Born in Lawrence, outside of Kansas City, Donnelly’s kinetic childhood energies were channeled into a whirlwind of pursuits at which she excelled: dance, tennis, acting and academia. “All my life I couldn’t figure out what my biggest passion was,” she remembers. “It never occurred to me to sing in bands until I was a freshman in college in San Diego. When I look back I realize: I’m a writer who sings.”
She fronted the L.A. band A.M. Pacific and was subsequently indoctrinated into the Hollywood club scene of The Roxy, The Viper Room, and The Derby. She appreciates the camaraderie of being in a band. “I do not sit in a dark room by myself and write songs 12 hours a day. I like collaborating. I never wanted to be a solo artist.”
Although recording a solo CD might seem a contradiction, collaboration is a huge part of Lisa’s creative process as her alliance with co-writer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Rob Giles on We Had a Thing confirms. She recalls their initial meeting. “He asked, ‘I need to know what your 10 favorite records are and why. And I need to know if you had five minutes to talk to the world what would you say and how would you say it?’ I almost started crying – in all of my time in L.A. no one had ever asked me the right questions. It was deep and real: he wanted to know who I was and what I wanted to say and then from there we could figure out how to say it together.” Another key player on the songs is co-writer Rich Jacques, whom Donnelly invited to participate as a co-writer and co-producer with Giles, and songwriter Kevin Hunter who co-wrote “Better,” and “Let Go That Weight.”
Asked to describe herself in three words, Donnelly laughs, “Oh! My! God!” before she avows, “I am comfortable with myself, sometimes to a fault, I’m really outgoing, and I’m a little scattered.” In her “making of” video for We Had a Thing she relates that she feels like she’s “standing at the bottom of a huge mountain.” She notes, “I don’t know how things are going to turn out for me but I’m willing to make any sacrifice. Every night before I go to sleep I think of three things I’m grateful for. You can’t write music from the heart and not love from the heart.”
