{"id":30531,"date":"2025-11-01T00:11:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T07:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/?p=30531"},"modified":"2025-11-09T12:36:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T20:36:24","slug":"sande-lollis-becomin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/sande-lollis-becomin\/","title":{"rendered":"Sand\u00e9 Lollis: Becoming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sand\u00e9 Lollis<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The lights at Normal Heights United Methodist Church are soft and golden, filtering through the stained glass like a quiet benediction. On stage for her album release concert for Between Things Not Remembered,<\/em> Sand\u00e9 Lollis stands without her familiar low-hanging guitar for the first time in years, her hands free, her voice unguarded. She moves like someone rediscovering her body. Gesturing and reaching, singing as if the songs are rising straight from her ribcage. \u201cI almost feel like a preacher,\u201d she later says, laughing. \u201cI\u2019m doing all this shit with my hands and I\u2019m like, where is that coming from?\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s glowing under the church lights. There\u2019s an ember deep within her, pulsing and waiting. For the first time since stepping away from Enter the Blue Sky, the all-original Americana trio she led for a decade, she looks entirely herself. Sounds entirely herself. She is weightless, unburdened, and a little uncertain. What will that ember become?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way,\u201d she says, \u201cI\u2019m more lost now than I\u2019ve ever been. When I split up the band, I thought I was going to be found. I thought, okay, this is the right thing to do. And it was. I still feel it was. But part of why I did it was for a challenge. I wasn\u2019t feeling challenged. I wanted to play with new people.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pauses. \u201cBut it\u2019s like, be careful what you wish for, right? Every now and then I\u2019ll go, \u2018What did I do?\u2019 And then I remember the weight that flew off my shoulders. I remember it. It was the right thing to do. I just really need to get a grip on what it is I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That push and pull between liberation and longing, challenge and confusion is where Sand\u00e9 Lollis lives now. After a lifetime of harmonizing, leading, nurturing, and carrying the creative load of a beloved San Diego band, she\u2019s back at square one, in a sense. She is face to face with the hardest question an artist can ask: What now?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Sand\u00e9’s band, Enter the Blue Sky: John Seever, Karen Childress-Evans, Sand\u00e9, Alberto Gonz\u00e1lez Hern\u00e1ndez.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Before she was Sand\u00e9 Lollis, solo artist, she was the anchor of Enter the Blue Sky, a band that built a loyal following on lush three-part harmonies and poetic Americana. But as years passed and members drifted, Sand\u00e9 found herself doing more and more of the heavy lifting. \u201cAfter a while,\u201d she says, \u201cit felt like there are hobbyists and there are people who can\u2019t even live without it. I mean, wake up, dream it, do it, all day, every day. That\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For ten years, the band was her heartbeat. Then one day, not so suddenly, she felt the pull of a new direction and followed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are things I miss,\u201d she says softly. \u201cI really miss the three-part harmony and being really, really solid. You have to work on that. It\u2019s not something where you just get together once or twice and it\u2019s good. You\u2019ve got to really work on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she also remembers the limitations. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much being the driver and always having to pay attention to everything was taking me a little bit away from my own expression. Now, being alone, it\u2019s like wow. I find myself playing with phrasing differently. Nobody\u2019s depending on me to be where they need me to be for their harmonies. I feel more connected to my songs now. It feels very personal.\u201d<\/p>\n