As the tutu-wearing lead singer of Milkshake the Band, Lisa Mathews is having the time of her life. Whether it’s performing with fellow bandmates Mikel Gehl, Cord Neal, Michael “Sheppy” Sheppard, Tom Moon and Brian Simms, or having dinner with her daughter Jessie, Lisa is enjoying every sweet moment.
What’s new with Milkshake?
We’ve officially become Milkshake the Band. We have a new CD, called “Great Day.” It’s really wonderful. It’s different from what we’ve done before.
How so?
It’s all over, genre-wise. It goes from rockabilly to rock to some Beatles influence. It’s also more live-sounding. It’s a great mix of songs, and it has guest appearances by Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer and Rodney Henry.
We also just came back from Austin City Limits. The guys and I had a great time. We met Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters. And Cord got to meet Dave, which was funny since he looks so much like him.
They do look like twins!
It was like the same face. Dave said, “Yeah, you do look like me!” We laughed so hard. All the girls kept coming up to Cord, thinking he was Dave. Cord loved it.
In addition to “Great Day,” you have a really cool DVD out, too.
It’s called Screen Play, and it’s a combination of live action videos, animation and videos. We also have a comic book, too.
And you’re hoping for a Grammy nomination for this album.
Yes. We did the album in just a few weeks. The deadline used to be in October, but this year they moved it to August. We had to rush! That was a good thing, though, because otherwise we would write a song every few months. This time it was rapid fire! I doubt we’ll win because we’re up against Ziggy Marley and the Imagination Movers, but we’re optimistic!
Do you have a favorite song from “Great Day?”
I love “I Love You”. It’s a song I started singing for my daughter, Jessie, one night. Of course, we often change the lyrics, so we’ll sing, “I love you…cat.” [laughs] I’m having so much fun.
It seems like you’re really happy, which is wonderful.
It’s such an interesting job that I have. It fulfills me. I think not enough people do something that they love. Milkshake is much more fun than I could have imagined. The subjects of our songs are changing as our kids are getting older. They’re changing in such interesting ways, that there’s so much more music that we can do. And that’s exciting.