Interviewed By: Ella Colwell
Louisa Guernsey is a freshman at The Evergreen State College. Evergreen was her first choice because of its unique student culture and day-time programs. Interestingly enough, Guernsey wouldn’t have even known about Evergreen if it wasn’t for the show Portlandia and Carrie Brownstein’s band, Sleater-Kinney! Currently, Louisa Guernsey is involved with Evergreen’s ‘Edible Campus’ program and sees herself continuing to explore the agricultural pathway Because there are many interesting classes to take at Evergreen, she hasn’t decided exactly which path yet. Although she describes herself as more of a city-girl, being from Seattle, she enjoys journaling out in nature and finding cool spots to reflect. While she hasn’t played a show in Olympia yet, keep an eye out for Louisa Mae and listen to her band’s new EP called ‘Return to Zero’ by Thea’s Wedding Band.
E: I became aware of your music because it was posted to your Instagram story, and I just saw “new music out by my family’s band”. Apart from listening to the new EP, I don’t know much, who’s all in this band?
L: So it’s me, my sister, my dad, and my sister’s stepdad… If that makes any sense. We’re all musicians. My dad has played in bands his whole life, as well as my sister’s stepdad! My sister and I sing and play guitar. We’re not an official band, we played at my cousin’s wedding and her name’s Thea, so we called ourselves ‘Thea’s Wedding Band’. We just kind of threw together a couple covers. We recorded the EP on a four track, which is like the coolest thing ever. It was kind of a random and spontaneous band.
E: Do you think Thea’s Wedding Band is something you’ll continue with, or was it more a one and done project?
L: I actually make my own music as well under Luisa Mae, but I do think we probably will have to do more stuff. We have a little group thread, and we’re always just, we need to do this one, we need to do that one next. I would love to, but we all live in different places.
E: You mentioned guitar and singing, are there any other instruments you play?
L: I just play guitar and then I sing. That’s my main thing. I used to play the harp when I was little, like really little.
E: Was harp or guitar your first instrument?
L: I think my first one was guitar. The harp though, that I just kind of picked up, but I did play harp for a little bit and I just stopped, but guitar and singing is my main thing now. I still struggle a lot, and I’m kind of at that point where I know this stuff, and now I need to actually practice the guitar so I can get better.
E: Who is your music for? Do you write it mostly for yourself to cope with life, or do you write it more for others to feel?
L: That’s a good question. For myself mostly. It’s kind of my own little outlet for therapy. It’s definitely more my own thing.Just to have that outlet to create, more than wanting to put stuff out there. If people want to listen, that’s obviously important, but I do this for myself mostly.
E: Do you see yourself sticking to the singer-songwriter genre, or could we see you taking some inspiration from Carrie Brownstein in the future?
L: That’s a good question too. The thing is, I need to step up my guitar game. I would love to be in a band one day, hopefully down the line. I love playing acoustic or with other people jamming I don’t know what the future holds, but I want it to be something different than what I am doing now, that’s for sure.
E: Yeah, Yeah! Do you like writing more, recording more, or performing more?
L: I love recording. I think it’s just such a fun process. Honestly, it can get annoying at times, but yeah, I love, love, love recording. When we first recorded, I didn’t even really understand it at all, but the second time when we did the EP we did it on a four track so it was all analog. I love it, it’s a little trickier, but we just went for it and let the mistakes kind of play out. I did it for my other single that I put out too, which I really loved recording. So yeah, I would say recording because writing is sometimes a struggle for me. It just depends.
E: Do you have to have something emotional happen to you to write music, how does it feel sharing those songs live?
L: Yes! I don’t want it to be that way, I want to be able to just write. I think the last song that I wrote, I was in this weird relationship, and it was helpful for writing material. I love playing live, but I get anxious, it’s fun, but I also feel like for me, I like the creation part.
E: Do you have any lyrics that you’ve written that have been most impactful to you?
L: Yeah, I have this song called “Irish Exit” that I wrote when I was 16. It’s the first part of the song. It’s just: ‘I’m leaving Sunday, we’re leaving Monday, don’t be upset, it’s just what’s flowing’. I don’t know why, I know that doesn’t really mean anything to you, but I love that lyric and the way I sing it.
E: Who are your musical inspirations? It can be anyone, celebrity or a friend!
L: Oh, Amy Winehouse, for sure. I was her for Halloween! She’s definitely my biggest inspiration. I wouldn’t say we have similar styles, but just the way she writes and what she says, I think is beautiful and the way she was so into her art, I love it.
E: Was there anything someone has said or done that motivated you to continue with music?
L: Yeah. I think honestly my dad has been my biggest motivator. He’s just always pushing me to write and learn new things.
E: Getting to the end, have you been working on anything for the future?
L: I’m actually trying to get more into playing live. Just gonna be doing open mics and stuff around the area. I have been putting together some fun songs to just play at an open mic or something.
E: Are you looking for anybody to jam with or bandmates? What kind of people would you be looking for?
L: Anybody, any genre, any instrument. Even like electronics honestly, I’m so down for whatever. Email me at Lmg382007@Gmail.Com
E: Any last words, things you like to promote? This is a space to literally go on any tangent that you want to.
L: Okay, this is so off-topic. I think it’s important to connect with the moon cycles. Because of this last full moon, I had a crazy realization and I feel like my life is altered slightly. So I think we need to pay attention to the moon cycles and manifest and write things down right now. Just writing down things in your life and how you feel and watching the growth, it’s really cool. But, more musically, I need to step my foot back into playing because I haven’t in a while. I want to find people to jam with too because I haven’t really done that in a while and would love to.
