Exclusive Interview with Susie Hug for 977 Radio
Susie you were born in Tokyo, raised in San Diego, what brought you to the UK ?
Wanderlust mostly, I’ve moved every few years of my life. Plus, having relatives and friends here was a big draw.
At what age did you start writing songs?
I think around 5 years old, on the piano. I hope I've improved just slightly in the many intervening years, since my
hands grew big enough to play the guitar.
How did you meet Adam Seymour and go on to form The Katydids?
We met in a studio singing backing vocals on a song by Big Bam Boo, and that day chatted about collaborating,
since we were both looking to go beyond working alone.
Then we discovered a shared love of The Beatles, Elvis Costello and 60’s Psychedelic Music, among other things,
so we swung into play pretty quickly after that and we started writing together.
You and Adam have worked together on a lot of songs over the years, do your musical tastes ever differ?
We like a lot of the same music, but perhaps the difference would be that he can
appreciate a more polished sound, whereas I’m perfectly happy with distortion and mistakes. I’m a big fan of
Guided By Voices, as an example.
You have written songs that other people have recorded, 3 of them were for Travis (Unbelievers, Reason & Under
The Moonlight), how do you decide if you want to record a song for yourself or give it to someone else to record?
It was Fran Healy who decided he wanted to record the songs with Travis. It wasn’t up to me really…he just went
ahead, I agreed of course!
I’ve also co-written with some people, like Rie Fu [The Rose Album – 3 songs on it were also produced by me &
Adam w/Martin Chambers on drums], Michel Sanchez [The Touch album], Lily Wilson [various releases, including
The Right Time], Dave Newton [from The Mighty Lemon Drops], Bill De Main [from Swan Dive], Stuart Rowe [from
Lighterthief], Gerard Langley [from The Blue Aeroplanes], all of which came about either by just meeting, a friend’s
introduction, playing in a band together or by email contact.
I’m also working on my solo album with some songs co-written [or in the process of writing] with Joey Burns from
Calexico [on lyrics].
Mostly I write for fun, because it’s difficult to get cover songs for commercial artists….and I wouldn’t call myself the
most pushy of business types.
Talking of Travis they were the backing band on your excellent 2004 release "A is for Album" and Fran Healy
produced it, how did Travis get involved?
I met Fran & Travis when Adam did some early demos with them, and our friendship grew. After they covered a
couple of my tunes, Fran said he’d like to produce me. And in a wonderfully generous grand gesture the band
came in [along with Rick Willson from Diesel Park West] and Fran paid and produced, and we threw it down in 10
days at London’s Rak Studios.
You have been a quite prolific songwriter since 2004 with "A is for Album", "The Language Barrier Method" &
"Huggets Vol 1 & 2" but which artists inspire you?
One of my favourite songwriters is Bob Pollard from GBV [talk about prolific]. Led Zeppelin rocks my world. The
Beatles writing & music & harmonies. Neil Young, Moby Grape,Calexico, Wilco, Kings of Leon, MGMT….to name a
few. Probably the less introspective the better, for me….and usually with a bit of humour in the songs.
I remember reading an interview with Keith Richard once where he
told of an experience waking up from a dream and having an entire song in his head. Lyrics,melody, everything.
How does the songwriting process work for you?
I’ve had that happen once, with Green To Gold [from A is for Album]. Other than that I usually just get the urge
and sit down with an acoustic and strum and sing gibberish. And either I’ll remember it or throw it down on any
recording device handy, then work on words as the song progresses & gels. It’s pure pleasure for me, as I’m one
of those weird loner creating-obsessive types…he he.
If you had to pick just one of your songs, to play on a desert island which song would it be and why?
Probably ‘Growing Old’ from our first Katydids album. It’s kind of a lament but also uplifting, and the Japanese
lyrics on it were written by my mom. I think the sentiment is gorgeous and heartfelt. Plus, there is a lovely acoustic
solo and Nick Lowe is singing backing ‘ohhms’ alongside me & Adam. Those precious memories resonate in that
song and you can hear it.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
Yes, I’m doing vocals for an album ‘Tucson Moonshine’ I tracked last year in Tucson, AZ with JD Foster producing
[and playing some bass] and Joey Burns, John Convertino & Jacob Valenzuela from Calexico. It’s difficult to get it
just right, since they are all such amazing musicians and I want to rise to the occasion and not let the project down
[yikes!].
Plus, there are some new songs I’m writing and recording at the moment with Adam, which are all going swimmingly.
And finally please tell us what does the future hold musically for Susie Hug?
And album by Michel Sanchez has just come out on his wild website michelsanchez.com [wrote the lyrics], and Lily
Wilson’s ‘The Right Time’ is coming out soon [co-wrote the title track]. Hopefully I’ll find the right outlets for the JD
Foster/Calexico album when it’s done and my new project with Adam will pop out at some point like my other solo
projects.
Also, me & Adam are putting together ‘Demo-Itis’, a Katydids demo selection including some never before released
songs….hopefully sometime this year.
Plus, more collaborating, if it’s written in the wind!
Susie you were born in Tokyo, raised in San Diego, what brought you to the UK ?
Wanderlust mostly, I’ve moved every few years of my life. Plus, having relatives and friends here was a big draw.
At what age did you start writing songs?
I think around 5 years old, on the piano. I hope I've improved just slightly in the many intervening years, since my
hands grew big enough to play the guitar.
How did you meet Adam Seymour and go on to form The Katydids?
We met in a studio singing backing vocals on a song by Big Bam Boo, and that day chatted about collaborating,
since we were both looking to go beyond working alone.
Then we discovered a shared love of The Beatles, Elvis Costello and 60’s Psychedelic Music, among other things,
so we swung into play pretty quickly after that and we started writing together.
You and Adam have worked together on a lot of songs over the years, do your musical tastes ever differ?
We like a lot of the same music, but perhaps the difference would be that he can
appreciate a more polished sound, whereas I’m perfectly happy with distortion and mistakes. I’m a big fan of
Guided By Voices, as an example.
You have written songs that other people have recorded, 3 of them were for Travis (Unbelievers, Reason & Under
The Moonlight), how do you decide if you want to record a song for yourself or give it to someone else to record?
It was Fran Healy who decided he wanted to record the songs with Travis. It wasn’t up to me really…he just went
ahead, I agreed of course!
I’ve also co-written with some people, like Rie Fu [The Rose Album – 3 songs on it were also produced by me &
Adam w/Martin Chambers on drums], Michel Sanchez [The Touch album], Lily Wilson [various releases, including
The Right Time], Dave Newton [from The Mighty Lemon Drops], Bill De Main [from Swan Dive], Stuart Rowe [from
Lighterthief], Gerard Langley [from The Blue Aeroplanes], all of which came about either by just meeting, a friend’s
introduction, playing in a band together or by email contact.
I’m also working on my solo album with some songs co-written [or in the process of writing] with Joey Burns from
Calexico [on lyrics].
Mostly I write for fun, because it’s difficult to get cover songs for commercial artists….and I wouldn’t call myself the
most pushy of business types.
Talking of Travis they were the backing band on your excellent 2004 release "A is for Album" and Fran Healy
produced it, how did Travis get involved?
I met Fran & Travis when Adam did some early demos with them, and our friendship grew. After they covered a
couple of my tunes, Fran said he’d like to produce me. And in a wonderfully generous grand gesture the band
came in [along with Rick Willson from Diesel Park West] and Fran paid and produced, and we threw it down in 10
days at London’s Rak Studios.
You have been a quite prolific songwriter since 2004 with "A is for Album", "The Language Barrier Method" &
"Huggets Vol 1 & 2" but which artists inspire you?
One of my favourite songwriters is Bob Pollard from GBV [talk about prolific]. Led Zeppelin rocks my world. The
Beatles writing & music & harmonies. Neil Young, Moby Grape,Calexico, Wilco, Kings of Leon, MGMT….to name a
few. Probably the less introspective the better, for me….and usually with a bit of humour in the songs.
I remember reading an interview with Keith Richard once where he
told of an experience waking up from a dream and having an entire song in his head. Lyrics,melody, everything.
How does the songwriting process work for you?
I’ve had that happen once, with Green To Gold [from A is for Album]. Other than that I usually just get the urge
and sit down with an acoustic and strum and sing gibberish. And either I’ll remember it or throw it down on any
recording device handy, then work on words as the song progresses & gels. It’s pure pleasure for me, as I’m one
of those weird loner creating-obsessive types…he he.
If you had to pick just one of your songs, to play on a desert island which song would it be and why?
Probably ‘Growing Old’ from our first Katydids album. It’s kind of a lament but also uplifting, and the Japanese
lyrics on it were written by my mom. I think the sentiment is gorgeous and heartfelt. Plus, there is a lovely acoustic
solo and Nick Lowe is singing backing ‘ohhms’ alongside me & Adam. Those precious memories resonate in that
song and you can hear it.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
Yes, I’m doing vocals for an album ‘Tucson Moonshine’ I tracked last year in Tucson, AZ with JD Foster producing
[and playing some bass] and Joey Burns, John Convertino & Jacob Valenzuela from Calexico. It’s difficult to get it
just right, since they are all such amazing musicians and I want to rise to the occasion and not let the project down
[yikes!].
Plus, there are some new songs I’m writing and recording at the moment with Adam, which are all going swimmingly.
And finally please tell us what does the future hold musically for Susie Hug?
And album by Michel Sanchez has just come out on his wild website michelsanchez.com [wrote the lyrics], and Lily
Wilson’s ‘The Right Time’ is coming out soon [co-wrote the title track]. Hopefully I’ll find the right outlets for the JD
Foster/Calexico album when it’s done and my new project with Adam will pop out at some point like my other solo
projects.
Also, me & Adam are putting together ‘Demo-Itis’, a Katydids demo selection including some never before released
songs….hopefully sometime this year.
Plus, more collaborating, if it’s written in the wind!
|
| The Katydids - The Boy Who's Never Found - Shangri-la 1991 |
Susie Hug - August Moon - A is For Album 2004
Photo by Anton Corbijn