Gay Girl / Straight World
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Ever since the pilot aired in January 2004, the fan base has been growing steadily for Showtime’s The L Word, the overly dramatic, oftentimes hysterical, and addicting as hell program that follows a group of gay women and their friends in West Hollywood. L Word viewers have come to count on the humor and steadiness of Alice Pieszecki, the fresh-faced, lively journalist played by the cast’s only out lesbian, Leisha Hailey.
Gay Girl / Straight World
Pre-acting career, Hailey formed The Murmurs, a pop duo that eventually changed their name to Gush. Gush broke up when The L Word began, and Hailey was a musician without a band until she met up with Camila Grey (of Mellowdrone) in January 2007 and formed Uh Huh Her. The two have since put out an EP (July 2007’s I See Red) and recently released their first full-length, Common Reaction, which they’ve been touring in support of since October. A delicious mix of pop hooks and synth, the songs off both the EP and full-length are laden with innovative lyrics and familiar textures from ’80s dance music. These ladies also are great fun live; at their SOhO show last November, they were chatty and giggly with each other and the audience, creating an environment that was both unpretentious and entertaining.
Hailey, who is rumored to have an L Word spin-off in the works, recently spoke with me over the phone from Montreal where she and Grey were preparing for that night’s show.
How is it being back in a band after a bit of a hiatus? I’ve got to say it feels really good. It was like I’d cut off a whole side of myself that I love so much, so it feels really good to be back.
Did you and Camila know each other before you got the band together? We were strangers when we started the band. We had met a couple of times, but we didn’t know each other at all when I called her out of the blue.
I saw you guys perform in Santa Barbara last year, and you had such great rapport; it seems like it’s only getting better. That’s great to hear. I hope we get better every time; that’s the goal. We’re getting more comfortable onstage. We had a year of playing in front of people when we weren’t really ready to do that, so it feels good to be proud of our show and feel like it’s at the point where we want people to come.
Are the shows your favorite part of being in a band? Definitely my favorite part is playing live. The whole recording part can be pretty slow-paced. I love writing, but the recording—I don’t know, I’m not a techie. I just like the live audience, the entertainment part.
How has it been juggling your various commitments? At first it was pretty easy, but last year it got pretty tiring. I throw myself so hard into whatever I’m doing, [and] maybe I wore myself a little thin last year. But now that the show’s over, it should be a lot easier.
How would you describe your own music? We used to call it “indie electric pop” because it has qualities of all those things. I kind of feel like it’s dark pop. There are elements about it that seem darker than your average pop music. But we definitely have those pop-driven melodies that we really want to have.
What’s the writing process like? We weren’t together a lot, so we got to write in all different ways. There are times when I have something to read to Camila, or she has something to read to me; there’s times when we’re together for a week and we’ll write from scratch together. We’ve kind of done it all. I don’t know, if we had the luxury of time, what we would end up doing.
Club Mercy presents Uh Huh Her at Velvet Jones (423 State St.) on Thursday, November 13. Visit velvet-jones.com for more information.
Penny Patterson writes an online column about gay life in Santa Barbara called Gay Girl/Straight World. See independent.com/gaygirl for more.