Great North Sound Society: Lula Wiles
Next on the Makers of Maine Great North Sound Society Podcast Series is Isa Burke from Lula Wiles. Isa grew up in South Berwick, Maine and the other members of her band grew up in Farmington, Maine.
Isa describes her craft as “music.”
“I've been playing music my whole life, as have my bandmates. All of us come from musical families. Both of my parents are professional musicians and music teachers. My parents' names are Susie Burke and David Seret and they play a lot of different kinds of folk and traditional music. I grew up kind of immersed in the folk and roots music community in the sea coast area. It was kind of a no brainer for me. For a long time I wasn't totally sure if I wanted to be a professional musician, but I always knew that music was going to be a really big part of my life.”
Isa dabbled in a few instruments at a young age, but definitely started singing before anything else. “I was the kind of kid who would just like to mess around with whatever was nearby. I was always drumming on surfaces or my parents would have guitars and ukuleles around the house. We had a piano I would sort of plunk away on that. Thought about learning the flute for a second in school, but that didn't pan out. I played trumpet for a couple years. Then, I played guitar when I was around 10. And then, when I was 13, I started playing fiddle. That was the first instrument that I really lost my mind over.”
For a long time, Isa was very serious about the fiddle, but nowadays she’s 50/50 with the guitar and the fiddle. The fiddle is what brought these band members together - they all met at Maine Fiddle Camp.
Photos by: Sam Kassirer
I love getting to ask artists who their inspiration is in their specific field. So for Isa, who her inspiration is in the music industry. “When I think about who I'm inspired by, a lot of it is people I know or people I've worked with and then also people just whose music I've been listening to for a long time. So early on, a lot of what really inspired me to get really serious about music was the community at Maine Fiddle Camp. And in terms of people whose music I really love, Joni Mitchell is always one that I come back to. People like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, people who didn't let themselves be boxed in genre wise.”
Lula Wiles recorded their first two albums at a studio in Boston, but their third album was recorded in June of 2020 at Great North Sound Society. For Isa, recording in Maine, “it was an amazing experience. I think one of the things that I like the most about working with Sam is he's down for whatever. He's not super married to any idea of what an album should sound like or what a song should sound like. He's really down to get creative and get weird.”
When they make an album, they aren’t a band that wants to chip away at it over time. When they start, they want to be fully immersed in the experience. “(After recording), then I emerge as changed woman. That's so much what that space is like because it's a house. You are staying there, so you're there round the clock. It's not like you get up and you go to the studio and then you go home. You’re totally immersed. I think that's a really special way to make a record. That is a big part of what makes Great North so awesome.”
Lula Wiles new album, “Shame and Sedition” produced by Sam Kassirer is now out! Be sure to give them a listen & hear more from Isa on this episode of the Great North Sound Society Series.
Thank you to Berlin City Auto Group for sponsoring this episode.