Photograph by Meg Webster
While still in her early twenties, Lizzie Weber has already tried out a variety of creative vocations. She spent two years—from 20 to 22—in Los Angeles, pursuing a career in TV and film. “I know I’m only 24, but that girl then is very different from who I am now,” she says. “I was still trying to figure myself out.” What she discovered? That Hollywood hyperfocus on appearance was not for her. “Your exterior is everything. That’s the nature of the industry,” she says. She decided to set acting aside to write and play music instead. “I wanted to focus on something that I could be creative with all the time, rather than walking into rooms, reading five lines, and leaving without knowing if you have the job,” she says. “With music, you’re sitting down with a piece of paper, my guitar or piano, and I’m doing my job.”
The results of that switch in focus are evidenced on her self-titled debut album, a folky, 10-track affair produced by Weber and Brian Ryback. Recorded at Sherpa Studios in St. Louis, the record features the song “Falling Like Fools,” which is also her first video, directed by Carla Dauden. Though Weber considers herself “a bit shy,” that’s not at all apparent in the impressive final result; her background in film and theater, however, very much is.
“I do feel a bit shy in front of the camera, but I don’t know if it translates that way,” she says. “I consider video a part of myself and the music and what I’m trying to share,” she says. “And putting that cinematic aspect to your music takes it to another level, I think.”
She says she was fortunate to work with Dauden, with whom she connected via a former professor in Los Angeles. Their initial meeting was on Skype (Dauden was freelance directing in Brazil at the time). “‘Falling’ was the track we wanted to do, and it had room for a story,” Weber says. “We set the dates in L.A. and made it happen. It was definitely one of the most special experiences I’ve had as an artist. As far as doing another one, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
That get-up-and-go energy is how she’s approaching gigs, too. As a relative newcomer, Weber is looking to play every date possible—within reason. “I understand that you can oversaturate your music in a scene, but I want to say ‘yes’ as much as possible,” she says.
While she’s played a variety of venues, “I definitely feel that my music is more suitable for a listening-room style,” she says. “That’s not to say that I wouldn’t hop onto a bill where there’s maybe more country, or even indie rock. Maybe my playing the Broadway Oyster Bar on a Saturday night, when people want to dance and let loose, would be a different story.
“Off Broadway is great,” says the recent Washington University grad, ticking off favored spots. “The Gramophone is great, the Old Rock House… I also love playing small venues, like Sips, a little café and wine bar in Clayton. There, I can play unplugged and without equipment…I like those intimate venues, for sure.”
Focusing on lyrics, Weber says, is a major part of her mission. To her, a show’s success often can be gauged by positive comments about those words. “There’s storytelling in my music, many times taking on the form of a narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end,” she says. “That’s what people take away, as well as the diversity of the music. One thing my album does is cross over into to folk-jazz, Americana. I try to incorporate a little bit of everything.”
And positivity? Weber’s all about it.
“If there was one thing that my friends and family always say to me, it’s that positive visualization is real,” she says, adding that her ultimate goal is just to have her music heard. “It’s not so much imagining being in the Top 40, but imagining that your music will extend beyond the local limits, reaching people in places you would never imagine.”
Now Hear This
Jason “Rerun” Ross is half of BDR Records, a label that he and Matt Harnish dedicated to preserving the lost St. Louis albums of the ’70s and ’80s. With his own longer-running project, Rerun Records (rerunrecordsstl.com), Ross has actively sought out the best underappreciated rock, punk, and post-punk, as both a label and a mom-and-pop distributor. Rerun puts out occasional albums cut from completely new cloth, too, but Ross has perfected the art of the rerelease.
His most recent efforts are aimed six hours north of here, with a trio of releases from Milwaukee: a combination of LPs, CDs, and 7-inch singles from The Ones, The Lubricants, and the Ama-Dots. All of the three were originally born between 1978 and 1983, and Ross describes them in terms such as “blazing punk ’n’ roll” and “bombastic/experimental post punk.” If those descriptors make sense, you know what you’re getting here. If they don’t, you can listen to quick clips of the bands on the Rerun Records website.
Ross’ efforts, while aimed at a pretty specific listening audience, continue to impress. Keeping alive the music of a rich time period in new wave, post-punk, and the uncategorizable, his passion is laudable and is matched by his great taste as a curator.
