As an indie artist 13 years of releasing albums is a remarkable feat.  Many indie artists are lucky to last a few years before giving up.  Yes, some indie artists may still play their local bar circuit but to last 13 years and release seven albums over that time period is something remarkable.  ISSA, Norwegian rock queen as she is described in her press releases, released her seventh studio album Lights of Japan in January 2023.  The album was produced by Michele Guaitoli, who also cowrote two of the songs on the album, played guitar and bass on the album.  Issa’s husband James Martin and his brother Tom Martin both former members of the UK band Vega, wrote the rest of the tracks.  James also plays keyboards on the album.  Other musicians contributing to the album are Marco Patorino on rhythm guitar and Marco Andreeto on drums. Giovanni Barbetta also provides a killer saxophone on the song “Moon of Love.”

I was able to catch up with Issa for a brief interview about the album and her career.  

Okay, so we’ll start off with a basic question. How did you get started in music?

Issa: Oh my gosh, how did I get started in music? I think I’ve always like been into music, like from a very young age.  Pretty much I started when I was maybe I can’t remember 16, and I started to work for, it was like a studio, almost like for young artists and I got a reception job there, weirdly enough, and I seem to work myself up there. So that’s sort of how I got my foot into, performing and, going on stage and I was really, really young. I got to learn to obviously, perform in a studio, and, all these things. I’m obviously, super grateful for that.  I think, after that, I used to sneak into the karaoke clubs, and, get on the scene a little bit, and, do singing that way. After that I got picked up for, it was a cover band in Norway. So we were like, sweet girls doing rock songs, basically. We used to travel up and down the country for years. It was good money and all that. I learned so much from that time in my life. That was kind of like, I don’t know, it was a start of something, I developed from there and obviously got on quite a lot in the Oslo scene, I was quite into the metal scene. I had all our friends in that that circle. One day, Michael Erickson from Circus Maximus. He just phoned me up and he said, Listen, I have talked to this label, showed some of your songs and you know, that and I was like, Oh, most of these bands don’t go anywhere, really. So I think I just approached it as really an experience more than maybe a career, if that makes sense.

So I was talking to Frontiers about doing this record, which was my first record. And at that point, I was traveling to Sweden to do all my recording things, and you know, I didn’t really think too much about, whether where this was gonna go and I’ve realized I’m sitting here like 12 years and after having done seven albums, and you know, wherever else. So, yeah, long story short, basically yeah, it was good. So that’s basically how I got into into the music industry.

Well, you talk about releasing seven albums and doing this for 12 years or so. Looking back at that, did you ever expect this, did you ever expect to release seven albums over your career?

Issa:  No, I used to look at you I think it’s fun to release an album. I never thought it would be, you know, so many years after and I’m still doing it. So, ya no, I didn’t expect that at all. You know, I’ve seen bands, I’ve seen them come and I’ve seen them go, after they release an album. Yes. So it was it was a huge surprise. That you know, I’ve come this far.

You mentioned seeing bands release one or two albums and then kind of disappear. What do you tribute to your success and you being able to last as long and release seven albums?

Issa:  I don’t know.  I think all I can do is just, obviously, do the music I like, and perform as good as I can, and I think, obviously, because I got on the scene 12 years ago, I don’t know if there were that many girls doing exactly what I did, especially maybe not on Frontiers at that time. So it kind of gave me that audience more than I think you would get today. I think it’s much more saturated the whole market. So I think I was quite lucky to get in at the time. I did. And yeah,I had Frontiers Records. Obviously, they’ve been very supportive throughout the 12 years. So I think that’s, that’s how it’s been.

So what keeps you motivated to keep releasing new music to keep going on tour?

Issa: Well, basically, this last album Lights of Japan has been a huge turnaround, Back three or four albums ago, I did an album called Crossfire, and I did that with my husband, James Martin. James and Tom Martin, they used to be in Vega, but they’re really, really good songwriters. We did an album together at that point, and sort of like, approached Frontiers with it, we kind of gave them the product rather than them sort of bringing it to me. At that point, I really wanted to, work in house here. So we released but I don’t think Frontiers was happy with it. After that, they came back and said, Well, you know, listen, it’s a good album, but I think we’re going to take charge now we want to sort of like look at who’s going to produce your albums going forward. So I so ended up working with Alessandro Del Vecchio since then, and yeah, it’s, it’s been, it’s been absolutely great. But I feel like I have the chance to step back again now and work with my team here. So obviously, it was a good time working with Alessandro because I’ve had my children in this time and have a lot of things going on. So it was very nice for him sort of, like take the reins a bit if that makes sense. Now I’m back working with the guys and we’ve done Lights of Japan and it’s been such a uplift in everything, it’s just been great and given me a huge motivation, something like going forward and just kind of working more internally with everything. So that’s been a huge uplift. 

James and Tom wrote a lot of the songs on the album Lights of Japan, did you give them ideas for songs? Or did they just write the songs themselves and pitch them to you as demos?

Issa: So yeah, that is funny, I went to Frontiers and I said listen, I’m not sure I really want to do another album, if we are just gonna do the same thing over and over again. I actually had, not an argument, but I just said to them, listen, I just don’t want to do this anymore. If it’s going to be the same thing going over and over. So they said to me, great, here’s another producer, we’ve interviewed quite a lot of producers for you, he is Michele (Guaitoli) have a chat with him and see how things feels, and we did. I think to begin with, I was originally supposed to write all the songs with Michele, me and him was supposed to sort of like, create the album in eight weeks.  We have eight weeks to create the album, that is a very cramped time. So I was talking to James and he was happy to kind of step up and, and start writing some songs.  That’s kind of how we went on. Michele in his words, he just said, I don’t want to dictate this album or that you got to sing my songs. So that’s how we went forwards. So the songs, obviously, we’re busy household. James coming here, he’ll call me and say what do you think of this idea, and that’s how it was made. I don’t think it’s any specific way we’ve done it. It’s just here’s an idea, what do you think? We’ll try and do some vocals now. We’ll try and, you know, record this or do that and kind of created it that way.

You mentioned Michele, the producer, and he also played bass and guitar on the album and helped to write a couple of those songs. What was it like working with Michele?

Issa: He was great. He was as passionate as we were about the record, which was great. You know, I think at one point, we had such a big discussion about a song, but I think he said, I don’t want to put my name on this, you know, just, I don’t want to sound like this. So, we were all really passionate. And it’s, it’s really good to see that.  You don’t want to work with somebody that’s just there to assist you, you want somebody to put their heads into things as much as you do, so he definitely did and that was really, really nice.  Between the four of us there was a lot of sending files over, we would sort of like do a demo here send it over to Michele, he would look over it and he might come back with a different sort of structure or you know, a different way of doing the song and yeah, we’ve created like that, but yeah, he’s a really great guy.

When you are looking at a song and considering a song for your album, what are you looking for in that song? Is there something particular you’re looking for?

Issa:  Yeah, so for this album definitely there was.  I think from the get go we wanted to do something that was more melodic this time, hard rock, as I’ve done before, we wanted to sort of like get that 80s feel a little bit so that was where we started up. Then obviously, you know when a song is good. Sometimes we can, we can sit here and do a song and it just doesn’t fit me, it just doesn’t suit me and other times you can just do something that just sounds really, really good. So that’s why sometimes, doing it in house and doing it at home and working close together with people that, you know, would be a huge difference to sort of, like be given songs, try and sing the song. Because it’s difficult to have that communication, I think with, with another songwriter about what you could maybe change and do better therefore, I think it was better to work in house for me for this record.

When you are picking musicians to perform with you, not only on a record, but when you go on tour, what do you look for? What characteristics or quality are you looking for in that musician?

Issa: So, on this record, it was more or less left to Michele as to who’s going to play on the record it’s more about actually how it sounded. Because we live, we obviously we live worlds apart, like we live far away from each other. It’s not as easy to go touring the world together. You know, for me, if the right opportunities come along, I would love doing more live stuff, especially maybe now that, I’ve got more time on my hands. But as for musicians, when you do records, you just want musicians that sound great, that has what that song needs. Obviously, playing live, that’s a whole different kettle of fish, because it’s, it’s about where you live, you know, gotta fly somebody over from the other side of the world, financially how this thing gonna stack up. On the video I had completely different people then who actually played on the record, and that was mainly to do with budgets. Michele is a very busy guy, he’s got so many other things he’s traveling all over the world, so playing on video comes down to the situation. Because I’m a solo act, obviously, things are a little bit different, I have to pay people to come and play with me, because I’m not in a band. So things are just a little bit different, it just depends on the situation where I’m going, if I’m going to Italy, if I’m playing in England, it might be slightly different.

What’s up next for you in 2023? You released the album in January, what’s up next for the rest of the year?

Issa: We are super busy we are doing quite a lot of songwriting at the moment. So that’s been a huge part of sort of, like, every day, we we’re just working on a duet that’s going on there. So have that coming out in the next year. It’s James’s project, but, I’m still part of a lot of the work behind it. So, we’re just working on the songwriting, that’s the main thing, I think, seeing other projects that we are working on come to life. So for the next year, I think we’ll just work on songs and, sort of hold some back I guess.  But yeah, I’d love to do more live stuff now I’ve been a bit quiet over the last few years.

Rock fans and fans of Issa and generally I think will enjoy the new album Lights of Japan.  Issa’s seventh album and she is still going strong.  Here is hoping the album is a huge success for Issa and that more new music is released in the years to come.

Interview by I’m Music Magazine Writer Tim Board