Lisa Mednick

Lisa Mednick has been around the musical block. She began studying classical piano at age seven. Continuing her studies until she dropped out of college, she then moved from Ann Arbor, MI, to Washington, D.C., and from there to New York City. Mednick launched her first band, Pop Decay, there and played on a record by Half Japanese. After an audition with Joe Jackson, she enrolled at the Howard University Music Conservatory in Washington, D.C., to study jazz. She also studied with John Malachi and, in 1984, moved to New Orleans to study with Charles Neville. There, Mednick backed Earl King and joined the Song Dogs, later moving to Austin to form the acoustic duo Ship of Fools with Bill Conley. She then played with Alejandro Escovedo's Orchestra and both recorded and toured with the Chills on their Soft Bomb tour. After another tour with Michelle Shocked, she formed Friendly Fire. Artifacts of Love, on DejaDisc, was her first solo album.