Lisa Goldin, who is among the cast of Killer Queen, which has final performance at Umhlanga’s Barnyard Theatre this weekend. Next month Goldin returns to Gauteng to work on her own material and promote her debut album.
2GOODLIFE
27 May 2016, by Billy Suter
Singer Lisa Goldin will spend the next three days completing her role in Killer Queen, the fun, touring Queen tribute show which ends its season this weekend at Umhlanga’s Barnyard Theatre. Then she will head home to shelve the hits of Freddie Mercury and concentrate on her own music.
She has been associated with the show for some while, having spent six weeks performing in it in Gauteng.
“I’m loving the Killer Queen show, as Freddie’s music is one for the books – but in June I’m heading back to Joburg to work with my band and focus on songwriting,” says the blonde star who joined the Barnyard circuit after having performed in Dubai.
It was in that city that she put together an album of her own songs with assistance from producer Stoyan Stoyanov.
“I’d already decided, in January 2013, to head back to South Africa with the hope of being signed. My manager at the time, Dean Scott, happened to be the production manager of the Barnyard for years before, and suggested I should audition for their shows. to line up work while moving back to South Africa .”
Duck Chowles, producer of Barnyard productions, then headed to Dubai for an Elvis tribute show and set up an audition for Goldin.
“I didn’t hear anything for months, but pursued shopping my music to SA labels and setting up meetings during a holiday I’d planned in the July. Two days before leaving Dubai, Duck offered me a role in a production for six months in Pretoria and Cape Town. So my holiday turned into my journey back home. Six months later I was signed to David Gresham Records. Pretty Surreal looking back!’
Goldin says she has been singing, dancing and acting since she was a tot at nursery school, but her training started in school choirs.
“I had great teachers, and warming up to scales vocally is still part of my daily routine,” she says.
“From eisteddfods to the Southern Transvaal Choir, to a musical theatre course in Pretoria, then studies in the UK. I learnt about studio, composition, improvisation, performance, theory and vocals. I am always learning, though, so it doesn’t ever stop.”
During her time in the UK in 2008, Goldin met a lot of musicians on the songwriting and gig circuit among them a little-known Ed Sheeran, with whom she shared a stage at the 15 Minute Club at St Katherine’s Dock in London.
Goldin was working with Laurence Hobbs at the time. He had produced for Pixie Lotts in her earlier career, and The 15 Minute Club was a songwriting showcase he ran. “Singers would contact us with their biography and demo to see if we could arrange them to showcase their songs in 15 minutes (about three songs),” explains Goldin.
“Laurence asked me to run the St Katherine’s Dock venue as MC. It was a great night, exposing all kinds of music and songwriters. One of those nights included Ed Sheeran – and he showed then that he was a natural-born superstar! Ed was pretty young then, and his dad was still taking him everywhere, so he wasn’t really someone I kept in touch with. Damn! I remember his performance like it was yesterday; breathtaking and honest. He is a humble soul, and I love working with people like that. Each Sunday, at The 15 Minute Club I’d set up the sound, find out all about who was performing, soundcheck them, open the night with my originals, and begin to introduce each artist and manage their sound. We always had a jam after all the artists had performed, so that was as close as I got to duet with Ed.”
Goldin’s travels also saw her spend six months in Ibiza, where she had a residency at Teatro Pereyra, opening for acclaimed African American soul singer Barbara Tucker. A friend offered me a contract performing in Ibiza with a seven-piece band. I was only meant to stay for two months, but spent the whole season there. In the last three months, Barbara Tucker was the headliner. We’d open for her and Barbara would join us on stage, which took the roof off!”
Ibiza was special for Goldin, she says, as the owner of Teatro Pereyra, Eric-Jan Harmsen, took her under his wing and mentored her into the songwriter and performer she is today.
After the Ibiza Season, Goldin returned to London and performed alongside Jessie J at the elite Pigalle Club. She also opened for a gig for Scouting for Girls.
“After performing in Asia and the Middle East for five years, gaining experience from all things in the name of music, it was time to focus on my songwriting. Signing to David Gresham Records six months after landing in South Africa again, working in Barnyard Theatres, rebuilding a kick-butt band, and writing a book about what it takes being a musician, have taken up a lot of my time. I know what it takes and I am here to make it,” says Goldin.
Her soon-to-be-released debut album, recorded in 2014-2015 with Ziggy Adolph producing, and which Goldin likes to label as a sound she calls “GoldinPop”, features her on both vocals and piano.
It contains the single My Fire a song she loved from the start, says Goldin: “An inspiring song that Sarah de Courcy wrote, it is now playing on radio station and supported by press across South Africa, for which I am grateful. I had the honour of performing it on SABC’s Expresso and e.tv’s Sunrise, and I was interviewed on News 24 Live.”
What’s next for Goldin?
“We are soon to release an acoustic version of My Fire, with a video where I play keys and sing. I am ecstatic about this version!”
Long-term goals are to be recognised as an international singer-songwriter. ” Ultimately, number one,” adds the Sandton-based entertainer.
“My Fire” Official Video
Lisa Goldin, My Fire (Acoustic)
Soundtrack Available Worldwide on iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon & all digital outlets:
* iTunes: http://bitly.com/MyFireAcousticiTunes
* GooglePlay: http://bitly.com/MyFireAcousticGooglePlay
* Amazon: http://bitly.com/MyFireAcousticAmazon
Vocals, Piano and Arrangement by Lisa Goldin
Music Produced by Ziggy Adolph at David Gresham Records
Video Produced by Explosure Productions (http://explosureproductions.co.za)
Composed by Sarah de Courcy
All Rights Reserved to David Gresham Records