Article: Uh Huh, They’re Hot

The name Uh Huh Her – taken from a 2004 PJ Harvey song, and the album of the same name – may be a little awkward to pronounce, but the band’s quick rise to prominence has actually been totally organic and anything but awkward.

Former guitarist-singer for the Murmurs/Gush and star of The L Word Leisha Hailey and former Mellowdeone bassist-keyboardist Camila Grey aren’t having any difficulty storming the music scene with their slick, melodic, electro-pop sound. Commercially viable while still garnering the attention and praise of the indie-rock underground – as well as lesbian fans of all kinds – they are one of the hottest bands around.

From Uh Huh Her’s formation in January 2007 until now, everything has just clicked, one thing falling into place after another for the two friends and collaborators who, admittedly, are still getting to know one another. From recording their first songs in Grey’s bathroom, to hitting the iTunes Top 10 chart with ‘Say So’ off their debut digital EP, I See Red, last fall, to selling out shows across the country in recent months, their ascent has been swift and fluid, and they show no signs of slowing down after the long-awaited August release of their debut full-length album, Common Reaction.

Our conversation begins at the logical starting point – how they first met.
‘Cam and I actually met a couple of years earlier, before we started the band,’ Hailey recalls, ‘at like, a kickball game or something, right?’
‘Wow, that really dorks us out,’ Grey laughs.
‘Really?’ Hailey says playfully. ‘Well it was some sort of funny sport.’
‘It was a picnic in the park thing,’ Grey clarifies.
‘At leas I didn’t say softball. I went for kickball. Anyway, there was a ball involved.’

This comedic banter typifies the lighthearted tone between the two that continues for the rest of the interview. Like siblings or best friends, they crack on another up, are constantly joking, and often finish on another’s sentences. It’s endearing and evidence of the symbiosis they’ve attained in their relatively brief career together.

After that random meeting several years ago, their paths didn’t cross again until Hailey, after five years of focusing solely on her role as Alice Pieszecki on The L Word, decided she really missed music and was ready to return to it.
‘I had really been looking for someone to write music with,’ Hailey says. ‘I tried a couple of people out, but it never felt right – not that they sucked or anything, it just wasn’t something I was wanting to start a band around. I heard about Cam, and then remembered meeting her. So I went to see her play with her old band, Mellowdrone.’

The two started hanging out shortly thereafter, and before they knew it, they were writing music together. ‘It just felt right to begin with,’ Hailey says. ‘Writing music felt pretty good; it felt fun. We didn’t really have the time to get to know each other first. Through this last year, we’ve been slowly getting to know each other. That’s what’s been so weird about it. You usually have the chance to get to know someone better and the music comes second.’
‘For us, the music happened first and then the friendship came organically through that,’ Grey agrees.

The poppy, synth-heavy sound that Uh Huh Her exhibits on both last year’s EP and their forthcoming full-length album can be explained as a mish-mash of their two musical backgrounds and former music projects.

Hailey, while training as an actor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in the early 1990s, stumbled into music through her friendship with fellow student Heather Reid (previously Grody), forming the catchy, acoustic alt-pop band (and lesbian favourite) the Murmurs, which later re-formed into indie-rocker Gush. They developed quite a cult following and released several albums, but decided to call it quits in 2003, when Hailey signed on to The L Word.

‘It was never a plan for me,’ she says about her musical career. ‘My whole inspiration around it was actually my best friend. We’d get together and write music and it was never intended to be a career of any sort. Also, because we were severely broke, it was a survival mechanism, to make enough money to buy a bagel and pack of cigarettes, back in the day. We’d play subways every single day, and street corners, whatever we could do to get out there and make a buck. It really came out of friendship.’

Grey, meanwhile, was definitely on a serious musical career path. After taking classical piano lessons through her youth, she attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music and has amassed extensive production and session credits with big names like Dr. Dre, Busta Rhymes, Tricky, Melissa Auf der Maur and Kelly Osbourne, aside from her last gig with the Los Angeles-based experimental electro-rock band Mellowdrone.
‘I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do, production-wise,’ Grey asserts, about how they each approached this new joint venture. ‘I like synths. I’m a synth player, since I was born, I think. So I had that in mind. When it was all three of us, each one of us brought something to the table and we’d just start writing things and layering things.’

That third original member of Uh Huh Her, mutual friend and drummer Alicia Warrington, has since left the band. ‘She had other opportunities come her way,’ Grey says. ‘At the time, when we were first recording, it wasn’t this big money-making machine. All of us have to survive one way or the other, and this other opportunity seemed like it could be lucrative. It was a nice split; we miss her.’

As a duo, their sound has continued to mature and tighten, and Hailey welcomes the evolution. ‘I think we definitely have a sound that we’re both really proud of, but I wouldn’t want to say ‘OK, that’s it, we’re stopping here.’ I think there’s plenty of room to keep experimenting.’

But do they think this glossy, heavily produced electronic sound will shock their former fans? ‘Most of the people who knew me, knew me as a session player, so they hadn’t really heard me in this element yet, didn’t really know what to expect,’ Grey says. ‘With Leisha it’s probably really different, because she had a band that was totally different than this sound. But she can speak for herself.’
‘I like it when you speak for me,’ Hailey quips, in a way that you can just hear her L Word character saying. ‘I don’t know. I think there are some lingering fans, but I feel like we’re finding a whole new group of people. I don’t know what [the Murmurs fans] think of the change. I’m hoping they like it. I don’t really sit around thinking about it, though.’

So what’s up with the name of the band? How did they decide on Uh Huh Her? ‘Well, actually…we were in a time crunch to get the name,’ Hailey reveals. ‘We formed the band and started recording our EP, and our management called and said, ‘Well, it’s really great that you’re doing all this, but maybe, you know, think of a band name.’ We thought, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a good point.’ So we had a list of almost a hundred names that we were getting from various different places or just thinking up ourselves. Did we find it in a book? I can’t remember where we found it, Cam.’
‘We were looking through my Encyclopedia of Rock,’ Grey deadpans.
‘That exactly what it was!’ Hailey remembers. ‘I can’t remember who found the name, but someone said it, and we just thought, ‘That fits. That really feels like it’s it.’’

The conversation drifts back to a discussion of their process as collaborators, writing music and lyrics together.
‘Each song comes from a different place,’ Hailey says, in response to a question about whether one of them does more of the lyric writing or music writing. ‘Cam, definitely overall, does a lot more production. I’m not into the technical aspects of any of it. It actually bores me.’
‘I tend to be the little mad scientists, putting everything together on the computer,’ Grey laughs. ‘With lyrics, we both kind of come from different places. And that’s been the weirdest part, because normally I write lyrics alone. I’ve never collaborated on lyrics [before], so this has been really challenging.’
‘You’ve never really collaborated in general!’ Hailey jabs, jokingly.
‘Yeah, exactly. I’m not really good at it. Though I’m getting better,’ says Grey shyly, laughing.
‘It’s been funny,’ Hailey exclaims. ‘Cam, she’s an only child. So I’m like, ‘This is what it’s like to share,’ It’s funny.’

About the band’s lyrics, they seem to prefer to remain mysterious. I don’t manage to get anything specific out of them about any particular songs – other than the fact that the dreamy ‘Wait Another Day’ is one of their favourites, and the aggressive ‘So Long,’ one of Hailey’s least favourite songs on the album, is a lot of fun to play live. ‘Usually, the ones that are louder are always more fun to play,’ Hailey laughs.
Grey does, however, elaborate in a vague sort of way about the inspiration for her lyrics. ‘I’m a composer first and lyricist last,’ she admits. ‘In that respect, it kind of all comes out when I do have something to say, like, OK, just spit it out. It comes from things I’ve seen. A lot of it is metaphorical and doesn’t mean what you might think it means.’

So, we shouldn’t read these songs – which largely sound like angsty love and relationship ponderings – as literal biographical experiences?
‘Exactly,’ Grey says. ‘It could mean something else. I think I use the emotion love as a metaphor for different things. And when you bring someone else into it – Leisha, she’s coming from a whole new place, and we just try to fit it all together.
‘Hate,’ Hailey, says. ‘I’m coming from hate.’ She giggles. ‘I’m kidding.’
‘It’s kind of everything,’ Grey continues, not fazed by Hailey’s response. ‘It’s from observing things around, just life. I think people can relate to it.’
‘I used to personally dread writing lyrics,’ Hailey inserts, getting serious again. ‘Because I never really understood how to do it. And for some reason in this band I’m enjoying it and actually looking forward to that part of it. And like Cam was saying, it’s kind of fun to write something that you know people will think one thing about, that you have a whole different meaning behind.’
‘Yeah, that’s what’s kind of cool about song writing,’ Grey adds. ‘ Not everyone intends for you to hear certain things. That’s what makes songs really interesting, that people take from their own experiences and relate it to their lives in their own unique way. And it might not necessarily be your way, but at least they are getting something out of it.’

‘Not A Love Song’ is the first designated single off the record. Bridging the aural territory between indie-rock and electronica, but with and infectious melody, hooky guitars and ethereal vocals, it’s the kind of song that’s likely to get them radio play and commercial success without eroding their indie-rock street cred. It walks that fine line well.
Lyrically, it’s a little more enigmatic. When asked to explain the lyrics of that song specifically, all Grey musters is, ‘It’s not a love song. That’s all I have to say.’

Perhaps it’s not a love song in the traditional sense, but that song, and most of the other 10 tracks on the album, do seem to touch on themes of codependence, loss, disappointment, disillusion and despair, heavy emotions often associated with the dark side of love. And while, according to both Grey and Hailey, listeners aren’t to read these lyrics as word-for-word accounts of their own romantic lives, it’s hard not to speculate, or at least want to know where they come from and what they mean.

Hailey’s personal life has been somewhat of an open book. She came out as a lesbian long before her rise to fame, and had a relatively high-profile relationship with the singer k.d. lang before she most recently paired up with fashion designer and The L Word stylist Nina Garduno.
Grey’s story, however, remains less well-known. She is notoriously mysterious, and refuses to speak to the press about her personal life. Because of this, the rumour mill has of course been active, and frequently links Grey to actor Clea DuVall, whom Grey thanks in the liner notes of Common Reaction, ‘for all your love and belief in me.’ This certainly does raise eyebrows – and the hopes of many an admiring lesbian fan.

Regardless, lesbians and fans of every other persuasion have been packing live venues around the country and the globe to hear Grey and Hailey play. ‘We have the most loyal and enthusiastic fans,’ Hailey says. ‘Our favourite thing we receive from them is their fan art. We actually just got a book that someone compiled of art people made for us from all over the world. They’ve been nothing but cool to us.’

Any memorable gigs? ‘The gig that stands out the most in our mind is when we played Shepherd’s Bush in London,’ Hailey says. ‘We had only played 15 or so shows, and that was such an amazing venue to be at, with so few shows under our belt. Camila was so nervous that she accidentally wore two different shoes, and didn’t notice until the last song!’
I was hoping for more stories from their recent Dinah Shore Weekend appearance. ‘The highlight from Palm Springs was when we got to meet Pat Benatar,’ Grey gushes. ‘She is still so amazing live, and played all of her old hits. She plays a mean air guitar.’

Though the band’s next big tour – overseas in the fall, including Japan, Australia and Europe – isn’t slated to begin until after Hailey finishes taping the last season of The L Word later this summer, fans will still have some opportunities to see them play live. ‘We will be doing one-offs as much as we can,’ they both assure me.
One of those one-offs will be over Labour Day Weekend in Seattle, as part of an event sponsored by Olivia, the travel-entertainment company that evolved out of the 1973 women’s music record label of the same name, and for whom Hailey was recently announced as the new spokesperson. Uh Huh Her will headline The Fling, one of Olivia’s new, long-weekend packages geared toward younger lesbian in various ‘hot’ cities.

And what’s down the line for these two after this record and their fall tour? ‘We hope to keep growing our audience and evolving as performers,’ they both say. ‘We certainly will be writing more material and will probably put out another EP after the record is released in August.
‘Oh, and world domination. There’s that, too.’

(@Curve Magazine 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)