Lissie Set to 'Kick It Up a Notch' on Debut Full-Length

"Overnight success" is not a term that applies to singer-songwriter Lissie. Though she's garnered international attention with the November release of her EP, 'Why You Runnin',' the 27-year-old has worked for years to perfect her sweet-yet-edgy blend of rock, folk and country.

"It's been a gradual thing," Lissie, whose full name is Lissie Maurus, tells Spinner. "It was hard to have other people play on my songs because it never really seemed like it was the right thing for it. Then, just in August, I found the right band and switched to electric guitar. With releasing music, I'm glad I waited until it was obvious that it was right instead of being like 'I'm going to do it even though it's not 100 percent.'"

After starting her songwriting career as a teenager in Rock Island, Ill., Lissie played open mics and coffee shops in Chicago, Colorado and Los Angeles before recording a self-titled EP in 2007. The maturation of her sound won her opening slots on tours with Lenny Kravitz and Ray LaMontagne, and she met Band of Horses bassist Bill Reynolds through mutual L.A. friends. Reynolds would later produce 'Why You Runnin',' which features four of Lissie's originals, including the tender and hard-hitting 'Little Lovin,' as well as a cover of Hank Williams' 'Wedding Bells.'

"One night we were all hanging out, jamming and making up songs, and [Bill and I] were like 'we should record together.' We would slowly and steadily get together every six months to record and then this past summer, it became more apparent that we were really onto something. We just kept getting together as much as we could to write more and more songs."

According to Lissie, the tracks recorded at those post-EP sessions will appear on her forthcoming debut album. "We did six or seven other songs, so the full-length will be sort of a combination of the EP and those songs," she says. "It was all done in the same vein, more of a 'get together and see what happens' approach. I think it will be coming out in the next couple months, but as soon as I say something is going to happen, it changes."

Now that she's had more time to play with her band, Lissie promises that some of the album will feature a fuller, more forceful sound just like 'Little Lovin.' "The EP stuff is more stripped down, but some of the things to come have a little bit more to them, which I hope people will be receptive to," she says. "With the band, you could maybe dance a little bit. It's not necessarily just all quiet singing, seriousness. I want it to kind of be more fluid and bouncy. The band kicks it up a notch, for sure. They sort of do what they feel like and it comes out perfectly"

Lissie's 'Why You Runnin'' is available now from Fat Possum, and you can download her song 'Everywhere I Go' for free from Spinner. She is currently on tour with City and Colour.