Making all the right moves

SURREAL celebrity encounters are a professional hazard in the pop industry but, even by the usual standards, Elisabeth “Lissie” Maurus has some bizarre stories to share.

Oddball director David Lynch has singled her out as the future of music. Without quite intending to, she sang at Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s wedding. Lenny Kravitz invited her on tour. Lurking by the punch-bowl at a Hollywood shindig at which Madonna, Prince and Lionel Richie were in attendance she found herself striking up a conversation with Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante. Phew — for a delicate songbird she really gets around.

“Although I went to Los Angeles to be, quote unquote, discovered I never moved in that Hollywood world,” says the sandy-haired 26-year-old singer. “I lived in this little neighbourhood in the hills and hung out with this little pocket of musician friends. We played bars and didn’t have much money. It was a struggle.”