(soft music) - [Becky] Sometimes life gives you an opportunity to reflect on what you would do with a clean slate.

Our guest on this episode is Cuban born, Nashville based Lisset Diaz, singer, songwriter and front woman for the electrifying rock band, Sweet Lizzie Project.

♪ But I've thrown away my compass, done with the chart ♪ ♪ I'm tired of spinning around ♪ ♪ Looking for direction, Northern Star ♪ ♪ I'm tired of spinning around, I'll just step out ♪ ♪ Throw my doubt into the sea, what's meant to be will be ♪ - [Becky] Lisset Diaz has an interesting trajectory into the music scene.

At the same time, she was living her life as a biochemist and teaching at the University of Havana, she was also living the life of a musician and songwriter.

There, she met her creative partner, Miguel Comas, a worldclass engineer, producer, songwriter, vocalist, and lead guitarist, Comas believed in Lisset's ability to craft and deliver a song.

And together they established Sweet Lizzie Project.

It was a magical moment when Nashville independent producers Todd Jarrell and Todd Mayo made a trip to Cuba to scope location, and talent for a prime broadcast of the PBS Great Performances Production, "Havana Time Machine".

Sweet Lizzie Project with Lisset performing lead vocals was a featured act.

Also from that same trip, Sweet Lizzie Project found a friend and champion in Nashville's Raul Malo of the Mavericks, who was the featured performer in "Havana Time machine", thus breaking into the US music scene.

(singing upbeat Spanish song) - [Becky] In just a few years, this Cuban born quintet has gone from its members never having been in an arena to mesmerizing an audience of 20,000 people, including opening for their idols, Heart and Joan Jet.

Sweet Lizzie Project has three albums with the latest entitled "Pirate Radio".

♪ You can stop the sound coming through my speakers ♪ ♪ You can't shut the mouth of the true believers ♪ ♪ Last song plays, you can tell me no ♪ ♪ But you can't turn off my "Pirate Radio" ♪ - A recent US citizen, Lisset Diaz took time out of her busy touring schedule to visit with us at NPT.

So Lisset, it is so fun to have you here with us in Nashville.

It's your 10th anniversary with Sweet Lizzy Project.

How great is that?

- That is a word, yes.

(laughing) Yeah, it's been great.

- Would you have thought that from the beginning?

- Oh my God, no, no.

I don't know if you know, but I started biochemistry and molecular biology.

That's what I did, that was, I was gonna be a scientist.

I loved, I still love science, math, that was my thing.

But then at some point I decided that I wanted to write songs.

- Well, let's talk about that a minute.

You taught at the University of Havana, right?

- Yes.

For three years, I graduated and then I stayed there for like three years teaching younger generations.

- So, in Cuba, 'cause you're a native of Cuba.

And how was that?

What was your early life like that sort of took you on that trajectory to be a biochemist and then you are now this amazing, well, you were probably always an amazing musician, but how did you get here?

- Well, it has nothing to do with my childhood.

I don't have musicians in my family.

I don't have scientists either.

So I kind of did whatever I wanted to do.

But since I was a kid, I remember like, math was always something I really liked.

I loved the puzzles, I loved solving problems.

So I think it was that, what took me to the, you know, the path of science, but I always knew I loved singing, but to me, that was not something people would do, like for real, you know?

It was like, okay, I was born like this so I can sing anytime, whatever.

But definitely having a band or writing songs, that was stupid, I mean, why would I tell my feelings to other people?

Why would I just sing that out loud?

Until one day I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I felt like I needed to write something.

And I did and my mom gave me a guitar when I was 15.

And then I learned my first chord and then, I started putting music to those thoughts that I wrote and that was the first song.

And then I wrote another one and then another one.

And then I was like, I should record this just for fun, because then when I have grandkids, they'll be like, "Oh, my grandmother is so cool, look what, look at the songs she had."

And that was the beginning of the band.

Because when I put those songs out in Cuba, people wanted us to play them life and I didn't have a band.

It was only Miguel, I don't know if you remember Miguel.

- I do.

- And myself, so we were like, "Okay, who wants to play with us?

We have these songs, let's do it."

And then in 2017, we got a record deal and we came to Nashville.

- Unbelievable, you know, and I met you in 2017 because Great Performances, PBS's Great Performances came to Cuba to do "Havana Time Machine".

And with Raul Malo and the Mavericks, our mutual friends, Todd Jarrell, Todd Mayo, produced that.

- [Lisset] Yes.

- And of course are also the producers of Bluegrass Underground, which I think was your first show here, right?

- Yes.

- So how amazing is that, that, I mean, we connected from Tennessee right there in your home country, hometown of Havana.

- And it was really crazy.

I remember when Todd Jarrell and Todd Mayo, they showed up at the very little apartment we had in Havana, and we were very optimistic to call that a studio but we did.

And we spent, you know, all of our time there just writing music and recording music the best way we could with, we had literally nothing, everything was so old.

All the instruments, you don't have music stores in Cuba.

You can't buy strings or computers or nothing.

So everything was either refurbished or about to be broken.

It was very difficult.

So they showed up there and we showed them our music and they were so impressed.

I'm not sure if in a good way or in a weird way, just like, how do you do this here?

And they were thinking about this show, like they were looking for locations for they have, it was the very beginning of this thing.

- [Becky] Right.

- And before they left, they were like, "We're gonna quote you again and we're gonna do this show together."

They left and I remember we looked at each other and were like, we're not gonna see these people ever again because this business is filled with a lot of people that say a lot of things and then, you know how it goes.

And they came back and they showed up with a huge TV trucks and I remember the whole building.

Everybody was like, they couldn't believe what was going on.

And that was the beginning of "Havana Time Machine".

- It's so amazing to me and it is difficult to produce music there and produce a television show there, it was very difficult.

But of course those guys know that it's difficult to produce in a cave.

So it's pretty amazing.

- What is wrong with them?

- They're adventurous, they're, they're gonna get the music, they're gonna get it out there.

So I'm so glad that we met you.

I'm just so glad that you're here in Nashville.

And how is it that you got to Nashville?

- Well, filming that show, we met Raul Malo.

And Raul Malo is, you know, he's from, he was born in Miami, but both his parents were Cuban.

So, you know, it was, there was an immediate connection with him, of course, he loved the music and he was starting a record label, small record label back then.

And he thought it would be cool to have a Cuban band as the first band for his record label.

And that's how he got signed, again, right after he left from "Havana Time Machine" we're not gonna see this person again.

This is not gonna happen because he was like, "You have to come to Nashville and we have to record your album there."

I'm like, "Sure, sure, let's do that."

And we did.

- [Becky] Wow.

- He, yeah, he committed and we made it.

Not only me, the whole band.

- Right.

- We all came together.

- So, tell me about the band, it is amazing band.

Just talented musicians and.

- Yes, we're family.

We really are family, it's not, I know probably a lot of bands say this like, "Oh yeah, we're family."

No, no, no, no, no, we are, we changed our lives at the same time all together.

And that was hard.

It's not like taking a trip and then knowing that you're gonna be back home the next weekend.

- Right.

- It's not even going on tour, which we've done.

It was everything, we literally left everything behind, a successful career.

Our families, our friends, our home, our language, and just came here without really knowing what was gonna happen and what what really meant to come to the United States and record an album.

Which of course it was not only that, we had to get used to a new life.

- Right.

- And on top of that, we decided that we wanted to live together because we are that creative.

And back then we were touring so much that we were like, we should get a place together big enough for all of us.

And then we'll have a studio, we have rehearsal space and we won't be here that much anyways because we are traveling all the time.

- [Becky] Right.

- This was right before the Pandemic.

- Is that right before the pandemic, you, did you record "Technicolor" at that point, Your album "Technicolor"?

- Before, yes.

Actually, it was a long time to record, to finish "Technicolor" and then, you know, the process of an album, we were getting ready for it, putting this tour together and get, you know, getting all the assets, just getting ready, all the videos and then we put it out in February, 2020.

- Oh, so you couldn't tour.

- We couldn't tour.

I saw, I couldn't believe it at first because I'm like, this is my work, this has been my work for three years, the reason I came here and now this happens.

And not only that, like, we got stuck all together in the same house.

- Yes, yes.

- And, you know, it was a blessing because some bands couldn't get together for a year.

- Right.

- We could record, we could do like so many shows from our house.

And we created this really special connection with our fans, with our audience that I don't, I mean, it would've happened, but it definitely happened faster and deeper because of the context of the pandemic.

But at the same time, it was really frustrating and we couldn't tour this album.

I saw show by show getting canceled and that was hard in the beginning.

- Wow.

- And when you're living with so many other people and they're just different, maybe you have a good day and you're happy and you feel optimistic, but then your drummer is sad and then you're sad.

- Yeah.

- Because your drummer is sad, so, it's a very fragile environment and I just, I'm very surprised but I'm also very proud that we made it and we're still together.

And the pandemic was over.

That album was over and we released another album in both English and Spanish, and it was a lot of work.

- Oh my goodness.

Yes.

And I want to talk to you about that, 'cause it's called ""Pirate Radio"".

- "Pirate Radio".

(speaking Spanish) It's two separate albums.

- Wow.

And in doing that, so "Technicolor" was very much an Americana kind of sound.

- [Lisset] Yes.

- Even though that was, and that was not your very first album, but it was the first album here.

- Yes.

- But then "Pirate Radio", like you said, it's like a concept album.

- [Lisset] Yes.

- So tell me about that.

- I actually love that about "Technicolor".

It's a different kind of music, but it reflects the transition of the band from Cuba.

Some of the tracks were actually recorded in Cuba, and we kept them, the rest was recorded at Blackbird Studio.

So it has both, it has the sound of our little crappy apartment in Cuba and Blackbird Studio, which is crazy.

But that was that album.

The band has changed so much.

And then we came up with the idea of "Pirate Radio" and the story behind it is, so, I love that story so much.

I love the concept of the album.

It's supposed to tell a story from beginning to end.

Like if you listen to the whole thing, it's telling the story of someone, like an imaginary character that we created for the songwriting process.

And it was inspired by all this protests that happened in Cuba in 2021.

That is the first time that sort of like a revolution, like a real revolution kind of happened in Cuba.

So it's "Pirate Radio", because that was the only way people in Cuba, back in the seventies could listen to like rock and roll.

- Right.

- Because it was forbidden by the communist government.

So they, they would create like antennas, homemade antennas, homemade radio machines to get the signals and to be able to listen to this kind of music.

So that is the inspiration of the album, but it goes beyond that, it's about freedom of speech, it's about freedom of expression and how people should be able to just say whatever they want and express themselves.

And that's a concept of the album.

And if you know nothing about Cuba, it's fine, because the songs try to be as universal as possible.

- [Becky] Sure.

- I mean, freedom is a universal feeling, but if you're Cuban, I think it has a special meaning for you.

And we wanted that, we wanted it for the first time to talk to our community of Cubans inside and outside the island.

And that's also why we made it in Spanish for the first time, because we wanted them to know what we were saying for sure.

- What, I read one of the songs that it's not easy to translate a song because it's not just the lyrics do not just transition from song to song, right?

- Oh, it was a pain in the, it was a pain.

I thought it was gonna be easier because Spanish is my first language.

I'm way better in Spanish than in English.

You should listen to me in Spanish, I'm way smarter in Spanish.

And it was not, all the songs were, mostly all the songs were written in English first.

And then to translate them into Spanish was just like writing a new song.

And when you are writing a song, you repeat the same thing over and over again.

Just trying to get the perfect combination of music and words.

- Right.

Right.

- And then you get the perfect sound for you and you're like, I'm done, for this album was like, oh, you think you're done?

Forget about it, let's start all over.

And English and Spanish, the sounds are so different.

Spanish is a lot harder, like, it was just, but it was a really nice experience and a good songwriting exercise.

- Well, "Slip Away" was one of those songs, right?

- And that's my favorite song.

- I love that song.

I love that song.

- It's my favorite song.

It's a song about saying goodbye and it resonates so much with all of us.

It's about that moment when you have to talk to your friends and family and tell them that you have to make the very tough decision to leave and it's a point of no return because you don't know when you're gonna be able to come back.

And you're gonna miss a lot of all the people's lives.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- And I, that's the meaning of the song, but I also love how it starts very slow and then it grows until the end.

So yeah, my favorite song in both English and Spanish.

♪ But I don't wanna miss a thing ♪ ♪ Or be somebody's birthday wish ♪ ♪ I will slip away ♪ - You know, the premise of this show is clean slate and it gives you an opportunity to just share.

What would you do with a clean slate?

- I think I've done it, you know, clean slate in Spanish is (speaking Spanish), that's how we say it.

And it means sometimes that you're quitting, like you're just forgetting what you've done and you wanna start all over again.

But to me it's just another way to commit because you need to, sometimes you need to just surrender and you know, let things go to be able to keep doing what you love without burning yourself out, right?

So I've gone through very drastic changes in my life, you know, changing careers, for example.

That was one, then changing the country and now I feel like I'm in the middle of the new clean slate, I just got my citizenship, yay.

- To the US.

- Yes.

- Wow.

Congratulations on that.

- Yes.

And that means a lot at so many levels.

And to me, we're, the guy, everyone knows now, we're getting a new house and we are starting a new project.

I'm writing music again that has nothing to do with whatever I was doing before.

And every time I start a new album, it feels like it's a new project, but it feels like a new life for me.

Because it is gonna be a completely different journey.

I'm in the middle of my clean slate.

- That's so great though, Lisset and you and Miguel are partners, co-creators.

You've just really launched this whole career together.

- Yes.

And it's been a huge responsibility as well because it was our idea to come here.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- And to bring everybody.

So it's like you feel like you have to come up with a plan all the time.

Not only for yourself, but for the band.

- [Becky] Right.

- Personally and professionally.

- [Becky] Right.

- And that's a responsibility.

You feel responsible for all the people's lives.

So, but with, I feel like we've done well.

- Oh, you've done amazing, really.

You have and you know, I loved Cuba.

I loved being there.

And it, the people are so wonderful and it's beautiful and yes it is.

It is, it has struggled.

And it's only 90 miles from the United States.

- I know.

- That's what is crazy to me.

It's like driving, in Middle Tennessee, it's like driving from Cookeville to Nashville, you know, it's crazy to me that it is so close and yet feels so far away.

And what does that feel like now for you being a US citizen, but that is your home.

How do you feel?

- It's a mix of feelings.

I love Cuba, we all do.

And I love everything about Cuba, I love the nature.

I love the people.

I love the, you know, the feeling of a home.

- Yes.

- That I have to say Nashville is my second home, but, you know, all my childhood memories are in my bedroom.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- In Cuba.

But at the same time, it's exactly what you're saying.

We've traveled all over the United States and it's just, some of the places are way further away than Cuba and it's just so hard to go there.

And once you get there and you see how bad things are, it's just heartbreaking.

And it makes us both really sad for the people we left behind.

And there's still there so many talented musicians that are just not able to do and live their life to its full potential.

But at the same time, it makes us feel so grateful and so blessed for the opportunity that we got.

And just, it really gives me strength to keep doing everything I can.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- To achieve goals and dreams.

- Lisset, that's what "Pirate Radio" really is about.

Right?

- Yes.

- I mean, tell me that title track again.

Just describe that title track.

- "Pirate Radio" is, it's a very, how do I say that?

It's rebellious is a word, like that.

- It is rebellious, it is.

- It is, it's about standing up for what you believe and fighting hard for what you want.

In this case, it's music, it's freedom, but it could be anything.

And I, what I love about the track is that it really sets the spirit of the album and it's so rock.

It's the first song that we have, you know, after "Technicolor" that was a different kind of music.

And this is, it hits hard.

- [Becky] Right.

- And it hits hard to the audience, but it hits me hard when I perform it.

And I love that about music.

- Yeah.

If you could change one thing right now that would make such a difference for you, what would that be?

- I try not to think about those things and here's why.

I like to believe that things happen for a reason.

I don't know if this is maybe my mechanism to cope with life and just to keep moving forward, but I do like to learn from, from mistakes and from things that didn't go well in the past.

I would be less people pleasing, I would say.

And, but that's something that comes with age and experience and being in the position that with Ben was hard, you know, I felt so powerless.

- Yeah.

- When I got here.

- Right.

- I didn't know how things worked, I was learning all the time, so, I was not very independent and I've learned that the band could be so independent and so self-sufficient in so many ways and we didn't, maybe, we didn't exploit that as much as we could have right after we got here.

So that is something that I feel that I've learned from and that it'll be definitely a new skill for all of us, for the future, for this clean slate.

- What are you most excited about going forward?

- Really?

My American passport, because I'm gonna travel a lot, as much as I can, that's a big thing, but- - I love that.

I love that.

- I'm really excited about that.

- We're gonna follow you on that.

- Man, I always wanted, since I was a kid, that was my dream, I mean, I love music.

- [Becky] Yes.

- But one huge motivation for me to pursue music as a career was that I wanted to tour, I wanted to take my passion to the world, I wanted to see, we're here in this world for a second.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- And it's all about meeting people.

It's about people and places.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- So music gave me that I'm here because of music and I wanna go everywhere with my music.

So I'm very excited about that.

I'm very excited about touring.

There are so many places in the United States that I haven't seen yet.

And then the world.

- Who do you think we take for granted the most here, in this country?

That we could learn from you.

- I could go from 12 different brands of toilet paper to your freedom to say whatever you want.

And I know it might sound like a cliche or because you don't see it but coming from where I come from, there's certain things that you just cannot, it's not that you cannot say them, you shouldn't be even thinking about it.

And the fact that you can fight over politics, like, sometimes I see people fighting over politics and then they get very like, angry and I'm like, this is just beautiful.

Just the fact that you can do it.

- Right.

- And nobody's gonna go to jail, it's just fine.

I mean, it's not fine that you're fighting over dinner.

But it's okay that you have your opinion and you have and it's all good.

- Yeah.

- And that's what keeps the country moving forward.

So Yeah.

- Yeah.

I saw you on "Ear to the Common Ground" doing that.

That was pretty good, pretty good.

- Yeah, I love that show.

- [Becky] Yeah, I do too.

- Very thoughtful.

- I like that show too.

Thank you so much for taking this time.

You are so amazing.

- Thank you for having me, this was a lot of fun.

- It, always.

- Always.

(soft music) ♪ I've thrown away my compass, done with the charm ♪ ♪ I'm tired of spinning around in one direction ♪ - Tell me something that people would be surprised to know about you.

- I love puzzles.

Like, I have a problem.

I love them so much that I don't do it often because once I start, I just cannot do anything else.

I would spend hours and I like the big ones, like the thousand thousand, 15 hun.

- [Becky] Five thousand.

- Yeah.

As big as possible and as complicated as possible.

Like I'll be cooking and then I'll be like, okay, lemme just, and that's it.

That was all the cooking I did.

And I could go on with several other activities that just, I just cannot do while I'm doing, I love puzzles so much.

I would finish a show at 2:00 AM in the morning, get home and I'm tired, right, but it doesn't matter.

I'll be doing the puzzle until 6:00 AM.

- I know what I'm getting you for Christmas.

(laughing) - Really?

- Yeah.

Hey, six years ago you recorded a song, "Turn up the Radio", I saw it on YouTube, it was so cool.

And it looks like maybe it was shot in Cuba.

- It was.

- [Becky] Can you tell me about that?

- It was, it was the only video that we shot in Cuba, "Turn up the Radio" is the English version of a super Latin hit that's called "Súbeme la radio" by Enrique Iglesias and Descemer Bueno.

Descemer Bueno is a Cuban artist.

And he came to us when the song came out in Spanish, of course.

And he was like, "Could you do an English version of this song?"

I wasn't necessarily in love with the song.

It's just a different thing from what I do.

But I thought, this is gonna be great because he's gonna introduce the English version to someone, like someone famous and they're gonna do the song and then it'll be great for me and I have nothing to do with that, but it's just a great opportunity.

He listened to the song and he loved it so much that he thought it would be a great opportunity for the band to like, make a video and he would share it on his socials and all that.

We didn't have cameras, this is Cuba, Right.

- [Becky] Okay.

- [Lisset] We didn't have cameras, we didn't have money, we didn't have anything.

We didn't even have time because he wanted this like, as quick as possible because he wanted to take advantage of, you know, the boom of the song.

So we found this location that, as you can see in the video, it was quite dangerous.

The building was literally falling.

And we thought that to add some value to the production, I would, I mean, we would perform the song live.

We had to record the song, like the sound, the computer would shut down every five minutes because it was so freaking hot.

So yeah, that was a story of "Turn up the Radio" and from the moment we've got the idea 'til the moment we edited the whole thing and posted it, it was 72 hours.

- [Becky] Oh my goodness.

- [Lisset] Maybe.

And it's, I think it's my favorite video, my sweet music project.

Because it was so spontaneous and it just, it happened.

like magically happened in 72 hours.

And I love that.

- [Becky] I love it too.

It's great.

It's great.

You're great.

♪ Turn up the radio ♪ ♪ Turn up the radio ♪ ♪ I don't give a damn, I don't wanna cry ♪ ♪ With nothing left to lose, no reason to try ♪ ♪ Still I don't forget you ♪ ♪ I love you and I hate you ♪ ♪ For all this mess you left behind ♪ ♪ And now I'm running out of time ♪ ♪ I kiss you goodnight, just stuck in my mind ♪ ♪ I drown at the bars and pretend that I'm fine ♪ ♪ I go back in time, I can't leave behind ♪ ♪ Not even one day, there was a time alive ♪ ♪ Turn up the radio, listen to the my songs ♪ ♪ Feel the beats coming off strong ♪ ♪ Losing control, troubles are gone ♪ ♪ Let's bring together the moon and the sun ♪ ♪ Turn up radio, listen to my song ♪ ♪ Feel the beats coming off strong ♪ ♪ Losing control, troubles are gone ♪ ♪ Let's bring together the moon and the sun ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Come to me baby, after all the waiting ♪ ♪ You know how much I love you ♪ ♪ I can't let you go ♪ ♪ Come to be baby, after all the waiting ♪ ♪ You know how much I love you ♪ ♪ I can't let you go ♪ ♪ Turn up radio, listen to my song ♪ ♪ Feel the beats coming off strong ♪ ♪ Losing control, troubles are gone ♪ ♪ Let's bring together the moon and the sun ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn it up now ♪ ♪ Troubles are gone, the moon and the sun ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ (audience clapping) ♪ Turn up radio, listen to my song ♪ ♪ Feel the beats coming off strong ♪ ♪ Losing control, troubles are gone ♪ ♪ Let's bring together the moon and the sun ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ ♪ Turn up radio ♪ (bell ringing) (electrical buzzing) ♪ After all the waiting ♪ ♪ You know how much I love you ♪ ♪ I can't let you go ♪ ♪ Turn up the radio ♪ (upbeat music)