Article: Big Shot Issue 23

Sure, they have the same name as a PJ Harvey album, but synthpop duo Uh Huh Her neither sounds like Harvey or is a tribute to her. Instead, Uh Huh Her blends an alt-folk confessional songwriting style with power pop synths and a touch of well-channelled angst.

Camila Grey and Leisha Hailey don’t have too much to say about their band’s name. ‘I don’t know why we put ourselves through choosing that name because that’s all we talk about, and it’s hard to say,’ Grey says. Hailey’s old band, the Murmurs, had a cult following in the ‘90s. While former Murmurs partner Heather Reid continued as a musician, Hailey took a break. She’s now most recognized for her role as Alice on TV show The L Word. Meanwhile, Grey, a native Texan and Berklee College of Music grad had been playing with LA electro-pop outfit Mellowdrone while doing session and composition work for film and TV projects.
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Article: They Happen to be Girls

Yes, I watch The L Word. But when I interviewed Uh Huh Her with Leisha Hailey and Camila Grey at their May 10 concert in Miami Florida, I didn’t even mention Hailey’s role as Alice Pieszecki on the Showtime lesbian-themed drama. I didn’t ask how she balances her acting with her work as a musician. There are already a lot of these interviews with Hailey.

The success of Uh Huh Her’s first musical effort, I See Red, an EP released in 2007, has led to this year’s nearly sold out summer concert tour as well as to their full-length album, Common Reaction, due August 19.

YouTube reminded me of Hailey’s previous musical success with the ‘90s bands the Murmurs and Gush and I had a flashback of sitting in a college dorm and listening to “You Suck”. Camila Grey also has an extensive musical background playing bass and keyboards with the indie band Mellowdrone, and producing with people as diverse as Busta Rhymes and Kelly Osbourne.

Uh Huh Her call themselves “indie electro-pop”. They mix ethereal vocals and synthesizers with an insouciant yet contemplative bass and guitar. But they also know how to rock out. Hailey on-stage is a blond frenzy as she shakes her head over her bass. There’s also a come hither, confessional quality to the lyrics which may be why many L Word fans have enthusiastically responded to the music and seem ready to welcome Hailey’s newest artistic venture.
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Review: Common Reaction

Named after a 2004 PJ Harvey (and her obscure song of the same name), there’s no confusing Uh Huh her with its angry English progenitor. Instead, the duo’s pulsing synth-rock is a much more approachable, hook-filled affair. For a debut album, Common Reaction maintains a surprisingly confident, consistent sound thanks to wealth of rock experience: Leisha Hailey, who moonlights as ‘Alice Pieszecki’ on Showtime’s The L Word, first rose to prominence in the New York duo The Murmurs in the early ‘90s. Likewise, lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Camila Grey used to hold down the low end for Mellowdrone. As Uh Huh Her, they seem to have found their kindred spirits. Highlights such as ‘Dance With Me’ and the title track find their voices blending like Sumatran coffee. Still, the angsty lyrics betray a tension hiding just beneath the synth-covered surface. Maybe there’s some Harvey in them yet.

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Article: Access – New Artists

At first glance, it’s easy to discount Camila Grey. After all, her musical partner of Uh Huh Her (they’re named after a PJ Harvey B-side) is The L Word actress Leisha Hailey. So when you first listen to their debut album, Common Reaction, you assume – rightly or wrongly – that Hailey is the lead singer and Grey, and LA session musician for the likes of Dr. Dre and Busta Rhymes, is her musical wingman.

But seconds into the band’s recent sold-out Toronto debut, it becomes apparent that Grey, centre-stage behind a band of keyboards, is in fact Uh Huh Her’s central voice, while Hailey, one half of ‘90s alt-folk duo The Murmurs primarily provides background harmony vocals, in addition to bass and keyboards.

Which makes it ironic that Grey, who jumped at Hailey’s offer to work together ‘because I’m able to have my voice heard,’ is mostly absent from this story. Thank you, noisy café!

Hailey’s celebrity has definitely boosted Uh Huh Her’s profile. Few bands can boast about selling out their first North American club tour without the benefit of having a record out. (UHH’s spring tour was booked before Common Reaction’s May release got bumped to August.) And the cries of ‘Pieszecki!’ (Alice Pieszecki is Hailey’s L Word character) coming from mostly young, most female crowd would suggest that Hailey’s public profile helped sell tickets. Not that either Hailey or Grey want to ride on the show’s coattails.
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Article: AfterEllen interview

From the moment Leisha Hailey showed up on The L Word as Alice Pieszecki, she has fielded questions about when she might return to the music business. That’s because Hailey was first noticed as one-half of folk-pop duo the Murmurs in the 1990s. For her music fans, the wait is finally over: Hailey’s new band Uh Huh Her’s first full-length album, Common Reaction, was released today.

Hailey’s musical cohort, Camila Grey, can sometimes get lost in The L Word whirlwind, which is unfortunate because she is actually the lead vocalist of Uh Huh Her. She not only writes just as much of the music as Hailey, but also produces the songs for the group’s recordings. While Hailey was making a name for herself alongside Jennifer Beals and Cybill Shepherd, Grey was working with Dr. Dre, Tricky and Kelly Osbourne.

The two met after one of Grey’s shows with her former band Mellowdrone, when Hailey was looking to get back into music. Within a year’s time, they had written a five-track EP and were readying a full-length on Nettwerk, a record label that’s home to Sarah McLachlan and Ladytron. Its release today, Aug. 18, is exactly one year after Uh Huh Her’s first performance at their record label’s Los Angeles office for a select group of fans.
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