Dark Americana and Southern Gothic singer-songwriter Lisa De Angelis unveils her haunting new single and music video, “My Sister’s Blue Suitcase.” The track deepens her reputation as one of Australia’s most compelling voices in the genre—raw, poetic, and unafraid to confront the shadows that shaped her.
Written and co-produced in Brisbane, the song captures De Angelis’ journey toward becoming a stronger version of herself, even as she carries the weight of past struggles. Known for her smoky vocals and evocative storytelling, she blends country-folk roots with a dark, cinematic edge that has become her signature.
Often described as a firecracker with a taste for the eerie and an instinct for melody, De Angelis continues to carve out her own lane in Americana. “On a micro level, this song is about coming from a broken family and struggling with that as an adult trying to build relationships,” she explains. “But it’s also about the streak of anxiety and depressive disorders that run through the women on my mother’s side—and how none of us quite managed to escape it.”
The song emerged unexpectedly during a late-night writing session. “I was fiddling with some guitar chords in my bedroom, sang the opening line as a placeholder, and the whole song just poured out in one sitting,” she recalls. “When it was finished, I put my head in my hands and cried. I had no idea it was in there.”
De Angelis has been open about her struggles with severe OCD, diagnosed only six years ago. “It was like the heavens opened,” she says. “Suddenly there was an explanation for the cloud of depression and anxiety that had hung over so much of my life.” “My Sister’s Blue Suitcase” became a vessel for healing—an attempt to understand the generational threads that shaped her family. “I hope it can help heal some other folks too.”
The track was created through a deeply collaborative, DIY process with her partner Paul Bain—drummer for Travis Collins and Kristy Lee Akers—at their private Brisbane studio. “Paul played drums, engineered, mixed, and we produced it together,” she says. “We wanted something cinematic and sweeping—Dark Americana with banjo and horns—and that’s exactly what we made.”
Throughout her career, De Angelis has toured with and opened for some of Australia’s most respected artists, including Steve Kilbey (The Church), Phil Jamieson (Grinspoon), blues guitarist Nathan Cavaleri, and Golden Guitar winner Catherine Britt. She has also performed as a backing vocalist for ARIA nominee Amber Lawrence and was mentored by ARIA Award-winner Fanny Lumsden through the Australian Independent Record Label Association’s Women in Music Mentorship Program.
Stream the single: https://checked.lnk.to/MySistersBlueSuitcase
About Lisa De Angelis
A reformed thrill-seeker with a catalogue of stories stranger than fiction, Lisa De Angelis is one of Australia’s rising Dark Americana artists. Her sound blends the grit of Justin Townes Earle and Shakey Graves with the cinematic sweep of Ennio Morricone and the wild charm of Sierra Ferrell. The youngest daughter of one of Australia’s top psychic mediums, her path was always destined to be unconventional—she didn’t even pick up a guitar until 2017.
Since graduating from the Country Music Association of Australia’s Academy of Country Music and performing at her first Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2019, she has toured with Steve Kilbey, Phil Jamieson, Nathan Cavaleri, Amber Lawrence, Hayley Jensen, Catherine Britt, and Melody Moko. Kilbey was so taken by her style that he wrote a song for her upcoming debut album.
Mentored by Fanny Lumsden and Kevin Bennett, De Angelis has earned airplay on ABC Country, CMT, and KIX Country Radio. Her third single arrives after a forced six‑month hiatus in 2022, when illness cost her the hearing in her left ear—yet she continued touring, performing at the Gympie Music Muster, Brisbane’s Ekka, and James Blundell’s Down On The Farm Country Campout.
Scrappy, vulnerable, and magnetic—“part Judy Garland, part Saturday Night Live comedian”—Lisa De Angelis is currently recording her debut album, due for release in 2024.
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