Uh Huh Her on Reinvention, Resistance, and the Joy of Coming Home
For nearly twenty years, Uh Huh Her have carved an unmistakable presence through alternative music, building a body of work as intimate as it is uncompromising.
Formed in Los Angeles in 2007 by Leisha Hailey and Camila Grey, the duo emerged from a shared creative chemistry, developing a sound that moved fluidly between electronic textures, confessional songwriting, synth-driven pop, and rock. Their music was deeply intertwined with identity and atmosphere, while their very existence as an openly queer band offered representation at a moment when that visibility still carried considerable weight.
Hailey and Grey had already established formidable careers before Uh Huh Her: Hailey as an acclaimed actor and musician, and Grey as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and collaborator whose work has extended far beyond the band. Together, however, they created something uniquely intimate — a project that became both a creative refuge and a lasting piece of cultural history. Across albums including Common Reaction, Nocturnes, and Future Souls, Uh Huh Her developed a devoted following drawn to their refusal to fit neatly into any one genre or expectation.
Nearly a decade after their last album, Hailey and Grey are returning with Nocturnes: Redux, revisiting the music that first defined their collaboration while opening the door to what might come next. The project arrives in a world that feels increasingly fractured, volatile, and uncertain — a cultural landscape reshaped by technology, political upheaval, and an ever-accelerating pace of change.
For Uh Huh Her, coming back is not simply an exercise in nostalgia. It is an opportunity to reconsider what they created, what has endured, and what becomes possible when two emblematic artists who have spent years evolving separately finally find their way back to each other.
KP: Nocturnes: Redux marks your first album together in roughly 12 years, so I want to start with a pretty intuitive question. What convinced you that now was the right moment to make your return?
CG: Do you want to take this one, Leisha? [Laughs] Nice bangs, by the way! I haven’t seen the bangs yet. This is new for me.
LH: Oh, I know.
CG: Me too. I have bangs, too! I just got bored and cut them.
LH: Do you remember me having them now that you’ve seen me with them? She just said I never had bangs, but I had them for years. [Laughs]
KP: [Laughs] Cam? Well?!
CG: I don’t remember you with bangs! [Laughs]
LH: I'll send you pictures. Never mind.
CG: Okay.
LH: You'll remember. Okay, anyway! Now you’re just making me laugh. [Laughs]
Back to the question! We were approached by Kill Rock Stars.
KP: Which is so cool, by the way! What an amazing label for you guys.
LH: Right?! Like, are you kidding? Sydney [Christensen] had been trying to reach us through an old Uh Huh Her email that I think is no longer there.
CG: Oh, it’s still there — I just don't check it. [Laughs]
LH: Oh, okay. Well, she finally found a way to us. And we were like, “Of course! We'd love to talk to you guys about doing something.”
And Cam and I had already been talking. It's not like we talk every day, but we were sort of in communication.
CG: Yeah. Well, she had written the book, and she was telling me about that. So we were kind of back in touch.
LH: That's what it was! I asked you if things were okay to talk about, and you were like, "Yeah." You gave me the thumbs up.
But anyway, we just kind of heard what they had to say. Because we self-released a lot of our albums, they were like, "We feel like we could help get this music out there to a new audience and also an old audience that might be interested in vinyl."
And I personally didn't understand the world of re-releases. I do now, but then I was like, It's already out there. How is that exciting for someone? They've shown me the way. But Cam was always into it.
CG: Yeah, I'm hip to it.
I guess you could say it was serendipitous that it came in that moment. I had actually given Leisha a bunch of music even before they offered to do the catalog — re-releases and stuff like that. We had been sharing music, right? Or was that after? I forget. But I just know that we were already in touch. And we always kind of flirted with that idea of maybe one day releasing something. But this was kind of the mechanism to get it out into the world again. It truly came at such a serendipitous moment.
It kind of took a lot of the work out of it for us anyway, in terms of just being able to hand someone our baby and kind of be like, "Please take care of it and do something cool with it." They're really impressive in that way.
KP: Well, they have the best roster. When I saw you guys were with them, I was super excited, too!
CG: Yeah, we're in extremely cool company. So we're excited.
LH: We're thrilled.
CG: We know a lot of the people on the label — they're friends of ours as well.
KP: Very cool. It’s a perfect fit.
The original Tchad Blake mixes were finally released. Leisha, you described those early mixes as “rougher and more instinctive.” What did those versions preserve that you felt maybe the original recordings had lost? Is there anything in particular that you could pick up on?
CG: Yeah, I think they preserve any second-guessing — any sort of self-criticism. When you hear a mix and you start going through first, second, third, or fourth passes because you're being picky — which I tended to be back then — I was very self-critical and very like, "Oh, I sound like shit.” So I think, in this case, it was really cool to see what he wanted to do without us barking things at him. And if you look at his track record and his history, you don't need to tell him to do much. He's very instinctive.
LH: I like the way you said that, Cam. When you're mixing, you always give your notes because you want something brought out that maybe someone else didn't hear. But I do think that self-criticism was the thing that came into play. I wish that we hadn't fucked with it back then. But we have it now.
CG: Yeah, exactly!
KP: "Shook" was your first original song in over a decade. Cam, you said that the title reflects the instability that people feel today. Do you think that modern life has fundamentally altered the emotional landscape that musicians are writing from?
CG: 100%. Yeah, the world has changed a lot since Nocturnes first came out. It's not for the better.
KP: [Laughs] Definitely not for the better!
CG: You know, it's funny; I was just reading an article as I was doing my laundry in Barcelona about AI and this company called Suno. I don't know if you've heard of them, but they're basically training AI to make music for musicians that can't play instruments. And I was thinking to myself, Wow, we're such a dying breed. Well, maybe not a dying breed per se — I think that musicians will always exist. But the landscape in which music is being consumed and received in has totally changed.
The way that we consume things is exponentially faster — there's more of it, and there's more of an opportunity for people from wherever to put their music out. Which is a blessing and a curse I guess, because you get so much amazing shit, but then you also get overrun with too many decisions to make.
I think that when you're trying to aim at a target, it’s really tricky. That's why label systems right now are wanting people to break out before they even touch you.
In this case, I love that Kill Rock Stars was kind of like, "You've made your little mark, but let's help you elevate that in a way."
I think that we're in an interesting predicament because we've been around and people know who we are, but now we have this amazing opportunity to find a new audience via all of the things that I just talked about.
LH: Yeah. Well, I mean, with Suno, what's scary about it is that people won't know the difference.
CG: And they're trained on our stuff!
LH: I know! So what's great about what's happening to our band right now is that we're real. We actually exist. We existed back then.
CG: Are you sure about that?
KP: [Laughs]
“I always like being fringe. I always like being a lot left — not slightly left of center, but way far the fuck away from center. I think amazing art only comes from that place. It always has.”
LH: [Laughs] I mean, I think it’s us.
But it’s almost like getting a second chance in this landscape today, which is pretty cool.
And when it comes to things like Suno, I think that artists will always rise through the hard times, right? In a way, I think that it'll just force people to create more, which will be good.
CG: I just hope they pass legislation where, at least, if AI is going to train on what we already created, we get royalties back based on that. They're using music that artists have created to train their systems and then they monetize those systems. We should get a royalty from that. I think they're trying to figure that out right now. I know they're doing that in Congress as we speak. But we'll see.
KP: I mean, there are so many ethical concerns around it.
CG: Yeah, exactly.
KP: Fingers crossed that the true artists prevail.
I really loved your cover of “Kool Thing,” which I mean as the utmost compliment because it's incredibly easy to butcher such an iconic track.
CG: Yeah!
KP: Why was that the Sonic Youth song that you felt most compelled to take on?
CG: I’ll let Leisha take this one.
LH: I mean, it's one of my favorite songs. And I definitely was like, Can we do this? Or should we do this?
KP: That's a scary thing, right?
LH: Yeah, it is. But in a way, it's also an act of honoring something that's so iconic, too. It's not like you're trying to make it better. You're just like, Here's a different take on something that's so incredible. As long as people are open to hearing a different version of something they love, then why not?
KP: Yeah! Well, that kind of bleeds into my next question. You removed the male spoken responses from the original track, which made it feel less like a cover and more like a modern reinterpretation.
LH: I really love that. Thanks! [Laughs]
KP: What did that decision represent to you?
LH: Well, when we were recording it, I was like, Do we have to hear this? In a way, you don't really need it — everything she's saying makes sense on its own. And I never really liked the voice; it just kind of always rubbed me, so it was kind of amazing to not even have it and just hear her words.
CG: Yeah. I think I did one of the little spoken things that he would have done. I said, “What did you say?” I kind of mimed it. That was us poking fun at it a little bit. Sticking it to the man, as they say. [Laughs]
KP: I loved it. It was amazing.
LH: Thank you!
KP: And you described the song as a “love letter to Kim Gordon's feminist manifesto.” What has she meant to the both of you as artists?
LH: I mean, she's the OG. It's what we all grew up on as women, especially just in that time of such male-dominated music.
It was so inspiring to see women like her breaking through and being so badass — just totally being herself and watching her on stage. Those are the kind of women that I just fucking love. Like the Sinead O'Connors — they just don't make them like that anymore.
CG: No, and I love that she's having her own kind of resurgence too now. She's playing with these amazing, cool musicians like Camilla [Charlesworth] — she's a bass player. I love that there's still this huge platform for people like her. She's still working and killing the circuit. I think it's so incredible.
KP: Yeah, it's awesome. I'm so happy that you guys chose to do that.
CG: Yeah, well, it was all Leisha’s idea!
LH: And I love that there’s no ageism either. It's like, we just want them to keep going and going and going.
CG: Yes, please! Nonstop. I hope she will. She will.
LH: Yeah.
CG: She's still incredible.
KP: She’s the best!
When you first emerged, queer representation in alternative music looked very different than it does today. How do you reflect on that evolution?
CG: Wow. I'm going to let Leish take this one.
LH: Why?! [Laughs]
CG: Because I need to think about this one for a second. Let me sip my beer real quick and ponder it. [Laughs]
LH: I mean, for me, back when I was starting in the early '90s, coming out of the closet was such a major ordeal. Anybody who was like, "I'm gay, and I'm in a band," just got stamped. Then all of a sudden, you were “just” a gay band, and the music never really stood on its own. Any headline started with that, and after it was like, "Oh, and now let's talk about your music." And I think now, the music can stand on its own. People don't really think about things like that anymore.
CG: That’s such a great way to put it. It's not such a headline anymore. Whereas back then — I think I kind of got thrown out of the closet because of that Southwest incident that we had. You truly had to make a formal statement like, "I'm gay," or "I'm this," or "I'm that." But for me, it was also just kind of on the news. [Laughs] It was an interesting way to come out of the closet, so to speak.
LH: Or off the airplane…
KP: [Laughs]
CG: [Laughs] Yeah, it was a splash. I don't think all of my relatives knew for sure.
But I love her point. Nowadays, it's not such a big headline, but back then we were stamped. Every interview question was, you know, "The L Word band," or "the gay band," or "queer," you know? I felt a little boxed in by that because, yes, I'm that, and we’re all of those things, but I felt like they never paid attention to the music. I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about that for a long time.
It was a big problem for me because I'm such a muso through and through. I've been doing this since I was five, and to not be seen in that way — to only be categorized in this one way — really pissed me off.
It felt really limited and kind of one-note. So I'm really happy that nowadays, you can be queer and be in music and not have it be this big freaking deal.
KP: It's interesting, too, because I’m gay as well. I think that as women, not only are we labeled as female musicians, but then we also get fenced in as gay female musicians. I think breaking down that categorization is so important.
And speaking of that, queer artists have often built culture from the margins — not necessarily in the mainstream or the center. Do you think that there's something uniquely liberating about creating from outside the center?
CG: Yeah! I think that's where all the interesting things happen — outside the center.
LH: I always want to be in the underground.
CG: I never want to be in the center! The center sucks! [Laughs] I just think that this version of “normalcy” that people are always referring to doesn't even exist. Is anything normal? I don't know anymore, do you know what I mean?
I always like being fringe. I always like being a lot left — not slightly left of center, but way far the fuck away from center. I think amazing art only comes from that place. It always has. So we'll just keep staying over there, and they can have their normal center wherever they want to be.
KP: Stay there! Please! [Laughs]
And Leisha, your acting career and music career have always existed alongside each other. How do you feel those two creative identities inform each other, if you think they do at all?
LH: You know, I kind of feel like they're in their own little categories. I actually do feel a little more mainstream in the acting world because it’s just — well, maybe it's the projects that I've been on. Even though The L Word was something that was the first of its kind, it became mainstream, you know?
I don't know what it is about being an actress, but I always feel like I'm conforming a little bit to what people want. Whereas in music, I feel like I can fully be myself. I can look like myself and dress like myself. I love performing on stage.
To me, they're just completely different.
KP: Yeah, I understand that. I totally, totally understand that.
And following your memoir, I wondered if writing about your life altered how you approach songwriting. Did you feel that it allowed you to be more open, or did it change your creative process in any way? It’s such a huge undertaking to take on a project like that.
LH: Yeah, that was one of the hardest things that I've ever done, writing that book.
But Cam and I have not really gotten together as much as one would think because she's been on tour with Morrissey for years. Even those songs that we did together — it was whenever she was in town or I was in town — so I haven't really written songs on the level I think you're thinking it might be on.
I still always have my guitar and my drums now, and I love writing for myself. Like when we were doing "Shook” —
CG: That was fun!
LH: Yeah! And I kind of really threw myself back into it. It was like, "Oh, we're doing this."
CG: Yeah, it was definitely like a shock to the system. [Laughs]
LH: Yeah! We've been both kind of pinching ourselves — it feels like going back in time.
CG: It really does, yeah.
LH: Yeah, so I don't know. I think I’ll have to answer that question again in a couple of years.
KP: That sounds good! We’ll come back to it then. [Laughs]
Cam, as Leisha just said, you've collaborated with artists ranging from Morrissey to Adam Lambert, while maintaining Uh Huh Her as your artistic home. What does this project allow you to express that you feel nowhere else has?
CG: It's kind of like my little love child. It's one of those sacred things that we created. I started this band with her when I was 26. It's been in my heart and my soul for a really long time. It's something that I really hold dear. It's kind of a nurture thing. It's definitely in my blood or my bones or something at this point. It's really hard to explain it any other way than that.
Coming back to it now, it's almost like a revisiting. It almost feels like a dream in this weird way, kind of speaking to Leisha’s point. It doesn't feel real because so much time has passed since we stopped doing it, which was in 2014 or something.
So I never in my wildest dreams thought we were going to get back on the horse. I never thought that we'd be creating stuff together again. It's just really sweet. And I hate to reduce it to something so simple, but it's really fun. It's like no time has passed, as she said.
It's big, being able to be able to work with the Jaime Sickoras of the world and going back to our home away from home, which was Chaplin Recording. Well, it used to be called Henson; now it's Chaplin. Seeing all those old faces, it's timeless to me. I love it.
And I think that we were kind of ahead of our time in terms of sound.
KP: Yeah!
CG: A lot of it still holds up to this day. And so I think us re-releasing, it's going to be interesting — maybe hook some new fans in.
And then I have, like, 97 million songs sitting on my hard drive right now that are ready for potential new albums. So who knows where the wind will take us and if we even have the time for that, but it certainly seems like there's a demand for it from the fans. So that's exciting.
And the fact that they're even still interested is really exciting to me because you really just don't know. You don’t want to assume because so much time has definitely passed — our fans have kind of gotten older with us. So yeah, we just didn't know. But I think it's been a really nice surprise.
LH: Yeah. I also think there's a gratitude thing in coming home to this band. We always tried our hardest and worked our hardest, but when you're doing something in real time, the frustrations can get in the way — the financial problems can get in the way.
But coming back to it now, you can take care of it better, I think. That's kind of how I look at it. Even how Cam and I are being with each other, just personally, is a nice revisiting.
Creatively, I think if we have time in the future, I would love to actually have months to write or record and really see what could happen.
CG: Yeah. It's so different than writing for other people.
LH: Yeah. So to me, when I say a second chance, it's kind of that whole bigger picture of, like, what can we do with this band at this point? With all the problems off the table?
CG: [Laughs] Yeah.
“I don’t know what it is about being an actress, but I always feel like I’m conforming a little bit to what people want. Whereas in music, I feel like I can fully be myself.”
KP: [Laughs]
CG: Well, it wasn’t that big of a problem, was it? [Laughs]
KP: [Laughs]
LH: Oh, you know what I mean! Not just our stuff, like, all of the stuff.
CG: Yeah, I think we’re doing great. [Laughs]
I think to answer your question about writing with other people, it certainly feels different with her, you know? When we write together, it's like kind of going home in a weird way.
Whereas when I’m writing with Morrissey, it's — well, you're writing for Morrissey. When you're writing for other people, it feels very much like you're creating with just that person in mind.
But with this, I feel like I can create while really knowing her, right? Having that kind of symbiotic relationship that we have, even through time and space and distance, that I can come back to — we just pick right back up. That’s really nice.
LH: And also, that sound that we create together, to me, is only something that we can do together.
CG: Yeah!
KP: And it's a great sound, so we're very happy about that!
CG: [Laughs] Thank you!
KP: When you revisit your younger selves through your past music, what do you admire most about them?
CG: I think I admire my ability to just keep freaking going and never letting setbacks get in the way. The fact that I'm still on tour at my age is nuts. [Laughs] I'm proud that I kind of have this road-dog-of-steel mentality and don’t let age get in the way, or being tired — any of that. I just really appreciate my tenacity in that way — my ability to just believe that the music always wins.
Even if shit’s going haywire in the world, I'm always really focused on that one thing. Because it's the only good thing, to be honest.
LH: I look back and appreciate my bravery, I think, in all of it. Even if there's some stuff I can cringe over, I still did it. I still got on stage and performed those songs. I don't know. I kind of look back and I don't know where I got the chutzpah, but yeah.
CG: You’ve had it for a long time.
LH: Yeah! And it’s pretty cool to look back and see yourself doing things like that.
CG: It’s the riot grrrl in you.
LH: Yeah.
KP: To revisit “Shook,” what role do you feel that artists have to play in difficult times? And what would you say to young creatives who are trying to navigate this world today?
CG: To be outspoken. To speak your truth. To not be silent.
I think I tend to do that sometimes, where I just like to sit back and observe and see what everyone else is doing and saying. And I think that in these times, especially when there's so much going on, you have to be vocal about how you're feeling.
I think that people miss humanity. We're so on our phones — and I'm very guilty of that — and so caught up in the nuance of life that art is the only way to kind of speak truth to that chaos. I think it’s really important to be individual about it: to have your lane and really kind of own it and to not be shy about how you feel, even if it's maybe not what other people like. It's okay. We can all agree to disagree.
I think that people are so volatile right now. I just had that happen, actually, five minutes before I got on this call. I won't go into great detail, but it's someone with a very opposing opinion to mine. She wrote me on Instagram and sent me this thing, and I was like, "You know, I'd love to speak with you heart-to-heart about this issue and understand where you're coming from."
I think that's really important in art: to know where everyone is coming from, even if we don't agree. We can still be loving and kind and agree to disagree. It's okay to have opposing thoughts. Just be loving and kind.
I think the Golden Rule should be applicable here. None of us are the same, and that’s okay. I don't know why everyone's so freaked out by that. It's crazy to me.
LH: I would say to do the work. I feel like that's sort of a lost concept these days.
CG: Yes! Be good at your craft.
LH: Well, just put in the hours. Put in the time. Put in the sweat and the tears. I think that's where the good stuff comes from.
And kind of around what Cam was saying, we're just so busy watching other people and thinking that things will just fall out of the sky — it doesn't happen like that.
Get up, get out of your house, go travel, and let the art come out of you. I think people are just observing too much.
CG: Get out of your house! Get off your phone! Get out there! Go see some art. Go to some museums. Open a freaking book. Just do something.
LH: And be vulnerable!
CG: Oh, that too.
LH: And be brave and try and mess up. Make mistakes. It's not that scary. We're all going to be okay.
When you get older, you look back, and the worst thing is to have regret, but to be embarrassed about something you did is useless. Be proud of what you did! Don't be embarrassed.
People just think too much about how they come across now. It's like, be messy.
CG: Be messy! And I think this is Leisha’s favorite thing that I say, which is, "We're just floating around a space rock around a ball of fire in a vast, infinite cosmos." Just zoom out a little and know where you are. Know that we're these infinite beings that are limitless. And that’s not an exercise in futility! It's just that if you're able to zoom out, I think that maybe it calms things down a bit — you realize the perspective of where we are. It's insane to think that we're just floating around space worrying about these little problems. That's all!
LH: Yeah! Just take risks.
KP: I always ask what advice you would lend women, but I think you just hit on all of that, so we’re going to skip it! [Laughs]
LH: Unless you want Cam to get into the aliens…
CG: Oh, I will! Don’t tempt me! “We're the aliens, man. We're the savages.” That’s a direct quote from Dazed and Confused. It’s a great film, by the way, kids! You should see it. Richard Linklater — get into it!
KP: You know, I’ve actually never seen that. I have to get into it!
And for our final question: what do you feel makes a provocative woman?
CG: Restraint.
LH: Nerdiness.
Photography: Alexandra Arnold
