Liska, aka Annelise Steele, has music in her family but is finding her own way

Annelise Steele may be born into a strong legacy of local musicians, but she is ready to define her music career on her own terms. Steele is the great-granddaughter of percussionist Bobby Christian, granddaughter of Ron Steele Sr. and daughter of Ron Steele Jr., all of whom worked in the rock and jazz worlds. But Steele, who performs under the moniker Liska and recently released the single “Baby Blue,” is firmly in the pop realm, a sound she said best exemplifies her approach to life and art. “I feel like I’m always just (wanting) everyone around me to be happy and I’m not happy if you’re not happy, which I’m also working on,” she admitted. “I just like to dance and have fun and smile and be loud. I think it’s kind of all it is.”

Like her family before her, Steele showed an early interest in music and production. “I think I always knew I wanted to pursue it. But in high school, I thought I was just magically going to become Hannah Montana,” she joked. “I didn’t know how much work actually goes into pursuing something like this.” Returning to Chicago after college inspired her to pursue music more seriously through playing more shows, meeting other artists and collaborating on new music.

Still, she felt held back by pressure she placed on herself. Steele often put more weight on what her grandparents felt about her music, something she is still learning to not focus on in the present.

“I just always thought they were just the coolest people in the world. But they’re also the hardest people to please and I guess I thought that was specifically with me,” she said. “And then I realized they’re also this hard on themselves.”

Many of their lessons stemmed from the hardship of the music industry, something Steele did not yet understand until she was more firmly in it. It is the kind of pressure that can elicit pessimism, no matter what one has or has not accomplished.

“I think just gaining that perspective, that they’re just two people who have been through it and are also kind of zany creatives, made me see them as a bit more human and not as these entities I just desperately need to please, if that makes sense,” she added.

Part of her growth stemmed from learning to accept and feel confident in her own decisions. Steele used to take things more personally as a younger artist as it related to areas like clicks, streams and comments on social media about her music. Learning to let things roll off her back has helped accelerate her motivation to continue working.

This newfound approach to her art has led to some of Steele’s strongest work yet. Earlier this summer, Steele released “Baby Blue,” her latest emo glam-pop song. Fans of bands like Bully, Beach Bunny and Letters to Cleo will especially love Steele’s music. Her songwriting and voice, which sounds as sweet as it does cutting, is laden with nostalgia, yet refreshing in an independent music world that favors singers without heart. Steele’s music oozes with vivacity.

“Baby Blue,” like many of Steele’s songs, was created quickly. Rather than hyper-focusing on minor details, Steele likes to “catch the vibe” of a song, leading to a much smoother songwriting process.

“When I sit down to write a pop song, I try to stay mindful of where my melodies are landing and how they’re kind of leading into the next part and making sure it kind of feels right and going up and down when it needs to in terms of like energy,” Steele revealed. “It feels like I’m putting a puzzle together. I just write a bunch of words, check to see if they make sense, rearrange something until I feel like it’s done. And (when it is), I just kind of call it quits, I guess.”

If her music is any indication, fans will likely never quit on Steele.

9 p.m. Sept. 20 with Softee and Mila La Morena at Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont Ave.; tickets $5 (ages 21+) at sleeping-village.com

Britt Julious is a freelance critic.

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