YET ANOTHER BARBADIAN artiste is working on being signed to a major record label.
Lisa Howell, who has relocated to New York and is now known as Lisa Angel, is negotiating with VP records for either a distribution or recording deal.
Lisa Angel flew into Barbados specifically to perform at last week’s Reggae On The Hill, where she talked about her latest exploits and her frustration with both the treatment meted out to artistes at shows and the lack of standards.
The singer, who has been in the business as a background vocalist, vocal coach and upfront singer for close to 20 years, released her debut album NuBridges4Me last year.
Since Lisa Angel moved to New York, changed her name and was courted by VP, the album has been renamed Welcome To LA (Lisa Angel)/The Journey and has undergone some changes to the songs and sound.
She did a remake of Alicia Keys’ Broken Hearts, which is on VP’s Covers For Lovers Reggae II album.Lisa Angel said her work with VP and the album had been a real journey, and she had learnt a lot from the Jamaican producers, who also offered some good advice.
She said she was doing a lot more writing and also working with some Jamaican producers with a view to adding a more authentic reggae sound to the tracks.
Her displeasure with the treatment of local artistes and the low standards heightened at Reggae On The Hill, and Lisa Angel broke her silence on the treatment she and other artistes had to endure for years.
“Basic things like bringing a make-up artist and a stylist, problems. When you do request these things, you’re known as a person who is creating trouble, or wants too much because the international artistes are not requesting that . . . as an artiste you have a right to step up your show to a level,” she stated.
She said she also met resistance to bringing a violinist to enhance her popular track Gangsta, even though it was at her expense. There was also difficulty with her insistence on bringing a musical director, she said.
“All it’s really doing is enhancing my performance. I’ve set standards for many reasons as an artiste, as a vocal performance coach, in terms of knowing what is basically needed and in terms of international standards, and I refuse to drop my standards. I’ve always been known for putting on a show,” she said.
Lisa Angel said her management had to step in and insist that her demands be met.
“It’s about my standards as an artiste, because at the end of the day I have to feel good about my performance. It’s not a hobby; it’s really my job, and I take it so seriously. That is the problem I have with the local artistes: . . . people don’t step up their standards,” she said.
She also had issues with the two dressing rooms for the full cast of local artistes, which were a distance away from the five separate ones for the Jamaicans acts who had separate rooms each.
Lisa Angel is preparing for a promotional tour to some of the major cities in the United States and will also be looking to hit Europe and Canada.
