Lisa Helen Mitchell (born 22 March 1990) is an English-born Australian singer-songwriter who grew up in Albury, New South Wales. Mitchell currently lives in Melbourne and is working on her fourth studio album. Mitchell finished sixth in the 2006 season of Australian Idol. Her debut extended play, Said One to the Other (4 August 2007), topped iTunes in Australia and she signed with London-based publisher, Little Victories, a subsidiary of Sony/ATV. By 2008 Mitchell had relocated to the UK where she recorded her debut studio album, Wonder (31 July 2009), which peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart. She won the 2009 Australian Music Prize of $30,000 for the album. Mitchell returned to Australia to live in Melbourne. Her second album, Bless This Mess (12 October 2012) reached No. 7. In March 2015, Mitchell’s last single “Wah Ha” was remixed by electronic trio Seekae. Her third album Warriors was released on 16 October 2016 and debuted Top 10 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[1]
Lisa Helen Mitchell was born on 22 March 1990 in Canterbury, England.[2][3][4] Her parents, Angus and Ruth, are both doctors,[5] and she has a younger sister, Nicola.[6][7] The Mitchell family had moved to Australia when she was three and she grew up near Albury on a 20-hectare (49-acre) farm.[6][8] She attended The Scots School Albury.[6] She began guitar lessons at 12,[7] and leaned towards the folk and rock genres. Mitchell later recalled her pivotal moment was seeing Missy Higgins perform “Scar” on the program Video Hits: “My sister called me out to watch it … Missy was a really normal, cool chick making music as her own thing. I found that really inspiring”.[8]
She performed in local cafes and events as well as with a cover band, Chrome, with “three of my best friends”.[7][9] At that time “We thought that The Donnas and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the ultimate women of the world”.[9] Her varied inspirations include Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and Neil Young, which her father favoured as she was growing up,[10] as well as Patti Smith, Regina Spektor, Clare Bowditch, Joanna Newsom, and later, Lou Reed and Velvet Underground.[7][8][11] Mitchell also formed a duo with another Albury-based friend, Katherine Green, which was “More along the lines of what I do on my own now, only a lot folkier. We sang […] colonial folk tunes actually. Quite traditional and harmony based. We had brilliant fun playing in the chalkboard tents at the folk festivals in Australia”.[9] Mitchell was later based in Sydney, London and then Melbourne.
Leave a reply
