Lisa Bello infuses smooth, East Coast-grown R&B with true soul

For many people, public transportation is a sweaty, overcrowded, financially practical mode of travel to get from point A to point B. But for R&B singer-songwriter Lisa Bello, it’s a world of inspiration. A few hours spent riding the T with no destination could spark many new song ideas, from observing a young couple arguing to a mother holding her two children close.

“I think seeing people in their natural element, coming up with stories that are possibilities about them, allows me to create fantasy songs,” said Bello, a Hyde Park native, smiling to reveal a small pink heart tooth gem. “Aside from my own life, the train and just observing other people is where I'd say I get like 75% of my inspiration for music that I write for me and for new artists that I write for.”

I FaceTimed with Bello at a rest stop on her drive back from Brooklyn — she splits her time between New York City and Boston — a little over a week before her performance at BAMS Fest on Sunday, June 30. The R&B, funk, soul, hip hop and house music festival at Franklin Park’s Playstead Field on June 29-30 showcases performances by national and local Back and brown artists.

Clad in a Derrick White T-shirt the day after the Celtics’ win, she explained that while she started pursuing music at 15 years old, her first career path was teaching.

“When I was really young, I was at a beach, and I made friends with this girl who was deaf. I made it a point that I was going to learn sign language, she inspired me,” she said. “We had to communicate through her phone system for like two years while we were still friends, and then I never saw her again. Her name was Holly, and she left such a memorable mark on me that I was like, ‘I'm going to be a teacher, and I'm going to work with children with extraordinary needs.’”

And she did just that. Bello began as a substitute teacher and transitioned to teaching special education at Timilty Middle School in Roxbury for 15 years before leaving in 2018 to pursue music full-time. “To this day, I still have strong relationships with probably 50% of the children that I taught,” she said. “I still have kids that lean on me, call me auntie. It's very sad that I'm not in it anymore. But I feel like I invested so much time, and now it's my time to do my thing.”

Bello’s discography includes three studio albums, spanning 2018-2020. “My sound is like a surprise in a bag because I feel like people assume by the way I speak and sing there's always going to be this sexy, sultry, soulful stuff, but there's a lot of grit to what I do,” she said. “So my sound I want to say is like a funk, R&B mesh mixed with a little bit of pop — I can't deny that side of it.”

She draws inspiration from artists like Amy Winehouse, Lauryn Hill and Stevie Wonder, she said, holding up the back of her hand to reveal a tattoo portrait of Wonder. More recently, she has enjoyed diving into the slumber party pop of Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.

The cover of her latest, self-titled album, which was released in 2020, depicts a straight-laced, clear-skinned therapist version of herself sitting next to a lounging, tatted version with a hockey mask covering her face. She explained that she often feels like she is living a “double life” and people make assumptions about her based on her appearance.

“It's like a preconceived notion that maybe I sing rock music, maybe I have felony charges in my past, maybe I'm not a nice person,” she said. “It’s the irony of what my life is really like. I'm this woman that has a master's degree, years in teaching, all these accolades, but I'm also a woman that is a free-spirited, fully tattooed, running-amok rock star. And I think that that ‘Lisa Bello’ album was to show the definition of both of my worlds coming together, like you can be both, and I am both.”

Some of those accolades include R&B Vocalist of the Year in 2009 and Female Vocalist of the Year in 2011 at the Boston Music Awards and John Lennon Songwriting Contest winner as a part of the band Mob Music in 2019.

Her album includes the precious interlude “145 Noble St.,” the address of her first apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Bello noted that if you search for the residence on Google Maps, you can still see her son Cassius’ ball sitting on the front porch. The interlude came about when she was rehearsing in her living room with guitarist Jeffandy AllTogether while her son played. On the track, Bello and AllTogether sing while Cassius tries to get his mother’s attention. Bello said this clip was never supposed to be released, but when she was listening back to the recordings, she knew it had to be a part of the project.

Cassius has always been an integral part of her music. After all, he has been her official publisher since before he could talk. Bello releases her music under Cassius Bello Music – a publishing company she started for her son when he was six months old, so he receives a percentage of her earnings and, from this track, earned a songwriting credit at only six years old.

Bello pointed to “Devil Is He” as another meaningful song. The track came about when she became a single mother and was embarking on a new chapter in her life. Her silky voice envelopes listeners in a painful, smooth stream of unhealthy relationship dependency. She sings, “Cuz when we’re broken, the pieces/ They cut till I bleed/ A second notion, takes over/ I know I should leave/ But this addiction, it's potent/ I fold at the knees/ Just a prisoner of the moment /And the devil, the devil is he.”

Bello’s latest songs came out in 2022, but a new song with composer and producer Malik Williams will be out in July, and she is releasing a new EP in the fall.

She will bring her signature soul and emotional depth to her performance at BAMS Fest. The festival is an important checkmark on her list of becoming a true Bostonian musician. “This one is in the heart of Boston,” said Bello. “It's accessible by all means, every T can get through there. You can walk there, like the heart of the city in Dorchester [and] Roxbury can be there. And so for me, it's just like a big tick on my list of dreams of things that I've wanted to do in the city.”