Interview With Uh Huh Her

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.

Camila Grey (left) and Leisha Hailey

AfterEllen.com: It seems like you guys have a lot of connections, but for the album, you're going it on your own. You're not calling in Dr. Dre or anyone to help.
Leisha Hailey: Cam's the one with all the connections.

AE: I just read on Tegan and Sara's Coachella blog that you introduced them to Linda Perry, so you know people!
LH: Oh, that's funny. We didn't think they knew who she was. Maybe they figured it out later. They're so cute. We love them.

Camila Grey: We're going to try and go on tour with them.

AE: Being a duo and having connections, did you ever think about bringing in other "famous musicians" to play on the record?
LH: Well, Linda, for instance, we'll want to work with her someday. We like what she does and she knows what we're trying to do, so when it's the right, opportune moment, we'll make that happen. But as far as consciously inviting people in —

CG: We're trying to figure out our own thing.

LH: Yeah, we're still beginning. We need to write and work it out first.

AE: What has been your songwriting process?
CG: Combined.

LH: It's been different for every song for sure, but Cam's definitely the producer. And I don't do that at all. I like to say: "Make it sound like that! OK great!" I get to leave.

CG: And then I get to stay and work on it.

LH: You don't have to; she loves it! She stays up all night. Basically because we've always had time issues, we've written this album over a year. Like Cam would come up to Vancouver and we'd write, and we'd both have a little something. It's not like we had a couple of months to sit around and write the record.

AE: Right, like holed up in a cabin to write.
LH: I wish! We'll do it that way someday for sure.

AE: So what was with the pushing back of the record? Is that a good thing?
CG: I think we were kind of rushed and wanted to get something to the record company quick, and we pushed it back to hopefully benefit our marketing.

LH: And also, I mean I think this is my guess: They were expecting the record to sound a lot like the EP, lo-fi and homemade, and it sounded a lot more commercial than I think they expected, so they really rallied behind it. They're really pushing it, which is great. We're happy they did that.