Suki Waterhouse sparkles even brighter than the toi et moi from Edward Cullen she wears on her left hand.
Her modeling resumé is extensive — she’s graced the covers of British, Korean, Thai, Taiwanese and Turkish Vogue, walked the runway for Burberry, Balenciaga and Alexander Wang, and fronted major campaigns for brands like Laura Mercier and Hugo Boss. But she's not just a model. Waterhouse has proven her acting chops in films including The Divergent Series: Insurgent and Billionaire Boys Club, as well as in TV as Karen Sirko in the Fleetwood Mac-inspired musical miniseries Daisy Jones & the Six.
And yet, the London native’s prowess really shines when she performs her dreamy, mystical indie pop live onstage at venues and festivals — like the Hinterland Music Festival. She performed this year just a few weeks after releasing her third studio album and major-label debut, Loveland. It’s miraculous how Waterhouse can manage all this artistry while in the first two years of new motherhood.
“I've been through a very vulnerable time and found a lot of strength and overcome a lot of doubt — a lot of transition, a lot of joy as well,” Waterhouse said. “There's a picture on the inside of the [Loveland] vinyl where I have my daughter's shampoo on my head, and it's sort of squiffy — it looks like a heart, but it's sort of falling off my head. I think that image represented to me friction, and I'm kind of pulled in a lot of directions, but that's the beauty of my Loveland, of where I've arrived.”
The creative process for Loveland began just a few weeks after Waterhouse’s daughter was born. While none of those very first post-baby musings ended up on the final record, the burst of inspiration led to collaborations with Jules Apollinaire, Natalie Findlay and Aaron Dessner.
“I would say that some of my most honest writing has appeared on this record, especially in songs like ‘Weirdo,’” Waterhouse said. “I've worked with the same people for a long time (Jules Apollinaire and Natalie Findlay). I met them when I was like 20 years old; that's a constant. With this new record, I had the opportunity to go and work with some new people as well — Aaron Dessner being one of them. That was incredibly creatively opening, going up to his studio and kind of locking myself away there for a long time.”
“I think the creative process for me is just ... things happen very quickly — in a spark. I can spend the day in the studio with really not much happening, and then everything will suddenly happen in an hour, in a very short amount of time.”
Waterhouse has been refining her musical identity for a decade. Her Loveland era draws inspiration from dreampop greats like Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star and Veruca Salt, as well as fellow Brits like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Oasis. Her acting and modeling roots have also heavily informed her musical journey.
“When you have these creative impulses, you're knocking down doors and you're trying to find a way in. For me, that came [at 15] with fashion first, and modeling,” Waterhouse said. “I look back on that experience, and it wasn't going to creatively fulfill me for my whole life. It definitely taught me so many things, and it taught me how to turn up and fly around the world in a pretty cutthroat industry, where you're very replaceable. [That] opened doors for me to act, to do music.”
“I started releasing [music] by myself in 2016. Before that I'd been working for a long time by myself, or with friends or anyone that I could meet, and just made a lot of music in a lot of different styles. It took time to find my tribe and find how I wanted to sound and everything, but I think the fashion and the acting definitely had huge influences on how I like to dress on stage and present myself.”
Loveland’s twelfth track, “Morals,” features Mick Fleetwood on drums, just a few years after Waterhouse played a major supporting role in the Fleetwood Mac-inspired miniseries. Waterhouse was thrilled to receive positive feedback from Fleetwood Mac members on the series.
“It was a big day when Stevie Nicks said that she was a fan of the show,” Waterhouse said. “What a crazy thing to wake up to, and what an honor. She's an icon for all of us, and she said that Christine would have gotten a kick out of watching my character, and she loved Riley — she had notes and thoughts. I think Stevie had planned out a whole second season.”
Despite being on the upswing of an illustrious multi-hyphenate career, Waterhouse’s music continues to resonate with the masses because she manages to keep it real — Loveland's glittery pop vulnerability being just the most recent example. Her magnetic stage presence during this year’s Hinterland set also proves that some people really can do it all — motherhood, music and work as a “Model, Actress, Whatever.”
