Off the Record

Plover 0:00
What's going on bro? And you're listening to WKNC 8.1 FM HD one Raleigh. We are a student run nonprofit radio station based out in North Carolina State University. I'm plover and this is not the record. I am very fortunate here to be with the one and only Suki Waterhouse. How're you doing today?

Suki Waterhouse 0:13
Hi, I'm very, very good.

Plover 0:15
Where are you in? Kind of where you're from knows who you are with a great school setting. So I

Unknown Speaker 0:22
yeah, I am, I'm very English. I'm from. I'm from I'm from London and I was born in grew up in a place called Chiswick, which was sort of kind of 20 minutes outside of actual London. So sort of suburban enough, but close, close enough to London to be able to like, you know, like, run out the door and hop on a bus and, and be able to get back in the morning without your parents.

Plover 0:55
So, what exactly are you doing around the North Carolina barns?

Unknown Speaker 1:00
I, I'm, I'm well I've been on I've been on tour I guess for the for the last two months with with Father John Misty, do you know? Yeah. So yeah, I'm I'm somehow kind of somehow somehow. Yeah, I've been. We've been all around North America. He's, he's been in a lovely, lovely buses. And I've been in the craziest, like somehow the most craziest, broken down bus you've ever seen in your life, which doesn't have enough beds in it, all kinds of water and things like that. So I've just, I've had the ball, brilliant, North American tour, the last two months and to end tonight. Tonight we're in and Darren for the last show, which is an Darren's actually really special place to me. Because this is where I actually made my first album. Yeah. I made it with with Brad cook. I don't know if you know him. He's, he's, he's produced. He was kind of like he won't. I wasn't actually kind of ever connected to him from knowing anyone. But he was somebody like in my ether and a lot of ways he used to. He used to be Sharon Venetians guitarist, and I'm a huge fan of Cheryl and atom. And he he's produced with highs produced with Bon Iver. He's, he produced the white Hashkee album, snail mail. And so I'm actually a band a band called his called a messenger. And it was it was that album that he produced with him that I just kept listening to constantly and when I was thinking about how to you know how to the next steps with with these recordings that I had from like, the last couple of years, it was the song cats I blew by his God and messenger that I kept listening to him. I know, I saw that it was produced by Brad Cook, and I managed to get him on the phone. And then somehow, through a bit of, I think, I think I had had one other friend that he'd worked with Dave set it on TV on the radio, and I got Dave to kind of, you know, push him to and, and then I ended up I ended up being in dome for two weeks.

Plover 3:24
So we're all big fans of this golden messenger here for sure. What a great local artist. What do they inspire like any other like artists that kind of inspired? Like, I guess the sound off of that work?

Unknown Speaker 3:36
Yeah, I loved I love the kind of I love like the kind of brain cave that I felt. I felt like when I was listening to that record that I was like, disappearing down someone's brain cave in this very like, and yeah, it was kind of it kind of felt quite like David Lynch as well. And I love I love like the sounds of I was kind of looking for something that I think that that record sort of felt like that. I could tape you know, like when you're pulling a tablecloth and there's like a little bit extra that you got to put pull out and it felt like that a yard sign my brain uses for quite strange analogies for that, that that was

Plover 4:19
very perfect sense.

Unknown Speaker 4:20
Thank you. That yeah, that was who I've been listening to constantly. And when me and Brad when me and Brad sort of talked on the phone before I've met because it's quite it's quite a strange thing to not meet somebody. And I've been quite like I'd actually I worked with like a bunch of different producers because I didn't I didn't I didn't really like come from I didn't really I haven't really like known a lot of people to work with because I started I started my like early career in life like actually not in music. So it's sort of been like the last the last year is when I yeah, when my record and things like, you know, it was like a kind of surprise to me that. Yeah, I would even be like performing live or going on tour or anything like that.

Plover 5:16
So yeah, well I want inspire this kind of like shift towards

Unknown Speaker 5:19
where you? Well, I have I had been writing for a long time, I think probably since I remember. Yeah. 1617 and I was always, you know, when I was like, younger or whatever, I was always doing, like everything that, you know, that was kind of like where I thought I would thought I would be. And then my life like took a very different took a very different path. I think like I was a very angsty, angsty, kind of angry, anxious teenager. And think I like really? Yeah, I really, I, it was I wanted to, like, run out the house. And I ran, the first thing I ran into was, was like modeling. And I started doing that. And then that kind of that kind of I had, like, I yeah, I had a I had a few years where that was kind of, like, marginally. I did pretty good at that for for a while. And, like, my light, yeah, I think my life became quite, like quite public, quite young. And there was a lot of chaos. And in that chaos, I think, oh, yeah, it was it was like that kind of painful thing of like, trying to grow up and, like, just make all of the mistakes of, you know, like, dating the wrong people and creating habit. Yeah, having like a very destructive, like, quite a destructive kind of path for a long time. And I think the one thing that I that I had the whole time was being able to go and write music, and I would do it. I would, I would, I would do it all the time. And it was like the one thing that that also just didn't, it didn't have like, it was it was nobody, nobody else was like involved in that, in that in that time. So I was just writing and writing. And then I remember I put the first ever the first song out. It's called briefly in 2016. And that was fine. That was like one on one day, I was like, Okay, and so can I say I shouldn't should i? Okay, so I went oh, yeah, when I just thought like, what's, you know, what have you got to lose at this point, like, just put your first put a song out there, like, put got distro kid on made a video, put it out. And, and then and that was and from there. I started putting out one every year. And and from these like little? Yeah, like little. It was like I kind of incrementally got a little bit more confident putting music out. And it was just always this, like, big weight off to that. And it's, um, you know, there's still wasn't there was there was like, I kind of gathered, I think this small group, but like, like, it was like, as, I guess like, as Yeah, like a small group of us people that they were finding, finding out about the music and to be honest, like that, they they were also the ones that like, helped my confidence to get to a place where I was like, you know, I can put this out and like, it's, uh, but that was yeah, that was a ton of like, fear and anxiety and insecurity about, like, you know, you're, you're like, you're just like a model did it and like you, please don't do this. And I totally get that. And it's still and it's still like something that yeah, that I think it's like, that kind of thing doesn't really, it doesn't really go away. Yeah. But everyone is, you know, you just you basically just realize that everyone's everyone feels like a hack an imposter or winging it. So

Plover 9:19
you, I understand, like, early later this year, you're talking like, at like, older stuff. Is that like kind

Unknown Speaker 9:25
of coming out? Yeah, it's called milk teeth. And that's that yeah, that's, that's, those are the songs that were really kind of the they were like, yeah, that I liked thinking of them. Like, like my baby T. But those Yeah, those were like the first songs that I really like, wrote and put out and then they kind of didn't really ever get that there was sort of Yeah, they were put put out just like myself and, um, they didn't. It's funny actually, like one of the songs From the EP like seven years later just and it's it's fun, but I can't believe that it happened to me but like it went it blew up on on Tik Tok. And it's the strangest thing. Like, I didn't even have the app. And then the song that I'd written seven years ago was suddenly like, it went to number one in the state like crazy. Crazy. So now so yeah, these old songs that that I like, actually my favorite favorite ones. I think. It's always kind of like hard to reenact like what you were making when you were in like, you know, your when you like making music and your apartment, literally just doing it out of when when you're in like the worst crappy place in your life. Like, those those those songs are really nice special to me. So So yeah, I am really lucky that now we get to release them on payment,

Plover 11:01
and then accidentally get deleted off a random hard drive.

Unknown Speaker 11:05
Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. Well, when I got when I when I, I made that out the current album with the woman broke her can. I made that independently and I didn't, you know, think that I was going to find a labor and thing and then when I made it, that then subpop found out about it. And that's when we we went I went to Southport great label, like I'm very, very lucky to be with them. But but you know what, it was kind of like, oh, let's have a clean slate and clean everything off and like delete all the old stuff, all the old stuff. And it's like, oh, God, I'm so glad that we didn't because now like my biggest, the biggest song that I'll probably ever happens is one of the one of the oldest ones. So that's a kind of cool thing about like, kind of cool thing about the internet. I guess in the moment, it's like, you don't really know when you know, when when you're older music might

Plover 12:02
be like running up on albums or Milan just I don't know where exactly, yeah. So you did mention your the new album was new for this year coming up? I can let go. I won't yet. So I can just kind of get a little bit of like, I guess dramatically what what I don't really

Unknown Speaker 12:23
I can't like is, it was really like, I think, I think like everything that everything that that the album kind of encompasses, I think was about it was like, centered around a relationship that that I had in my early 20s, which was like very that I think that I think that like it. Yeah, I think I think it was my reaction to not being able to speak about this relationship that was like, incredibly difficult and actually like, or probably for like, for like the good part of my 20s. To be honest, I've been kind of trying to, to understand it. And and as I get older, as I get older, like I've been much more able to see that like, actually, when I was writing this album, it was like I was fairly locked into the constraints, the constraints that like kind of Gnosticism being with someone that's like, incredibly, like kind of sociopathic, to be honest. And how long that how like that it stayed with me for a long time. And yeah, I guess even even until I was putting that record out, it was all about like, how I won't be able to let go and I wanted to write all the songs that were that kept me that kept me being able to like, we like basically to be able to like sing about this relationship all the time and like, like, kind of go over it constantly. And then music has like a really magical way of working because I really like I really believe in this like that if you can, like I think I was needling myself constantly and like uncertain sometimes from making the music like I could start singing a song and I wouldn't feel the same things anymore and then But then then there's always this like doorway open I think sometimes on stage you like, catch yourself. You're like ah, that bit hasn't gone yet and it hits you again. But yeah, I think I was really I was like really needling myself as I can. Yeah, I was trying to like yeah, try to try and like excavate myself to try and find out like, I felt like I would not be able to, I felt like I was just like stuck in this machine that was like that it was not, I wasn't going to be able to, like break out of it. And that is, yeah, that's the incredible thing about about music and like, I, I got to like externalize it and I think memorialize it too in this in this record. And I really felt like it gave me this huge gift because like, I really think there's, there's something it's not just like putting it out. I think like other I really do believe in like, the energy of it and, and how how, like, things in real life will suddenly like be shown to you and through through like the all the you've made sounds like really woo but like, but whatever I'm trying to say is that like, somehow from putting this record on, like you're out, like so many things became like, very clear to me very like shown to me and and I have been able to like I said she's it Yeah, it's I think it has it has been it's been like going that's yes, it's super cliche. It's all true. It's cheesy,

Plover 16:09
but that's also like a it's an interesting way to like externalize because it's not like a like a like a breakup song it's not like a love song is weird like kind of like just relationships on the must have an interesting boy I guess right about like turning that in like a verse or chorus or not like a I guess a time in your life it's like kind of complicated

Unknown Speaker 16:30
of that of us Nicole code which

Plover 16:33
I tried like turning like a weird time into like, how like a song structure works and like that was my main Western interesting one boy kind of get out there.

Unknown Speaker 16:43
Yeah, some of the some of the some of the songs I think like a lot. I think somebody it's like, the way I write is kind of sitting down usually like sitting down at the piano and I will just like let a stream of consciousness come for like, at least like Yeah, makes it sit there for at least like half an hour even just one and see what comes out there. And then sometimes songs sometimes like something will move you so quickly that like again night spent with one person is I got a song coolest place on the world where I remember I literally like went home or like when even went to like the bathroom or something and wrote down everything this person had said everything we talked about and and that was like the entire song. I was like, I don't want to change it from this and like ever. It has to fit in then. And yeah, I love I love writing.

Plover 17:40
Like actual like sentences like, there was like a strange it was

Unknown Speaker 17:43
just like, yeah, it was it was like sentences that exchange or like what we talked about and like things that things that he'd said things that I had felt that kind of it was just like, yeah, it was like the next morning just like oh, this is what happened.

Plover 17:59
That's a new one for free. However it sounds just for let's see what exactly I remember going through all them listening and wondering what exactly a Melrose meltdown is. I saw that phrase, I didn't really know what that was on

Unknown Speaker 18:13
Melrose meltdown, I guess, for me was, well, I went and I went and lived. I went and lived in LA when I was 21. And yeah, I basically like kind of, I kind of left, I kind of left the I left like London and and went and lived with a boyfriend that for like two years I was an A and yeah, I've never been to I think like America had been kind of like this myth land. But I really, you know, like the English people. It's kind of like you think of the states as like when you're growing up, it's like Disneyland or something that's like, you know, you have it's in movies and you have pictures of New York on your, your your wall and stuff like that and Spielberg cringe, but but that was a that was yeah, the first few years I spent in LA and kind of the the epic meltdown break up, which was like, incredibly traumatic at the time and like yeah, involves a lot of like, running up hotels and living you know, like that kind of that kind of scenery. So that yeah, Melrose meltdown. This was the kind of bike it was was like kind of Yeah, the slogan for like the image I had of myself or what was true of like, kind of running running down Melrose Avenue. Just crying.

Plover 19:54
I see Melrose is a place that I like that all tracks Oh

Unknown Speaker 19:58
yeah. from our eyes

Plover 20:03
you also as I understand released a music video for your song nostalgia recently that felt like a really cool like, like a very like ethereal, like a word. It was a Ireland.

Unknown Speaker 20:13
It was an island. Yeah. So my friend freeze where this is actually a fifth. This is a fifth music video together. And she we actually met we met we met in LA years ago, but, but she has recently moved to Ireland. Because she got a gorgeous, like, gorgeous boyfriend though. And she's like, packed up and moved to Ireland, she's always like, you'd want to come to Ireland. So we shot the video in the middle of, of this tour at your we all had a week off. And, um, and we went to Ireland and we wanted to we wanted to make something that kind of we it's it follows quite a story we'll kind of very into thinking about like Orpheus crossing sticks and Wuthering Heights. And really, really, we were like making a video that I kind of wanted to, I think like, during the pandemic, that was when I wrote the song. And it kind of it started to feel like, like, you know, when like everyone from your past, like started reaching out and everything felt everything before pandemic feels like, nostalgic to me, it's like really like a just an entirely different time of like, how we how we all were.

Plover 21:28
Yeah, this has been like a decade and like the past like two years. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Unknown Speaker 21:34
Yeah. And also just like, yeah, kind of like people rising from the woodwork that you like, haven't thought about, you know, the people that could kind of maybe, like, hold a flame for you in some way. And so that was when I wrote the song and I kind of Yeah, I started thinking about like, that feeling that I was having. That people have been like feeling that's for so long. And I got I got Re into the I kind of was researching nostalgia, and I didn't, I didn't know that it used to be considered medically as a disease. Yeah, it's crazy. And people you know, and people, people experience it even in people, you can experience it, even in your own hometown, or if you've never moved, it's kind of like, I think it started happening a lot when there was like, industrial revolution, things start changing so much bigger I want to I wanted to make a video that kind of, like it's, it's kind of, it's very, like dramatic and, and kind of cheesy in a way and I wanted that I kind of was looking for that. In the video I want I wanted it to sort of feel like when you like face gets red and messy and there's a lump in your throat and there's like a song that you still have like on tape or something that's like maybe broken in the car that used to happen.

Plover 22:57
Those are the very nostalgic moments for sure. At the time, we're probably weird and looking back are probably weird, but now there's more years between them. They're kind of wow, that kind of missed that. For sure. You're also like you have like movies coming out? Quite sure. That's that's pretty that's something from you to a temporary someone.

Unknown Speaker 23:20
Oh, yeah, that was that was that was dawning on Yeah. That was great. I I I've worked with Mary haring Do you know who might you know Mary heron? She did a she directed American Psycho. i Yes, yes. And I did another movie with her like a couple of years ago but yeah, this one this one's Darley land and Kings Lane which was I mean getting to work with him was unbelievable just watching him watching him act and getting to be in scenes with them. Crazy but yeah, that was a that was great. And that yeah, that just premiered at TIFF and and then I'm in a yeah, I've got the I've got a show next year called Data Jensen six which is which is a great a great book that it's constantly all about a band so my my two my two worlds they really really collided into each other we and there was a it was an incredible experience actually because Blake Mills has written all the music for it and made made a 12 song album for the show. And then we they they had us rehearsing this is really rare for for TV or movies to say like oh, you know we want we want you to rehearse for months and months and months and then it got pushed so we came back so we probably did about six months and over in sound City Studios, which is like where Fleetwood Mac. Met we have like crazy legends making music like recording the album's just in the next studios and all of us were in that game they're getting really good. And it was a great opportunity for me because they were like, I play Karen cipher the piano is. So as you have learning piano for six months and like, went from really not playing that much to being able to do like, Bach pieces, which then obviously like, you know they get you to learn and then they're like that actually we're cutting that bit. But it's great either way.

Plover 25:27
For sure. And I mentioned earlier you're on a tour that's always kind of I guess, wrapping up right around now. I guess in the South. You're playing Atlanta last night. That was

Unknown Speaker 25:36
it. This is on last night. Yeah.

Plover 25:40
And you played the Roman recently. That's, that's great to me. We

Unknown Speaker 25:42
played the Roman Yeah, two nights ago, we played the Roman. I know, I couldn't believe that. Actually. It was. But none of this stuff is really like, sunk in Yeah, it's so it's, it's crazy to me, like I know and also being with Father John Misty, like, I've probably been paying 300 Max like rooms like three about 300. And then I'm also not for that long. And then and then like our first day was red rocks. Yeah, yeah. Red Rocks. Yeah. So it's it's literally just been like, oh, I went on a tour of like, every iconic huge place like Radio City Hall. Oh, my goodness, like the Ryman. Wow. And it's yeah, it's been it's been it's been really great as well. Because because, you know, like, most of the time. Yeah, you're, you're supporting someone else. So you're going you're going into rooms where, like, most, you know, some people come and see for you, but like, most people aren't. And that was that's a, that's been a great, actually, like a really, really valuable kind of wet way to, to go into this stuff, I think because it's kind of like, yeah, like, I'm, I'm really, really at the beginning of my home. If you have all of this, and yeah, I'm like learning a lot about what makes a good show. And that's like a lot of love tracks like flow or there's so many things that I'm really excited to take away from, from this first tour. And for the next one, I'm gonna I'm gonna go to I've got your a Europe tour in November.

Plover 27:28
And you're headlining,

Unknown Speaker 27:30
now we had line Yeah, and it's also only a week. So it's a lot of different

Plover 27:36
tricks for sure. And I've seen other jam, so you want to do very great, and I'm sure you've learned a lot.

Unknown Speaker 27:42
Oh my goodness. Isn't it incredible?

Plover 27:45
It's such a good dancer.

Unknown Speaker 27:47
Such a good dancer and he does it's it's like it's like annoying how good a dancer he is. He's like just naturally he's like very very good at just like his feet are always tapping in this beautiful way. He's like lightly gyrating and all the right places. It's It's stunning. And also his voice is like the you know, for like two hours he's just impeccably smooth Karuna. I

Plover 28:15
really like your Twitter account, first of all, and that's it. Like make the memes yourself.

Unknown Speaker 28:19
I do make the means my myself. Do you make the memes myself? I just wait. I like it's been it's actually great. Just lying on the line on the bus because I get to get to have like hours of time. Like making making all the memes but yeah, sometimes I usually I kind of make all of them and then I'll just like spunk from all too quickly on one go. But yeah, I love i Yeah. And I enjoy. I enjoy being on Twitter. Like, I wasn't really active for like years. And and then I don't know, I think like a lot. I think a lot of stuff like around music. Like I was very like, I was very like I was like I did spend a lot of my early 20s like very afraid to send a tweet or like, you know, the social media stuff and like draw it does like drive you crazy. I think it drives everyone a little bit crazy. And yeah, I felt like in the last few years I just was like, it's just like, you know, we can just be it'd be silly and plan and that's kind of

Plover 29:25
so when he first said you enjoyed the Twitter like, I'll be I'll be happy Twitter person but yeah, no, that makes sense. Yeah, it's kind of like a cleansing thing or something. Yeah. We are coming out of our own time now. Is there anything else you wanted to

Unknown Speaker 29:40
add anything else that I would like to discuss? I think we've covered most of it. Yeah. Is there anything else you'd like? Oh,

Plover 29:49
I was gonna ask that. I've noticed for a lot of British artists, kind of like slip into an American accent like recording gay Do you like consciously like notice that like happening?

Unknown Speaker 29:59
Listening into so many people that I like, like I love Lucinda Williams. Like I've literally follow her around go and see your shows like I love Lucinda Williams. I I'm so not her, but you know, I cannot show Crowe like a landless Morissette she's Canadian but fIatter Apple people like that I think it just Yeah, I think it just happens. And I also have tried I did I did this song recently which was like, I was just making it the other day and it's like, all these kind of the I did it entirely like my accent which is pretty like it's pretty British and it sounds so silly like I think like a few words here and there but like the whole thing is just quite quite overwhelming. Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 30:48
think it just happens naturally. Should I try for the next record to just go ahead

Plover 30:55
and just read the name of the record we mentioned the Twitter account center and a lot of people know like where to find the music sounds like your social.

Unknown Speaker 31:07
My Instagram handle is Suki Waterhouse. My Twitter is also Suki Waterhouse. And my Spotify is secret as

Plover 31:16
well. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate you all tuning in and you can check out all the interviews I Everyone here does wknc.org/podcast and click on off the record. I'm DJ plover and I've been here with Suki Waterhouse and WKNC Ada put one of them HD one probably

Transcribed by https://otter.ai