With a Debut Album and Major TV Role On the Way, Suki Waterhouse Is Ready to Reintroduce Herself

Suki Waterhouse: I’ve been to some quite strange places, but I haven’t been able to road-trip. I just got my license, so I’m not quite doing the freeway yet. I smashed my car into my boyfriend’s [Robert Pattinson’s] car the other day in the driveway, so it needs to go to the auto body shop! I’m getting there. I got my license in London and then started driving in L.A., so it’s different.

Why did you decide to get into music?

I’ve actually been writing music for as long as I can remember. I remember being, like, 13 and writing love songs. It’s funny, the tracks that I’m writing are weirdly similar to ones I did looking out my window at 13. It’s been something quite private, I guess, until now. I started putting out music in 2016. I kind of tested myself, like, how is it if you put out one song? Okay, do you have the guts to put out another next year? So, doing an album is something I’ve been piecing together bit by bit for probably the last four or five years, and am just now getting the courage to release.

When you were writing this album, were you reflecting on lots of different past relationships? Or was it a document of one in particular?

All the songs have been about something or someone from a particular point in my life—and then a feeling that I couldn’t shake. I read a lot of the poet Ariana Reines and that kind of self-confessional diary reportage I’ve always been really obsessed with—people like Sharon Olds and Chris Kraus and those kinds of writers.

What inspirations did you have in mind for the “Melrose Meltdown” video?

Well, the director Sofia Malamute and I were obsessed with To Die For by Gus Van Sant, and how it explores American ideals. Coming to L.A. and having these Californian experiences, it’s always going to be so extraordinary and alien and kind of intoxicating to me. There’s an amazing quote from Nicole Kidman’s character Suzanne in the movie: “You’re not anybody in America unless you’re on TV.” I’m so fascinated by our voyeuristic impulses. It’s probably why I love watching Desperate Housewives and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills so much. So, To Die For and [Vincent Gallo’s] Buffalo 66 inspired the fashion choices, and then the Godard film Pierrot le Fou influenced the color scheme.

And what about musical influences?

Do you know Camera Obscura and The Concretes? And Lucinda Williams, Julie London. I love Fiona Apple. I’m a big fan of Sharon Van Etten. Those kinds of women, Lucinda Williams in particular. I listened to “Fruits of My Labor” a lot around that time.