Lisa Prank makes pure pop for punk people
Lisa Prank plays electric guitar with an inspiring command of power and nuance. The 11 tunes on Adult Teen, her debut album, capture the insouciant energy and upbeat confidence that makes punk rock irresistible. She combines bright, infuriatingly catchy bursts of melody with introspective lyrics that give the songs a vulnerable emotional depth.
“It’s fun to be onstage and play guitar, but it’s a rare thing when everything goes right in my life,” Prank says from her Seattle home. “When I’m feeling something intensely and need to express it, I go into my room and write a song.”
Onstage, Prank often appears alone, generating the sound of a full band with a Roland drum machine and her fervent singing and aggressive, rhythmic guitar attack. With the help of a few friends, she fleshed out her sound on Adult Teen, producing one of the best punk albums in recent memory.
“I live in a house with three members of Tacocat,” she says. “We recorded the album in my bedroom, so I could sing in my pajamas and be comfortable. Tacocat guitarist Eric and I worked whenever we had free time, so it was more like hanging out than making an album.”
Prank met the Tacocat gang when she was living in Denver, playing in her first band, LustCats Of The Gutters. “My friend Alex played drums, and I played guitar,” she says. “We were both learning our instruments, and it was super fun to play with her. I’d set up gigs for Tacocat when they came through town, and they’d set up things for me in Seattle. I always thought that if I lived in Seattle, we’d be best friends and hang out all the time. When I came out here, I moved in with them, and it all turned out to be true.”
— j. poet
