Interview: Lisa Loeb

For Moment Magazine

Lisa Loeb achieved fame in an unusual way. After her song Stay was used in the rolling credits of Reality Bites, the Generation X period movie starring Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder, Loeb became the first unsigned artist to have a single reach number one on the charts. In recent years the song and Loeb herself have become a cultural touchstone for nineties nostalgia and have been featured on numerous TV shows from The Colbert Report to New Girl. The 90’s were great, but the Grammy-nominated Loeb, still rocking her signature cats-eye glasses, is anything but stuck in the past: Producing eight studio albums, publishing two children’s books, starring in a reality dating show and a cooking show and even starting her own line of eyewear, the mother of two tells Moment about how her religion impacts her music, her Camp Lisa foundation and her 100 pairs of eyeglasses.

Has Judaism influenced your music?

Absolutely. The whole tradition of Torah study is to look at things from a lot of different angles. The attention to words and attention to how they sound and the melodies that are ingrained in all of us from religious ceremonies have had a huge impact on how I create music.

Who are some Jewish musicians who have influenced you and your music?

The band KISS was a big influence. They were very theatrical. Great songwriters like Carole King, Barry Manilow, countless other Jewish songwriters. And of course the many, many Jewish musical theater writers.

Why do you think Stay has remained so popular?

It’s funny how it has become this iconic song for a specific time. When a song is popular and people connect to it, they don’t ever stop connecting, it brings back memories while still being timeless. Everyone has had that experience. There are songs that were super popular when I was little and it just brings me back to hear them. And that’s what Stay is for so many people.

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