on my music. Right now I feel like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo - I really love Samia, and Tommy Lefroy. Those are like some of my most listened to artists. I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but just off the top of my head. I’ve always been a big lyric person. That’s what I listen to first. I love Fleetwood Mac as well and Stevie Nicks is just amazing. And then some of the stuff I grew up listening to that I don’t know if it really impacts my music. But I feel like just kind of led me here. My parents grew up listening to a lot of Grateful Dead, a lot of Pearl Jam, and Pink, so I feel like some of that stuff whatever I hear it now it feels so comforting. And I probably draw more inspiration from what I grew up listening to then I realize. I also was a big musical theater fan and performer all through high school, so I feel like I listen to that a lot. So I feel like in a way that must inspire me somehow, probably especially the lyrics and the storytelling aspect of songs. I have some of my records, oh Phoebe Bridgers. I would be missing out if I didn’t mention her, there’s a long list but that’s a few.
Do you have a favorite musical?
I mean on top of mind, and it might be because of the movie coming out, I feel like Wicked. That was the first big production I ever saw. It was touring through Providence and I just remember getting chills at the intermission when they do “Defying Gravity.” Just being like oh my gosh that was epic. For a long time, I thought I was going to chase being an actress and a performer in musical theater until I kind of started writing my own songs, and then shifted towards that. I don’t know that’s one of my favorites I love.
Who’s an artist you would love to open for?
I mean I feel like right now I literally can not stop listening to Sabrina Carpenter’s new album, so I would say her or Taylor Swift. Obviously that’s a huge, huge dream but they say you have to dream big, so I feel like that would be really fun energy and I think I’d have a blast. So someday, we’re putting it out there.
Is there something you would like to write a song about that you just haven’t written yet?
Oh that’s a really, really good question. You know, I feel like it’s pretty fun because I like to be really honest in my music. So I do feel like I tell a good amount of my life and everything in my songs which I like. But, maybe just more about either the dreams I have and just stuff like that, just really diving into like all my hopes and dreams. Just like everything that I hope for in my life and kind of write that and maybe manifest through writing it. And then also I’ve always kind of liked exaggerating in music, finding something that’s happening to me and turning it into a bigger story than it is. More like storytelling, almost like fiction in music. I feel like it’s fun to take a little something and turn it into something big. Writing and making up some stories would be fun too cause only so much happens to me every day that I run out of content.
If you had to pick a candy bar to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This is so hard because I have such a big sweet tooth. I feel like every day I’m like, I want a sweet treat, I need a little something sweet. I’m going to choose a Milky Way; I love it. I feel like I used to like 3 Musketeers the best and then I realized that a Milky Way is just that with caramel so it like levels it up. I have to pick something chocolatey because I love the chocolate, but I really like the texture nougat inside of it. And I feel like it’s spacey, it’s galactic and cool as a name, so it fits Hopping Dimensions but also I can definitely eat that for the rest of my life.
Lastly, do you have a recommendation? This can be anything from a book to a movie, advice, anything.
I’ll give a few things I’ve been doing lately, take it or leave it. The first thing is try not to be on my phone for the first hour of the day, I know it sounds whatever but it’s really helped me. I feel like waking up and I’ve tried to read, write in my journal, go for a walk, just like listen to a record, or clean my apartment. And also something I’ve been trying to do more lately, especially for creative people, is try to create more than I’ve been consuming. Because I feel like I go through ruts when all I do all day is listen to other people’s podcast, music, read and watch TV, that stuffs all great. But I’ve just been trying to spend more energy writing or making art, or just singing and doing stuff that comes from my own self, or I just like writing as well. I don’t know if it’s advice, but I feel like it was a realization I had a couple of months ago, and I was like, I need to get back into just continuing to make my own creations. Just try to have a good time and a good outlook on things, just change perspective and realize that you can control a lot with having a positive mindset. And just looking for the good in things, finding gratitude and little things to be happy about each day. Sometimes the little things make a day really good and it’s easy to ignore them but paying attention to them makes a big difference I think. And watch reality TV, It’s a good way to shut off your brain when all of that is overwhelming.
You can stream Hopping Dimensions now on your favorite music streaming platform.
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