Minnesota music fans have been following Lydia Liza's musical journey for years — from her breakout fronting Bomba de Luz to her emergence as a solo artist (and viral success rewriting "Baby, It's Cold Outside") to her collaborations with artists ranging from Big Cats to Justin Courtney Pierre. Along the way she's been candid about her journey, and that journey took a turn — as all of ours did — this past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A year into lockdown, I connected with Lydia on Instagram to talk about how she's remained creative — without putting an unhealthy amount of pressure on herself.

Hey, how's it going?

Do you like the sunglasses? I thought it was a nice touch.

I love the sunglasses.

No, I'm just...I won't actually do that. I was like...

I love them. You what?

I don't...I just, you know, I want...I just don't want you to forget this interview. You know what I mean? No. I just wanted to make sure you remembered this day.

Oh, okay. Yes. I will.

So, the only thing I could think of was sunglasses.

I see, I see, to stand out, make it different than the other times that we were on Instagram together. Because we have...I've been doing these Instagram interviews for a while now, but I probably will go to my grave, whenever that happens, in the distant future, having not spent any more time on Instagram live with any other human being more than you.

What an honor and a privilege.

Well, the privilege is mine. But yeah, I mean, you and I built up a solid two or three hours of Instagram live time just about a year ago now, when we all went into lockdown, and everybody was like, "Oh, I guess I do...fun stuff on the internet?" But you actually did do fun stuff on the internet.

Yeah, I am really...I was homeschooled. So I'm very good at entertaining myself.

With friends! Safely, virtually. Yeah, so you did a series of movie script readings. Har Mar Superstar was part of the series.

Yeah, Gully Boys did one. Um, that was probably the most fun part of lockdown so far.

Yeah, it's definitely the most fun I've ever had on the internet, and I've watched a lot of TikTok videos of people falling off diving boards. So yes, that's saying something.

Well, I'll be I'll be getting in touch because I think it's time we do another round.

Oh, excellent. Great. Well, then we'll look forward to that. So yeah, I wanted to connect with you just because it's always, always fun. But I think, you know, as we kind of like are kind of getting around the one-year anniversary of lockdown, I feel like everybody has had some personal growth, some journeys. There's been a lot that's that's happened. But it just feels like you've been on a whole entire odyssey with everything you've been up to this last year. So you want to sort of talk about everything that's that's going on in your life?

Yeah. Man, it feels very...it's interesting to look back even just a couple months ago, just because of how much, like, self inquiry we all are doing, just because we don't really have anything else to do. Yeah, I've been doing a whole lot of that. It all started with the script readings. And then there was the #MeToo movement of last summer. And then through this fall and winter, I've just...I just won a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, so I just got recording gear. So I've just been writing like a madwoman. And that's kind of the long and short of it.

Wow. And you didn't even mention the podcast.

Oh, the podcast. I keep...well, everybody has a podcast.

Well, sure. But But let's talk about your podcast. I love it because it's an advice podcast. I grew up, you know, the first page I would turn to when I got the St. Paul Pioneer Press was the comics page so I can read the comics, and also there was there were Ann Landers and Dear Abby. Yeah. So I guess It's when I like heard the concept of your podcast, I was like, oh, so it's like imagine if Ann Landers and Dear Abby, instead of having separate columns and being sort of isolated in their little type boxes on a page, got together and had a podcast where they gave advice. It's brilliant.

Yeah, it's been so fun. Sara is my co host, Sara Aune. And we have been friends since third grade. She is just like, she is my best friend. She's who I grew up with. My family almost adopted her. She's just always been this incredibly sunshiny wonderful person. And she's always been the person I go to for advice. And when I was kicking around the idea of doing a podcast, I was like, well, I don't know what I have to offer, besides being a goofball. And then I started thinking about, you know, what if I kind of relied on the community to help with content, and then it could feel like a bigger thing, you know, and I don't know how qualified I am to give advice, but I know that Sara and I are really willing to talk about things that scare people. We've experienced a lot in our lives, and we think we have like some good...I feel like if we all talk to each other, more vulnerably more often, we would have a lot to say and a lot in common. You know, so that was kind of the launch idea. And so far, it's been amazing and received very, very well. And we've gotten amazing phone calls. Someone just called in to ask if they should truly be themselves, if it means damaging others. And I'm not sure I'm going to ask if they're a serial killer, I think.

Wow, I do...well, I guess there are multiple senses of like, damaging others, right. That could be an extreme situation. Well, you know, I'm glad...I was wondering, oh, you know, can I really talk with Lydia about her podcast on The Current's Instagram? It's not really a music thing. But then I start skimming through the episodes, and there you are singing "Hooked on a Feeling."

Yeah.

So there is kind of a music performance element to it. You know? If you're lucky.

Yeah, if you're lucky.

But then I went on to learn that there are aliens, because you started talking about aliens. There are aliens that just look like pairs of pants?

Yes. Isn't that adorable?

Well, not if I'm wearing an alien!

I know, they're very cute. I forget the name of them. But there's actually a lot of documentation on the internet of these pants just walking. I love it. I want one.

I'm glad to have heard that news in podcast form because I don't think I'll ever work up the nerves to Google Image that.

Yeah, I'll send you a link and then you can choose whether or not to haunt yourself forever with it.

Okay, good to know.

It's pleasant. I promise.

Thank you. Okay, cool. Let's talk about music. you're releasing some new music just released a little collabo with Nelson Devereaux and Big Cats called "Nothing Gets Me Down." And you were just saying you're getting some recording equipment and starting to write and record some new music.

Yeah, I so I've been working with Spencer — Big Cats — and Nelson since I was like 16 or 17. So it's a very natural process. A lot of the time, Spencer will just send me a beat that he made that he digs and sometimes I'll like it, [sometimes] I won't. But if I do, I usually send something back within a day or two. And we just work really, really quickly together. And it's really symbiotic and really fun. And then having Nelson come and play — he plays with Har Mar, you know, he's like a prolific, amazing, amazing instrumentalist with like a really cinematic mind. And he brings like, a totally new element to everything. So every song...we've done two songs so far, and we're working on more, but every time I send it to Nelson, I get a completely different song back. And it's always amazing to see what he can do even if there's very, very little on my end for him to work with. Sorry, my grandma called me.

Oh, hey, Grandma! You know, I think Jade was interviewing Michael Stipe and his mom called. So this is a thing that just happens. It's all in the family. It's good. It just happens. Yeah. So now was this the rural session, you were tweeting about being on a farm? Laying down some tracks?

Yes. So I just went down to a dairy farm for a little getaway with my sisters. And we were just kind of looking for a creative sabbatical, in a way. And we ended up recording just some covers, probably nothing we'll do anything with, but I am headed out to...I just booked a cabin for a week in Oregon by myself to go, right. I think perhaps I will write a one-woman show. Wow. Do you think I could pull it off, Jay?

Well, you are one woman. I've seen you put on a great show. So I don't know why you couldn't. I would go see it.

That's an honor.

Oh, absolutely. Well, then, you know, I get a sense...I'm glad for you that you ended up saying you're writing a one woman show there versus an album because I would love to hear that music. But at the same time, I know that just, like, as someone who works in music media, if you made an album in a cabin in Oregon, and then you went on tour and did interviews or talked about it, you'll be talking about making this music in the cabin, and it'll become a whole thing. It's like, Oh, it's Lydia's, like, cabin album. She went to the cabin in Oregon and got in touch with nature, and it would be just a whole thing. So yeah.

Here's what I'm thinking and I should probably run it past you — the script I write eventually — since you are a theater guy yourself.

I'd have to read it aloud to myself, so I wouldn't get spoilers before hearing it performed.

We can do like a test read together. Yeah. But I was thinking how fun would it be to write a biographical record? Well, acoustic, but then loop it into this longer sincere narrative that's also very humor-driven too and have that be my show.

I love that.

Yeah, it's so important for me to like get to actually connect with people, rather than just perform. So I would like to do something narrative based.

Well, you know, the Magnetic Fields did that album where he wrote a song for every year of his life, which is a brilliant concept. I love the songs. But you know what, I haven't listened to the whole thing, despite the fact that I am a big Magnetic Fields fan. That's just a lot to take in. But you know, if it's a stage show, I'd be trapped. I should've seen it at the Fitz, I had to do something else. They did the whole thing at the Fitz. But that would have been the way. But, so, this is great. You do the show. Right? And then you've got your...people are in it to win it.

Exactly. So that's my plan right now. That's my big pandemic project.

All right, well, so now I can't ask you another thing about your life because I don't want to I don't want to take anything away from the show. I want to know and learn learn it in musical drama form.

Oh my god. I'll grab my acoustic. I'll write you some songs. Right here right now.

That's great. Fantastic.

I'm just kidding. I'd get nervous.

Well, I will look forward to hearing it in whatever form it takes after your cabin sabbatical. Do you have any other plans for the spring or the summer? I know right now, it's really hard to make any kind of a plan because such an evolving public health situation and everything but anything you're kind of hoping for? Besides your creative getaway?

Man, I I don't know. I I'm just hoping that before it's all over I'll be able to cut...I know we don't have to walk out of the pandemic with our King Lear or anything like that, but I'd like to have accomplished some things you know, you know.

Maybe like a Prince or Princess Lear.

Yeah, something, you know. Doesn't have to be the whole thing, though. Not the magnum opus. I just didn't want to...dealing with a pandemic is emotionally sporadic. So I didn't want to put pressure on myself to have to do something. I don't know. Just really yeah, live day to day.

Well, it's been so inspiring to watch you this past year. Everything you've done as an advocate and as an artist and taking all these different platforms and different projects and just keeping yourself busy and creative when, as you say it's it's it's hard If you do feel like you should be like, I mean, I started a novel. Of course I did, right. You know, and you feel like this, like, oh, this is your time to do this. And you know, for some people it is, some people have done incredible stuff. You've done cool stuff. But yeah, it's okay to be like, you know what, I'm just trying to literally, like live through this, you know.

Yeah. This is like, this is a time we need to learn to be especially soft on ourselves. I think. I just, I mean, I before the pandemic, I had some touchstones of like, you know, this was a successful day because I managed this, this and this. But now with all of that gone, it's so hard to figure out what state you're going to be in.

Successful day, I put on pants...or did I put on an alien? I don't know!

The Fresno pants. I forget what...the Fresno alien. I think it's the Fresno Nightcrawler. We'll have to find it.

Okay. All right. Well, I will look forward to learning more about the aliens.