Lisa Mitchell

Lisa Helen Mitchell (born 22 March 1990) is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter who grew up in Albury, New South Wales.

Mitchell currently lives in Melbourne and is working on her fourth studio album.

Lisa Helen Mitchell was born on 22 March 1990 in Canterbury, England.

Her parents, Angus and Ruth, are both doctors, and she has a younger sister, Nicola.

The Mitchell family had moved to Australia when she was three and she grew up near Albury on a 20 ha farm.

She attended The Scots School Albury.

She began guitar lessons at 12, and leaned towards the folk and rock genres.

Mitchell later recalled her pivotal moment was seeing Missy Higgins perform "Scar" on the program Video Hits: "My sister called me out to watch it ... Missy was a really normal, cool chick making music as her own thing. I found that really inspiring".

She performed in local cafes and events as well as with a cover band, Chrome, with "three of my best friends".

At that time "We thought that The Donnas and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the ultimate women of the world".

Her varied inspirations include Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and Neil Young, which her father favoured as she was growing up, as well as Patti Smith, Regina Spektor, Clare Bowditch, Joanna Newsom, and later, Lou Reed and Velvet Underground.

Mitchell also formed a duo with another Albury-based friend, Katherine Green, which was "More along the lines of what I do on my own now, only a lot folkier. We sang [...] colonial folk tunes actually. Quite traditional and harmony based. We had brilliant fun playing in the chalkboard tents at the folk festivals in Australia".

Mitchell was later based in Sydney, London and then Melbourne.

Mitchell finished sixth in the 2006 season of Australian Idol.

From August to October 2006, Lisa Mitchell rose to national prominence as a contestant on Australian Idol Season 4, performing cover versions and two of her own compositions, which were "See It in Your Eyes" and "Too Far Gone".

Mitchell had auditioned in Albury in April, aged 16, and moved through the selection process to the final six before being eliminated in mid-October.

Her debut extended play, Said One to the Other (4 August 2007), topped iTunes in Australia and she signed with London-based publisher, Little Victories, a subsidiary of Sony/ATV.

Starting in March 2007 Mitchell performed live from her home on her MySpace page, with her first online gig reaching 10,000 viewers.

On 13 April that year, she performed at a National Youth Week event in Parkes, supporting local country-folk, family band The Lees, which includes fellow Australian Idol Top 24 contestant, Raechel Lee.

Mitchell's set of eight original tracks was followed by later joining The Lees on stage: together they performed her originals, "Alice" and "See It in Your Eyes", and a cover of Ben Harper's "Diamonds on the Inside".

During that year she supported tours by Old Man River, The Hampdens, Bob Evans, Ben Lee and Evermore.

On 4 August she released her first extended play, Said One to the Other, via iTunes and physically one week later.

Its four tracks were produced by Evermore's Dann Hume and debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at No. 27.

It was released independently through Scorpio, and Warner Music.

It peaked at No. 1 on the iTunes 'Top Albums' chart.

Tange of TheDwarf.com.au website felt it was "sweet, and cute, and delicate, and nice – but not truly beautiful, powerful or developed".

"Incomplete Lullaby", which was co-written by Mitchell and Hume, was used on the Australian version of celebrity dance competition TV series, So You Think You Can Dance.

On 5 January 2008 Mitchell appeared on an episode of SBS-TV's celebrity music quiz show, RocKwiz, where she performed "Incomplete Lullaby", solo, and then duetted with Quan Yeomans on "Raspberry Beret".

She followed in the next month by her second headlining tour with support acts Ashleigh Mannix and Leroy Lee.

Mitchell then began writing material for her debut album with Ben Lee, Evans and Bowditch – but the it was not used.

Her second EP, Welcome to the Afternoon, was released on 31 May that year; followed by two singles, "Neopolitan Dreams" (as a digital single) and "See You When You Get Here".

"Neopolitan Dreams" received considerable airplay on Australian radio stations Triple J, FBi 94.5 and Nova 96.9.

It was listed at No. 91 on the Triple J Hottest 100, 2008.

By 2008 Mitchell had relocated to the UK where she recorded her debut studio album, Wonder (31 July 2009), which peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

She won the 2009 Australian Music Prize of $30,000 for the album.

Mitchell returned to Australia to live in Melbourne.

In June 2009 Mitchell reflected on her time on Australian Idol: "I was uncomfortable with elements of the show and unhappy about the compromises sometimes. I didn't know what I wanted with music but I did know that I loved it. I think that was what the experience cemented. It's taken me a long time to find my own way. But I never went back to school".

Four years after Lisa Mitchell was a finalist on TV talent series, Australian Idol, The Sydney Morning Herald summed up the influence of the competition on Mitchell's career: "Lisa Mitchell's journey from Australian Idol misfit to folk siren is the story of a road less travelled. In fact, it wouldn't be overstating things to say it counts among the music industry's more unlikely career paths. For a naive teen with a sweet voice, a guitar and vague acoustic-folk aspirations, such an anointment could have been the kiss of death."

Her second album, Bless This Mess (12 October 2012) reached No. 7. In March 2015, Mitchell's last single "Wah Ha" was remixed by electronic trio Seekae.

Her third album Warriors was released on 16 October 2016 and debuted Top 10 on the ARIA Albums Chart.