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Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty Images
Suki Waterhouse has a trove of “crazy demos” recorded over the past decade that will likely never see the light of day. “That music sounds completely different to anything now,” she says. “There were so many years of experimenting and characters.” Waterhouse, a multi-hyphenate who has a song called “Model, Actress, Whatever” to poke fun at just that, has been making shape-shifting, dreamy music since 2016, a chanteuse who wouldn’t feel out of place at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks: The Return. Her third album, Loveland, will be released on July 10, continuing in her sonic comfort zone of, as she puts it, being “slightly off-time and maybe a tiny bit off-key.” Waterhouse will accompany the album with her grandest tour yet, which includes a stop at Radio City Music Hall. Days before attending her friend Taylor Swift’s wedding, she joined us for a new episode of “Music History,” which includes tales of the Missy Elliott concert that changed her life and a surprising gruesome music-video shoot.
It was a Britney Spears song. I was completely enamored by this magical human. I remember driving over the Hammersmith Flyover with my mom and being like, “How does she have no pimples?” I didn’t understand how Britney Spears could not have any pimples. I was maybe 11 or 12 years old, and that was starting to happen for me in a big way. I was completely taken. My mom’s friend got me the CD, and I had a system in my bedroom. I went upstairs, put that record on, and it changed my life. I think that’s why I had bright-pink walls, from the Britney album. I had this personal renaissance going on in my bedroom that was very different from my school life. There were posters everywhere of Britney, and that’s what got me into being really into the pop world. Avril Lavigne was a huge awakening, and then Alanis Morissette was the first time I remember being into a “rock woman” album.
There was another song that was on the radio a lot when I was a kid that’s really fused in my brain from the Beautiful South called “Don’t Marry Her.” It has a swear word and an f-bomb in it. It’s: “Don’t marry her, fuck me.” My mom and I would always sing over that part really loudly. It was the first time that I realized that you could say these crazy things and there were grown-ups out there saying f-bombs. Like, Wow, married moms and dads can be saying things like that. It felt like this awakening.
I’ve been best friends with my friend Molly since we were 4 years old. We started writing songs together. We had a Harry Potter song, because all we did was read those Harry Potter books. We had a whole song and dance about: “Time to go home, have a bite to eat, read Harry Potter, what a treat.” We’d be doing the Harry Potter song, and then we found “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks. We would sing that around the playground very loudly. It’s weird that you can be 12 years old and so connected to that song and feel all those multitudes inside of yourself before you’ve even really experienced life. And then “Why Can’t I?” by Liz Phair. I’m a huge Liz Phair fan. I reached out to her about coming onstage with me not that long ago, but she couldn’t. That song was at the playground. Molly and I were listening to that song over and over again.
Missy Elliott at the Hammersmith Apollo. It was my best friend’s birthday, and I convinced my mom that Molly would want to go to a Missy Elliott concert. We were around 12 years old, and I can’t believe that my mom dropped us off at this thing. It must’ve been 2003. And let me tell you, it was popping in there. Everyone was smoking weed. I was really into hip-hop and R&B as a teenager, like 50 Cent and Ja Rule. “The Thong Song” was a really big deal. Molly didn’t have that same feeling toward it that I did, but it was transformational. The concert was packed. I’d never been in a roomful of people all put-together before. I’ve never seen a show with the gravitas that this woman had. It was the first time I’d ever seen someone take to the stage and express themself in that way.
The first song I ever listened to that kind of blew my mind — and I remember doing a cover of it on my own time — was a song called “Gallery Piece” by Of Montreal. “I want to be your lover / I want to make you cry / I want to hurt your pride / I want to slap your face / I want to paint your nails.” I never heard love described like this: I want to paint your nails. I want to slap your face. I want to hurt your pride. Some of my most obsessive crushes and obsessive feelings toward somebody, which felt like they could manifest in an insane way, where it was the obsession crawling up inside of you. That song was the first I heard that did it with this deadpan humor.
Similarly, Karen O’s Crush Songs changed my life. They were these very demo, unproduced songs about her extreme crushing. I love Marianne Faithfull, Nico, and Ani DiFranco, because those artists gave me this space to be like, Oh, I think I’m allowed to be like that.
“Brutally” was the song where I really felt that. I’d been going through this horrible breakup, was completely devastated, and I was crying in the room. My producer, Blue May, didn’t send it to me for six months, and I kind of forgot about it. Then, when he did, it was the first time that I’d ever been like, Oh my God, I’m so proud of this. I’m going to love this song forever. I felt an urgency to put this out. It was the first time I felt something from the inside now had a place on the outside, and a feeling that I wasn’t able to describe with words had now been put into a song. I could move past this breakup, because now it was outside of me.
It was BottleRock. I hadn’t done that many shows before. It was pretty much my first show with that amount of people in it by a lot. I was shooting for Daisy Jones & the Six, and the rehearsals were very intense. There was a bit of a thing on set about, “Oh, we’re not actually allowing anyone to leave.” I was like, “You guys, you don’t understand.” It was before my first record was out. So booking that show was the biggest deal. I drove down with Rob. It was a bit outside of California, and he was just like, “What on earth?” Not in a way of “you shouldn’t do this,” but he was just like, “You’re crazy. You’ve never done this before, and you’re going to go and play a festival.” And I’m like, “Yeah.”
It was unpolished and probably not the greatest show ever. I felt “good nervous.” I loved going out there. I felt really at home doing this. I’ve done so much touring since then and got my reps in, which is so necessary. Even the first tour that I did with Father John Misty, I was not good at all. I had so much to learn, and I still always have things to learn. But, yeah, that show definitely made me feel like coming home in a weird way. Then we drove up to Big Sur afterward and hung out on the mountains for a few days.
It was Jimmy Kimmel. I think I got the slot because somebody had dropped out, so I was very nervous, because it was incredibly last minute. It’s such a funny experience doing that because you don’t meet the host. You go in and you do a couple of takes with the audience that is brought in off the street. It’s a funny one. You’re kind of aware that you’re being filmed for television. It’s all over so quickly. I feel like every time you watch a video of yourself performing, or especially if you’re on television, my friends and family would probably say, “Why is your hair always in your face? Get it out of your face.” But I’m like, “No, that’s where I feel comfortable.” That’s why I need to be doing music all the time; I can just have it in my eyes as much as I like.
I feel like the master class is watching how someone like Taylor Swift does it. I watched the Eras Tour quite a lot, and every look is so powerful. The whole stadium can be in your hands just by this little glance to the side. It excites me to keep expanding on your presence onstage. I’ve learned sometimes that stillness can be powerful, not to move around too much — to choose those moments that feel really strong and root yourself to the earth.
To be in a stadium is crazy. Doing the sound check was even more terrifying. I don’t think I actually realized I was so quiet before going out. Then I had the outfit I was going to wear, a dress, but something happened with it and it got locked inside the tailor’s and it hadn’t arrived. But I did walk out of there. There’s a door that opens, which is obviously her entrance moment. I was like, Oh my God. I hadn’t ever done it where it whooshes up and you step out into all of these seats. No one really noticed, but I forgot the first couple of words to my song “Moves.” I did go into complete shock. I just lost myself to the moment.
It actually makes me laugh listening back to it now, because I was in such a hormonal crisis. I had my friends come over to my house. I wasn’t ready to go to the studio, but it was really, really soon after giving birth, maybe three or four weeks. I probably should have given myself a bit more time, but it does make me laugh listening back to it. It’s called “She’s Not Coming Back” or something. It was just me singing on the couch, going, “She’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone.” That was the only thing that could come to my mind — the person before is gone. I was definitely scared. I don’t know who I am anymore. I was basically in sleep deprivation and psychosis. It’s kind of scary. Will I ever feel anything like I used to or normal again? Luckily, you do come back in a different form, but yeah, it makes me laugh. It didn’t make the record. I don’t know if anyone needs to hear it.
My videos were always the kind of things that I wanted to do, especially at the beginning with “Good Looking.” All of my videos have always been really scrappy, and I was paying for all of those myself. I rented a hotel room at the Bowery Hotel — I got my friend to come and be in the video, and another great friend shot it. We just didn’t have any equipment or anything, but it was so funny remembering doing that. We got one of the bellboys to give us one of their outfits. We’re probably not allowed to shoot at the Bowery Hotel, there’s probably no permit for that, but that’s what you’re doing when you’re just being scrappy. Even now, I did “Dream Woman” with my sisters a couple of months ago in New York. It was freezing cold. Just take to the streets, see what happens, and then enjoy yourself and be free. I like that more than when something’s got so much production to it. My favorite thing with music videos is being free to roam and see who lets us go into their store.
There’s something funny in the “Good Looking” video, obviously not planned. I had a couple of margaritas, was dancing on the bed, and then put my hand in the fan. I have the scar here. I cut my hand open and got five stitches. We get in the car, go to the hospital, and film inside of the hospital, like me inside of the bed. The blood is everywhere. My friend just didn’t stop filming. She’s just like, No, this is what we need to get. Those are my favorite kinds of videos: The heat of the moment is always the most important thing to me in art. We have to have music videos. But I guess in this moment that we’re in, there’s more of a steer away from that.
Waterhouse playing the keys as Karen Sirko.
Photo: Amazon/Courtesy Everett Collection
I was insistent that I had to be Karen. I remember going into my agent’s office and seeing the whiteboard of options that they had for her. My own agent didn’t have my name on it, and it was the first time I was like, “What? I’m going to be Karen Sirko.” So we got together and were like, “Okay, let’s go for this.” It was a really difficult, long audition process. There were people who played piano really well, and that was something that I didn’t play, so I spent the whole of Christmas learning it. I think I had three different piano teachers, finding people who could even come on Christmas Day. I was doing “Light My Fire” by the Doors. I love that song, but that’s not a pleasant song to learn. It’s really intense for all of those around me. That wasn’t a good time.
I don’t remember my first day on set, but I remember my audition with Will Harrison, who played Graham. We had this scene together, and it was to establish our chemistry. I’d never met him before. We were going to burst into the room, and I remember being like, “Can I go on your back?” I went up on his back and we ran up and down the hall. When we burst into the room, we were giggling. We had this very silly moment together. I adore him so much, and getting to be with him every day and have that onscreen relationship was an absolute dream come true. It was his first acting job. There was a huge desire to do shows. Everyone was going to do Lollapalooza with me, and then the actors’ strike happened. We definitely tried, and now you know what? I think it’s better left in the past.
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Robert Pattinson, Waterhouse’s partner of nearly a decade.
