“Say So“
from the EP I See Red
2007
iTunes
In much the same organic, DIY style as the PJ Harvey album whose B-side track inspired their name, Uh Huh Her’s Leisha Hailey and Camila Grey met, clicked, and created a kind of a raw, revealing sound — one which neither would have found without the other. “Cam and I are sort of like the perfect ying and yang, not only our personalities, but with music too,” says Hailey. “I’m kind of a hippie and she’s a Berkeley grad; I’m self-taught and she’s musically trained.”
Hailey had been looking for an entrée back into music since leaving the ’90s alt-pop outfit the Murmers to play Alice Pieszecki in Showtime’s “The L Word” when she bumped into Grey, at the time bassist and keyboardist for Mellowdrone, at a party. Grey, who delivered the backbeat for not only the Lo-Fi L.A. band, but also for a slew of artists including Dr. Dre and Kelly Osbourne, wanted the front seat for a change.
I See Red, the duo’s debut EP, didn’t take long to record and came together comfortably in Grey’s bedroom. “We kind of bounce off each other lyrically. We write everything together, we kind of translate each other’s scratch vocals…” continues Hailey. They also, it appears, finish each other’s sentences. “The beauty of it was that we had that kind of indie, low-fi thing going, but with a great mixer,” adds Grey. Al Clay, who’s worked with Hailey’s personal influences the Pixies as well as Frank Black and Blur, mixed the record just enough so as not to lose the Cure-like layers of lush, staticy homemade synth and Bjork-esque enigmatic, sugary vocals.
Grey describes their sound as, “Indie, kind of electro pop…no, not kind of. Indie electro pop,” she settles on. But Uh Huh Her are already evolving. Their latest track, “Mystery Lights,” released to iTunes following the EP, has sidetracked from Red‘s emotionally-charged lyrics in favor of less indie-EP, more experimental subject matter (“Well, um, it’s actually about aliens…” admits Hailey). And Grey’s along for the ride: “Uh Huh Her started out for me a side project but it’s become one of those things…like the train kept rollin’ and I decided to stay on and not jump off.”