YouTube Discovery | Ep. 01 | Lisa Mishra - Live Covers

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Do you sing or dance? Yes. Do you think you are good enough? Yes. Would you sing in front of an audience? No. Why? *no answer*

Everybody has talent, everybody is funny. People act goofy all the time and you can see that on their Snapchat stories, Vine loops or Instagram videos. These are short lived moments that don't require planning - they are just point and shoot content. On the other end of the spectrum, some people are always looking to capture that perfect selfie to post it on Instagram and Facebook. Pictures are merely memories frozen in time. If capturing fraction of a second takes a dozen attempts imagine the efforts put into making YouTube videos.

In this series of posts, I'll be writing about unique and popular Indian music content that I come across on YouTube. In this post, I'll be writing about:
  1. How I discovered Lisa Mishra's YouTube channel
  2. Her content - Live covers (in Hindi and English)
  3. Questions I had after watching her videos
YouTube has been my primary source of entertainment for past 4 years. I've stopped watching mindless content on television. Instead I now watch them on YouTube. Apart from these mindless content, I am constantly in search of new channels to subscribe - be it technology, standup comedy, music covers or vlogs. A couple of days back I stumbled upon Lisa's channel when it popped up on my recommendations while I was browsing through another YouTube artist's channel. The first video I watched was this one.

And the first thing I notice was that she's actually singing it live and not lip-syncing to her recorded audio. I was like, WOW!! such rare breed of YouTube singers still exist in 2016.

So what exactly are live covers?
Live music covers are usually shot in one take with minimal instruments. They may require multiple retakes to finalize the perfect one. Being shot in one take also means that they are not always perfect. But that's the point of live covers; to make them real rather than perfect. Live covers require minimal editing since they are shot in one take. The only piece of editing is adding layering, harmony, reverb or editing out the start and end of video where you press the START and STOP recording button. They are usually shot using regular point-and-shoot cameras or smartphones. Lisa shoots her videos on her Canon 7D Mark II.

Coming back to her channel, so I started watching her other videos (the ones that had higher views :P). I realized that she sings English covers too. Upon further investigation (No... It's not called stalking!) on her channel I found a video where she talks about her background and about her equipments and processes that she uses for her videos. You can check out that video here. Lisa moved to United States when she was seven and has been trained in Western classical singing. She's been singing English covers on YouTube for over 7 years but it was only about a year ago that she started singing Hindi covers. 

I contacted her seeking permission to write about her channel on my blog along with some questions I was keen on getting answers too. And she gladly replied me back - Thanks Lisa for being approachable.

Before you guys read the interview, here are my TOP 3 PICKS from her channel:

1. Kabira - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Arijit Singh (Cover by Lisa Mishra)

2. Galliyan (Unplugged), Shraddha Kapoor, Ankit Tiwari - Ek Villain (Cover by Lisa Mishra)

3. Jeena Jeena (Female Cover by Lisa Mishra) | Badlapur | Atif Aslam, Varun Dhawan, Yami Gautam

Consolation (English Cover!):Love Yourself - Justin Bieber (Cover by Lisa Mishra)

Read on below to find out about my questions and her fitting answers

ME: Until Kabira, you were consistently getting couple of thousands of views on your videos. You recorded your first hindi song and it went viral. What went through your mind when it first crossed the 100k mark? How many subscribers did you have back then?

LISA: Initially, even that song was slow. The channel growth came with “Sun Saathiya.” And when it did I jumped from 300 to over 5,000 subscribers in a month. But “Kabira” is the one I treat like my baby. The first Hindi cover, arguably the least imperfect. It was fairly late to cross the 100k mark compared to my other videos, but it’s certainly the one I was happiest to see reaching the milestone. I felt finally a part of the YouTube music community. 


ME: This one ties back to the first question. You seem to be a lot more comfortable/in-your-zone singing english tracks than hindi songs but your viewers seem to love you more for hindi songs. Do you secretly wish that your english tracks got you same love from your viewers or are you okay with them liking just your hindi covers?

LISA: Of course! I don’t fault them for wanting me to sing Hindi songs, especially since almost my entire viewer base is from India. English songs are second nature for me, especially because of my background in blues/soul and hip-hop. I feel English shows a much larger range vocally than Hindi for me. But I’m not going to complain – I wouldn’t have viewers if it wasn’t for the Hindi songs, so their suggestions are paramount. 


ME: Most of your songs are guitar based melodies. Have you tried taking up different style of music or are you considering it for your upcoming videos?

LISA: I think something we have to admit about YouTube – which is not very glamorous – is how much work goes into branching out musically. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of mastering/mixing, collaborating, and in many cases extra funds to venture out instrumentally and musically.  I do all of my own editing/instrumentals/vocals/video/sound, so it’s a bit trickier. I certainly think about that every time I upload something but at the moment the economic and logistical constraints prevail. 


ME: With the kind of virality your covers have, do you feel bit disappointed with the rate of the growth of your subscribers? Would you prefer consistent loyal viewer base or on-the-fly viral success?

LISA: I think we’d all be lying if we said virality is the end goal. Of course, all of us would prefer consistent viewership but that has to do with your output. How often are you making content? Is what you’re making trending? I’m sure if I paid more attention to timing and demand, the viewership would increase but I’m not at all disappointed with where growth is right now. I’m eternally grateful for what I’ve got!


ME: How do you react to negative/hate comments? reply them, ignore them or spam them?

LISA: I’m lucky and thankful for getting only a few of those a month. But I do react if they question my integrity as a musician. Those comments really bother me. I pride myself on doing live covers, but the concept of live music – I guess with the number of highly produced videos out there – eludes many. It seems inconceivable to people that there are still musicians willing to perform live, to make imperfect covers. Don’t get me wrong, pre-recorded music can be great and aesthetically marvelous (for example, my Gerua cover was not live). But it can miss the magic and authenticity of one-take recordings. Additionally, people often equate my “virality” (I put this in quotes because I don’t consider myself well-known) to a gender bias in viewership. I call that out in comments all the time – we don’t give enough credit to women for the music they make. I dare you to tell Lataji or Shreya Ghoshal that they owe their success to their pretty faces.


That is all I have for this post in the series. I hope you liked it. If you did then feel free to share it. Let me know your favourite cover by Lisa Mishra or if you have any suggestions/feedback - in the comments below. Until then, Ciao...!

Her Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/hearlisasing

You can subscribe to her YouTube channel here:



Listen to her covers on SoundCloud:

If you liked this episode do check out my next episode with Siddharth Slathia and Saurabh Shetye:
YouTube Discovery | Ep. 02 | Siddharth Slathia - Indian Classical Music
YouTube Discovery | Ep. 03 | Saurabh Shetye - Acoustic Loop Covers

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