Music interview: Lisa Ronson

Of all the careers for the daughter of a 70s rock hero to pursue, accountacy would not perhaps be high on many people’s lists.

But Lisa Ronson freely admits she had a rebellious streak when she was young. While her late father Mick Ronson is fondly remembered as the glammed up guitarist in David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars and her mother, Suzi, was the hairdresser who created the famous Ziggy Stardust red feather cut, Lisa was determined to follow her own path – into the world of book-keeping.

“My mum wanted me to go into music and you just want to do something that your parents don’t understand – they didn’t understand accounting,” she chuckles, “so yeah, I thought that’s it, you know? I thought accounting would be a nice, stable, smart thing to do, so I did that.” Accountancy remains Lisa’s bread and butter – just before we speak she had flown back to her former home city, New York, to sit some accountancy exams – however these days she is also known as singer, initially with the American indie rock group Secret History and latterly, since she relocated to London, as a solo artist.

“It kind of just happened, in a way,” she says, matter of fact. “I was doing my accounting education in New York and one random night I went online and thought, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll just join a band’. I went to The Village Voice and answered a few ads and I didn’t think too much about it. I got a few responses but one that was quite interesting that I ended up going on the audition for – and that ended up being the band that I joined for seven years which was my first experience of singing and that was invaluable.”

Her electro-rock debut solo album, Emperors of Medieval Japan, came out late last year and features two more of Bowie’s collaborators, Earl Slick and Reeves Gabrels.

“Tom Wilcox, who is one of my partners in this music thing, did a talk at the ICA [Institute of Contemporary Arts in London] with Reeves and then afterwards was talking about what we were doing together and invited him to come and play on it,” Lisa explains. “He was more than happy to contribute so that was great – and the same with Earl.”

While her formative listening might not have included the records that her father made 
with David Bowie between 1970 and 1974 – “Absolutely not,” she says, “that’s my parents’ music, that was boring and old, I wouldn’t listen to that, I liked rap music” – latterly she has been performing some of those classic songs with Holy Holy, the band formed by Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey and Bowie’s frequent producer Tony Visconti.

Last year they presented the album The Man Who Sold the World live in its entirety for the first time. “That was a lot of fun,” Lisa says. Woodmansey was also able to share some memories of her father, who died in 1993 when Lisa was 15. He and Mick Ronson had known each other from the Hull music scene before they both moved to London to join Bowie’s band. “He’s really down to earth, the accent and everything,” Lisa says of Woodmansey. “It’s a Hull thing I guess, like mannerisms and an accent that kind of reminds me of my dad. He’s around the same age as well.”

Next month Lisa is due to undertake a six-date UK tour playing songs from another Bowie album, Station To Station, with Earl Slick and Bernard Fowler. “I’m singing back-up for the tour and I’m also opening with my own stuff,” she explains.

On April 23 she will also take part in Rock For Ronson, a celebration of her father’s life and legacy that has been organised by Steve Harley at Hull City Hall. The aim is to create a scholarship for local musicians in Mick Ronson’s memory.

“I don’t think my dad would’ve liked a statue, I don’t think that that was really his style,” Lisa says. “A plaque would be all right but what I think would be nicer is if it generated some funds that could help someone else that’s young and up and coming and figuring it out, that could help from a background similar to my dad’s to take a step into a direction that can hopefully shape their lives and contribute in a positive way.”

For details on Rock For Ronson visit www.steveharley.com. For more on Lisa Ronson visit www.facebook.com/LisaRonsonMusic/