Lisa Matassa
Encyclopedia
Lisa Matassa is an American
country singer and singer-songwriter
. In the 1980s she had two pop
hits reach the Top 10 on the Dance Music Charts, including 1987's "I've Got the Hots for You" and 1988's "Rock Me Baby." She released a debut country
EP on March 31, 2011 titled Me Time
.
, and her grandmother was an opera singer. As a child she often listened to artists such as Loretta Lynn
and Elvis Presley
. When Matassa was seven years old her family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
, where they remained for eight years. Matassa began studying opera with an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera
when she was about nine, continuing until age 14, when she branched into pop and rock. Her family moved back to Franklin Square, New York
when she was in tenth grade.
's dance anthem "Let the Music Play."
Matassa recorded two hit singles, 1987's "I've Got the Hots for You" and 1988's "Rock Me Baby," both of which gained national and international airplay and reached the Top 10 on the Dance Music Charts. She performed numerous shows alongside artists such as Taylor Dayne
, Brenda K. Starr
, Judy Torres
, and TKA
among others. Her song “Stay With Me Tonight” was in the 1988 Carrie Fisher
movie She’s Back.
Matassa soon gained an inclination to record songs she had written herself, with a more rock
edge, but Emergency Records dissolved several months after the release of her last single.
In 1992 Matassa married and settled down to raise a family in Plainview, Long Island. She continued to perform in Long Island and Manhattan clubs, and also did commercial voice-over work. During this time of focusing on her family life, Matassa also was the band leader of a successful club band for 20 years.
, a new EP of country music. Much of the EP was originally composed and written Nashville. Some of the tracks were recorded at Jim "moose" Brown's Moose Lodge Recording Studio Nashville, and also Richie Cannata's Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New York
, which is also where musicians such as Billy Joel
, Mariah Carey
, Taylor Dayne
, Jennifer Lopez
, Marc Anthony
, and Celine Dion
have recorded.
Other participants in the album's creation were two-time Grammy nominated producer Bobby Graziose, producer Joey Sykes (of Third Eye Blind
, Meredith Brooks
, and Don Henley
), and songwriting collaborations with country music writer Don Rollins, songwriter Jody Gray, and producer Tony Bruno, who also works with Rihanna
. The EP is a stylistic blend of Southern Rock
,
New Country
, and Pop
.
Matassa has been a Featured Artist on ReverbNation.com
, after ReverbNation co-founder Lou Plaia read her story in the Plainview Old Bethpage Herald.
Her music has received airplay on WJVC 96.1 FM, Long Island's local country station. She has been interviewed on Fox News in California and New York, 1010 WINS, and a number of other radio stations. Matassa performed the national anthem and was the opening act for Freedomfest 2011 on July 2, 2011, the first country music festival to be held at Ducks Stadium on Long Island. "Me Time," the title track from her EP, has been formally added into rotations on more than a dozen radio station play lists. In Spring of 2011 Matassa embarked on a north east radio promotion tour and will follow it up with a national radio promotion tour through summer of 2011.
. On March 31, 2011, Nassau County
Executive Ed Mangano
awarded Matassa a citation as Long Island’s first country music recording artist, and the pioneer of the genre Long Island Country genre. Beyond traditional country influences she has stated she is influenced by musicians such as Bonnie Raitt
, Barbara Streisand, Linda Ronstadt
, Patsy Cline
, Loretta Lynn
, Elvis, The Beatles
, Heart
, and Lynyrd Skynyrd
.
, and the Sidewalk Angels Foundation, a non-profit that helps fund research for autism
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
country singer and singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
. In the 1980s she had two pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
hits reach the Top 10 on the Dance Music Charts, including 1987's "I've Got the Hots for You" and 1988's "Rock Me Baby." She released a debut country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
EP on March 31, 2011 titled Me Time
Me Time
Me Time is the debut EP by country singer Lisa Matassa, released on March 31, 2011.-Production:Much of the EP was originally composed and written in Nashville at Jim "Moose" Brown's studio, though some of the final tracks were recorded at Richi Cannata's Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New...
.
Early life
Lisa Matassa was born and initially raised on Long Island, New York. She comes from a musical family; her mother used to sing in a doo-wop groupDoo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
, and her grandmother was an opera singer. As a child she often listened to artists such as Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. When Matassa was seven years old her family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
, where they remained for eight years. Matassa began studying opera with an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
when she was about nine, continuing until age 14, when she branched into pop and rock. Her family moved back to Franklin Square, New York
Franklin Square, New York
Franklin Square is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 29,320 at the 2010 census...
when she was in tenth grade.
Early career
In 1987, recently out of high school, Matassa was overheard by a dance producer while she was performing with a local Long Island band named Recovery. She promptly signed a recording contract with the independent label Emergency Records under the stage name Lysa Lynn. The label specialized in producing dance-pop, such as recording artist ShannonShannon (singer)
Shannon is an American singer. She is best known for her 1983 million-selling record, "Let the Music Play". The record re-defined the electro funk sound that would eventually be called freestyle music.-Biography:...
's dance anthem "Let the Music Play."
Matassa recorded two hit singles, 1987's "I've Got the Hots for You" and 1988's "Rock Me Baby," both of which gained national and international airplay and reached the Top 10 on the Dance Music Charts. She performed numerous shows alongside artists such as Taylor Dayne
Taylor Dayne
Taylor Dayne was born Leslie Wunderman on March 7, 1962 before later adopting her current stage name. She is an American pop vocalist, songwriter, and dance artist. Overall, she has had eighteen individual hit songs reach the top ten in Billboard magazine...
, Brenda K. Starr
Brenda K. Starr
Brenda K. Starr is an American singer-songwriter. She is well known originally in dance-pop, but now mostly in salsa-based music...
, Judy Torres
Judy Torres
Judy Torres, also referred to as the "Queen of Freestyle", "The Legendary Miss Judy Torres", or "KTU's Own Judy Torres", is a Puerto Rican freestyle music artist...
, and TKA
TKA
TKA was a Latin Freestyle trio that was prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s, mainly in New York City and Miami, Florida. Its members were Tony Ortiz, Louis "Kayel" Sharpe, and Alejandro "Aby" Escoto later replaced by Angel "Love" Vasquez. The acronym TKA represents their collective initials...
among others. Her song “Stay With Me Tonight” was in the 1988 Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her...
movie She’s Back.
Matassa soon gained an inclination to record songs she had written herself, with a more rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
edge, but Emergency Records dissolved several months after the release of her last single.
In 1992 Matassa married and settled down to raise a family in Plainview, Long Island. She continued to perform in Long Island and Manhattan clubs, and also did commercial voice-over work. During this time of focusing on her family life, Matassa also was the band leader of a successful club band for 20 years.
Production
In 2010 Matassa met up with childhood friend and producer Joey Sykes, and headed to Nashville to write and record Me TimeMe Time
Me Time is the debut EP by country singer Lisa Matassa, released on March 31, 2011.-Production:Much of the EP was originally composed and written in Nashville at Jim "Moose" Brown's studio, though some of the final tracks were recorded at Richi Cannata's Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New...
, a new EP of country music. Much of the EP was originally composed and written Nashville. Some of the tracks were recorded at Jim "moose" Brown's Moose Lodge Recording Studio Nashville, and also Richie Cannata's Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New York
Glen Cove, New York
Glen Cove is a city in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the city population was 26,964....
, which is also where musicians such as Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
, Taylor Dayne
Taylor Dayne
Taylor Dayne was born Leslie Wunderman on March 7, 1962 before later adopting her current stage name. She is an American pop vocalist, songwriter, and dance artist. Overall, she has had eighteen individual hit songs reach the top ten in Billboard magazine...
, Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
, Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads...
, and Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
have recorded.
Other participants in the album's creation were two-time Grammy nominated producer Bobby Graziose, producer Joey Sykes (of Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind is an American alternative rock band formed in the early 1990s in San Francisco. The songwriting duo of Kevin Cadogan and Stephan Jenkins signed the band's first major label recording contract with Elektra records in 1996 resulting in two multi platinum albums. The band's lineup...
, Meredith Brooks
Meredith Brooks
Meredith Ann Brooks is an American singer/songwriter and guitarist. She is best known for her 1997 hit song "Bitch", for which she was nominated for a Grammy Award.- Early life :...
, and Don Henley
Don Henley
Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up...
), and songwriting collaborations with country music writer Don Rollins, songwriter Jody Gray, and producer Tony Bruno, who also works with Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
. The EP is a stylistic blend of Southern Rock
Southern rock
Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...
,
New Country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, and Pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
.
Release
The EP was released on It Is What It Is Records on March 31, 2011. Nine North Records from Nasvhille has handled a portion of the promotion. The release concert took place on March 31, with her supporting band consisting of Tony Bruno, Greg Smith, Jules Radino, Joey Sykes, Colin Smith, Mike Dimeo, Bobby Guy Graziose, and Simi Stone.Matassa has been a Featured Artist on ReverbNation.com
ReverbNation.com
ReverbNation.com is a web site, launched in 2006, that focuses on the independent music industry. It aims to provide a central site for musicians, producers, and venues to collaborate and communicate.-Innovations:...
, after ReverbNation co-founder Lou Plaia read her story in the Plainview Old Bethpage Herald.
Her music has received airplay on WJVC 96.1 FM, Long Island's local country station. She has been interviewed on Fox News in California and New York, 1010 WINS, and a number of other radio stations. Matassa performed the national anthem and was the opening act for Freedomfest 2011 on July 2, 2011, the first country music festival to be held at Ducks Stadium on Long Island. "Me Time," the title track from her EP, has been formally added into rotations on more than a dozen radio station play lists. In Spring of 2011 Matassa embarked on a north east radio promotion tour and will follow it up with a national radio promotion tour through summer of 2011.
Style
Matassa has dubbed her style of music "Long Island Country," which she describes as a combination of New York rock and roll mixed with new countryNew Country
The Movement for a New Country is a political party in Argentina founded by Élida Vigo and made up of left-wingers and dissident peronists in Misiones Province....
. On March 31, 2011, Nassau County
Nassau County, New York
Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...
Executive Ed Mangano
Ed Mangano
Edward P. Mangano is the County Executive and was a county legislator in Nassau County, New York. He was elected in 1995 and served seven terms. He defeated incumbent Thomas R...
awarded Matassa a citation as Long Island’s first country music recording artist, and the pioneer of the genre Long Island Country genre. Beyond traditional country influences she has stated she is influenced by musicians such as Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Barbara Streisand, Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
, Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
, Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
, Elvis, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
, and Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...
.
Personal life
Matassa continues to live in Plainview, Long Island with her husband, teenage daughter and teenage son. In addition to volunteering at her local church, she volunteers and supports the Last Hope Animal Shelter, the Breath Believe Foundation for cystic fibrosisCystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
, and the Sidewalk Angels Foundation, a non-profit that helps fund research for autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
.
Singles
- "I've Got the Hots for You" (1987)
- "Rock Me Baby" (1988)
- "Stay With Me Tonight" (1988)
- "Me Time" (2011)
- "Sunrise Highway" (2011)
External links
- Lisa Matassa on Nine North Records
- Lisa Matassa on MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- Lisa Matassa on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- Lisa Matassa on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Lisa Matassa on iTunesITunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....