Ep. 258: Suki Waterhouse on Loveland, Motherhood, and Finding Her People

Today's guest is a songwriter four albums deep, with a song that's been picking up new listeners for nine years and Mick Fleetwood playing on her latest record. But her real story isn't any of that.From weekend stage camps in West London to opening Wembley for Taylor Swift five months after giving birth, she spent a decade releasing roughly one song a year into near silence. What kept her going wasn't a plan — it was a pair of collaborators who got nothing back for years and got up and made something every day anyway.This is an honest conversation about what a long stretch of nobody listening actually feels like, and what happens when the proof finally shows up on a timeline you didn't choose.And The Writer Is... Suki Waterhouse!Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.Follow us on socials: @andthewriterisA special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association. Your support means the world to us.And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.They've developed a Sounds plugin that allows creators to actually get paid for derivatively generated work from their art, and they have paid out $100M+ to artists already since inception. Chapters:0:00 Intro0:46 How's being a parent and doing music?1:18 "Being a parent is only hard for good parents"2:49 "The girl with the guitar" — how her daughter describes her job4:30 Test-driving album demos on a toddler in her "no" phase12:44 Somewhere Over the Rainbow — and losing to the girl who sang All Saints14:38 The voice teacher who told her she was too skinny to sing15:58 "I was angry. I had this huge fire in me."16:42 The friend group that turned on her: "fuck this school, fuck these people"26:45 "You walk through open doors" — model, actor, musician28:56 "Brutally," 2016, and ten years of making things nobody heard31:01 Advice to a young female artist: learn to produce, even basically32:56 "I went hunting for my fucking tribe. And I found them."35:54 Amy Winehouse at the pub, The Libertines, and a London scene that's gone38:12 Backstage at a Jake Bugg show — meeting Natalie and Jules at eighteen39:23 "They got zero back for years and years and years"42:45 Extreme ADHD, a giant sitar, and a fight over a song46:26 December 7th: flying to London for a song that didn't exist yet47:16 The pact: "if we're not writing something brilliant, we're not carrying it on"47:28 The worst audition of her life, in the dark48:09 A Wurlitzer, a Mellotron, and the song that opens the album1:01:39 "Good Looking" — top ten on TikTok, written nine years ago1:05:53 Covid, Daisy Jones, and deciding to just make the record1:06:32 Every label said no except Sub Pop1:08:40 "It's nothing about what happens in the first week"1:10:16 "Dangerous Woman" and a song that gains meaning over time1:11:38 Daisy Jones: "my name wasn't on the list and I was fucking pissed"1:16:24 "You're more envious of the check than the song"1:26:14 What makes a good song — Beck, Elliott Smith, and roughness1:29:26 Red Rocks with no ear monitors: "I was in insane debt"1:32:04 Opening for Taylor Swift at Wembley1:34:17 Hayley Williams: "this one's for Mr. Waterhouse"1:37:02 A baby in March, a record in September1:39:44 "When everyone goes a bit red — that's when you keep it in the song"1:40:35 What to play driving at night, heartbroken, walking through LondonCredits:Hosted by Ross GolanProduced by Joe London & Jad Saad Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.