Playing her own tune

While music has played an important part in much of her life, it was only recently that Stephenville native Lisa Gillam decided to turn her attention to songwriting and recording an album.

"I started taking piano lessons in Grade 1, I eventually took lessons from Mary Dawson, I was involved in the Rotary Music Festival - anything that was musical, I was involved in it when I was growing up," says Ms. Gillam.

After graduating from St. Stephen's in 1988, she went on to study at Memorial University's School of Music and then worked as a music teacher in St. John's for about ten years.

Not satisfied with cutbacks to the education system, she moved to Asia to teach English as a second language.

"I went to Taiwan twice - I went in 2004 and I went back again in 2007," says Ms. Dawson.

Shortly after arriving in Taiwan the second time, she realized a career change was in order.

"I didn't want to be a school teacher anymore," says Ms. Gillam. "I bought a guitar over there and after about two or three months of performing cover tunes, I just started writing my own music."

She also taught herself to play guitar and then recorded a 12-track album at Aquamarine Studios in Taiwan.

"Ten of the songs are mine, one is by Joni Mitchell and one is by a good friend of mine [Pete Coulam] who I met while I was in Taiwan," she says.

"The album is more of an experimentation for me, because I only just started writing, I wanted to try a bunch of different styles. There's a little bit of humour on it, a little bit of sad stuff, basically just stories about different characters I made up in my head. I think I settled on somewhere between a country and a folk sound."

The self-titled CD was released in Taiwan in June and in St. John's on August. Ms. Gillam is set on taking to the road to support the album.

"I'm in the process of planning an Atlantic Canada tour for the fall," she says. "I'm hoping to come back to Stephenville in October or November."

For more information on Ms. Gillam, and to hear some of her music, visit www.lisagillam.com. Ms. Gillam's CD is also available locally at Arlim's and Partytime Sound.