Welcome/Uh Huh Her Interview

Hello to all you new readers out there. This is the first official blog of WVOU. WVOU is a freeform student-run radio streamed via Itunes at Ursinus College, located in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

We'll be using this site to update you on what's good and new album-wise, post interviews of local and out of state bands, concert reviews, and whatever else floats our auditory-lovin' boat :)

Be sure to add us to your list of blogs you'd like to keep updated on and expect interviews of VNV Nation, The Living Things, and Girl in a Coma in the upcoming weeks.

Also, here's an interview that never made it to the Grizzly last year. It's from the synth/electro band Uh Huh Her ( featuring Leisha Hailey from the L Word & singer songwriter Camila Grey)

I'll be including some pics my column photographer, Matt Whitman shot from their set.
ENJOY!






~Laurel Salvo
WVOU General Manager



Uh Huh Her Interview: Conducted by Laurel Salvo on October 25th, 2008 at the TLA









So how have things been going with touring?

Leisha & Cam: Great, really great.

You guys were in Virginia yesterday right? Long drive, huh?

Leisha: Yeah we’re still going but it’s a whole different thing from last tour.

Well when did you start touring with this tour?

Leisha: This Tour? A week ago, we’re a week in.

With the Fashion, right?

Leisha & Cam: Yeah

And who were you with last tour?

Cam: It was a longer tour, but it was a small. We were in a small kind of opener thing. But this time we’re with the Fashion and these guys rock so hard.

I want to talk talk about influences a little bit, like, who you listened to growing up. I heard something about Neil Diamond? *points to Cam* and how you love his music.


Cam: *Laughing* It’s my Dad’s fault. I don’t know. I think there’s been a lot of like, British Stuff and a lot of Euro mix and New Order. I love Bowie. Let me think of some American bands… not too much actually…

Leisha: Some Radiohead.

Cam: Yeah… And then Madonna, Madonna’s a big one too.

Leisha: Yeah my big High School bands were like, Depeche Mode. My friend Cheryl and I were like, so into them. But when I really got into music later when I started seeing some of the alternative albums come out and getting into them, ya know?

So what’s the last live show you guys have been to? Or have you had time in between touring and everything else to even do that…

Cam: Yeah the last show we went to see Radiohead at the Hollywood Bowl. I saw Liars open up for them, also a really good band. I remember them for whatever reason and I bought all of their records. Real good live.

Leisha: Um let’s see New York was the last one, before that I saw the Pixies. They’re so good it’s weird.





Addressing Cam: So you were in Mellowdrone…
Addresing Leisha: And you were in the Murmurs/Gush. Has it been a different experience playing then versus playing now and touring live?


Cam: I mean yeah. For obvious reasons that I’m not just a singer anymore. I play keys and do all these things now. And we’re kind of like the bosses which is always fun to just boss people around.

“Go get me that hamburger!” kinda thing. No that’s not what happens, but yeah it’s totally different.

Leisha: *laughing* Go get me that hamburger? Just awesome.

Cam: It’s you know…for me it’s really different. I get to be a little special person.

And you record a lot now?

Cam: Yeah a little bit but you know there are so many responsibilities... but more in a really good way now.

Leisha: Yeah I mean mine’s different because I was so young in the Murmurs but now I feel…like an old biddy. It’s like a whole different thing. I can’t explain why. Why, Why, Why?

Did you guys play a lot of the smaller places, like basement venues and stuff?

Leisha: What, the Murmurs?

Yeah.

Leisha : I mean yeah. It was almost 10 years so we ran the gamut. We were obviously playing some places that had like…any drag queen type situation in the East Village for like, 3 years. We played anything coffee shop, everything, really. And then after we got signed like, you’re on the radio and everything changes. When that happened we were playing really big places and doing tours was a really great thing after and then when that stops and you’re off the radio… It’s like, “Crash!” Everything stops. Crash to the earth all over again. I kind of feel like I experienced everything in that band.

Were you touring out of the US too?

Leisha: Oh yeah.









So both of you write the lyrics for Uh Huh Her. Where do you find your inspiration from?

Cam: Life!

How does it work? Does it happen cohesively and you write together or…

Cam: I don’t know. It’s like, sometimes we do like a scratch vocal and sometimes a word will just come out and happen and then you can kinda just…write the song based off of that. Or I’ll be like, “I can’t deal with them today”, so I’ll write half of them and finish them later on.


Do you guys have journals or anything?

Leisha: I’m not a journal person. I’ve always wanted to be one of those but no. My thoughts aren’t that deep.

Cam: Oh they are, they are.

Leisha: *mimics journaling* Dear Leisha….

Cam: *laughing* Why are we on this ball, floating around it so much?

Leisha: Yeah that’s her deepest thought.

Cam: It’s the most profound thought...I think of it all the time…

Leisha: She’s really into the whole thing.

Cam: Cuz it’s true. We’re on a floating ball in this little space floating around a ball of fire and everyone’s just ok about it….

Leisha: It’s how you justify everything. “We’re just on a ball.”

Cam: Well I just think it’s quite funny that we’re all…we’re all so complicated and precious and if you do look at where you really are you’re…

Leisha: Insignificant?

Cam: No, not that you’re insignificant, it’s not about insignificance. It’s just like, it kinda puts things to perspective a little bit….Anyway…

Leisha: It does. I’ll back that.

Cam: I could go on….but…I’m not gonna.

So to segue a little bit, you have a side project going on…with the L Word?

Leisha: It’s not…It’s a pilot. So I mean, it’s not picked up and there’s a long way to go between shooting that pilot and it actually becoming a TV show.

So you don’t think you’ll have to balance things with touring and…

Leisha: You know what, what I love about life right now is that next year for the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen. And that’s pretty exciting for me. So I’m ready, I’m ready for anything.






Well were you guys working on your album while Season 5 was being filmed?

Leisha: Yeah. I mean that was crazy

Cam: Yeah it was a lot of flying. Her up to here and then back up to Vancouver, her flying back.

Leisha: Yeah it was choppy but it was a good time. I loved recording there. We had great times in Vancouver.

Cam: We did, we did.

Did you guys get to hit any of the stores on South Street yet? Or not really cuz' you just got up a short while ago…

Leisha: Not yet no. We just got here like, an hour ago.

Cam: Yeah we were here and we were like, "Philly! Philly!".

Leisha: We wanted to go to that museum…

Cam: We wanted to go to the Mutter Museum.

Mutter Museum is amazing. They have really weird oddities there.

Cam: Yeah before I was here and I went there.

Leisha: Are there like, two headed monkeys and dragons and stuff?

It’s just a lot of shrunken heads and random like, babies in glass jars and strange organs. Fermented and preserved things, conjoined twins and stuff...

Leisha: Strange organs?

Yeah. And you just walk through it and it’s two floors.

Cam: It’s very dark and they have everything show-cased and stuff.

Leisha: How late is it opened? Maybe after sound-check we could go.

I think it’s open til late. Shampoo is also around here. It’s a nightclub.

Cam: Where can you go for tattoos? I wanna get tattooed.


No Ka Oi is really good. There’s a lot to do here. Guacamole is a cute store with clothes and other random stuff. And then the Body Graphics tattoo shops are around. Two are here and then the other one is in China Town. No Ka Oi is really good. It’s all chick tattoo artists too.

Leisha: Really? I wanna go!

Cam: Is it on South Street?

Yeah it’s like two streets back from the TLA on a side street. Then there’s Crash Bang Boom which is like, this 80’s punk store, all kinds of pleather and studded stuff. Then they have really weird sex shops, like Condom Kingdom.

Cam: Yeah! I saw that earlier!

Leisha: I was like, “It can’t just be condoms!”

Yeah it’s got everything.

Cam: Oh perfect. We get really bored.

Yeah this is a great venue to play at because the Electric Factory has virtually nothing around there.

Leisha: We’re doing a whole thing… Well, we need to blog about it really. We’re doing a fake tattoo sleeve thing. But we’re doing truck stop tattoos.

Cam: Yeah lemme show you. Let me get naked now. *Takes button up top off over tank*


Where do you get them from?

Leisha: We get them at truck stops.

Cam: We buy these fake tattoos and put them all over our arms. And we want people to bring them to us.

Leisha: They aren’t trashy though. Cam has the one tattoo up here that says: “Death is certain, life is not”

Cam: *laughing”

Leisha: Things like that.

Do you guys have any for real?

Cam: I have one on my lower back that I’m very ashamed of. So, No Ka Oi?

Yeah they’re good there and they’re very clean too. That was all that I had. I guess just one last question. How have the fans been responding to the album and everything? Do people sing all the lyrics at the shows yet?

Leisha: Yeah it’s been fantastic. We’ve had such great times. The last tour the album wasn’t out yet, but this tour people know the songs a lot better .
The Ep was out yet though right?

Leisha: Yeah they were excited for that but they didn’t know the rest of them. Everyone’s been having a really great time so far though. The fans are great.






To learn more about Uh Huh Her find them on their website:

Click for Uh Huh Her's Website

or on Myspace @:

Click for Uh Huh Her's Myspace

Their debut album "Common Reaction" can be purchased via Itunes as well.