SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
If there were an award category for most unusual album title, "Memoir Of A Sparklemuffin" might be there. I mean, what is a sparklemuffin?
SUKI WATERHOUSE: It's a rare Australian spider that was only recently discovered that I came across because I spend way too much time on Google late at night.
SIMON: Suki Waterhouse got her start modeling as a teen. Later, she appeared in campaigns for brands that included Burberry, and on the covers of Vogue and Marie Claire. She's moved into acting in recent years as one of the stars of the hit series about a 1970s rock group, "Daisy Jones & The Six." And also, she's making her own music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BIG LOVE")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) Sometimes, when I take a deep breath, it brings up all my sadness.
SIMON: "Memoir Of A Sparklemuffin" is Suki Waterhouse's second album. And when we spoke, how could we not ask - why was that spider so inspiring?
WATERHOUSE: I suddenly felt very akin to this very fuzzy, razzle-dazzle dancing spider that has quite a self-destructive side. They do these dances for each other, and some of them can be semi-fatal or adorable. You don't quite know what you're getting.
SIMON: Oh, my God. Semi-fatal or adorable - that's quite a choice.
WATERHOUSE: It can go well, or it can really not go well, basically. And I kind of started mapping out the songs that I was writing at the time with this sort of storyline of the metamorphos of a spider - and the sparklemuffin, in particular - and kind of connecting it to my own life and own sort of metamorphos that I was exploring on the second record.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MODEL, ACTRESS, WHATEVER")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) My delusions followed me, haunted me, honestly. All of my dreams came true. The bigger the ocean, the deeper the blue. Call me a model, an actress, whatever. Other half of my baby, we stay together.
SIMON: And what's the story of "Model, Actress, Whatever"?
WATERHOUSE: That song was something that I remember having those kind of lines. And it sort of felt kind of cheeky to me and almost something that, like, I didn't want to write. I've been making music for a decade, but I started working as a model when I was 15, started acting a bit later. But what I wanted to do, which was music initially - my life took a very different direction. And I think I got to 28, 29, and I finally sort of got myself together to make a record. But there was a lot of inner voices and inner turmoil of, you can't start this new career or put yourself out there like that because it just won't be accepted. And I think I had a lot of that, like, kind of echoed back to me, whether it was, like, trying to get labels to listen to it and them saying, we don't listen to a model, actress or whatever. But it sort of then became something that kind of made me laugh.
SIMON: Is that the way to supersede a label like that - own it yourself, have fun with it?
WATERHOUSE: Yes, exactly. It's one of my favorite things about writing music and making art, is that I do think it has this magical power when you take something that's been with you for a long time, and you can express it into something outside of yourself. And then you've kind of let it go, and you sort of can move on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MODEL, ACTRESS, WHATEVER")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) Call me a model, an actress, forever.
SIMON: How did the popularity of the series "Daisy Jones & The Six" change things for you? Or did it?
WATERHOUSE: Well, it was an interesting timeline because when I signed on to do "Daisy Jones," I hadn't made a record. But I definitely feel like I went after that project especially because I knew I was going to be doing piano lessons and band rehearsal. And there was obviously something in me that was wanting to kind of be doing that all the time.
SIMON: Yeah. I mean, the premise is a - I don't want to call it a fake band, but let's say a band put together for purposes of the series.
WATERHOUSE: Yes, it is. Yeah.
SIMON: I'll never call it a fake band.
WATERHOUSE: (Laughter) Yeah, that's the thing. It was real to us. And also, playing the character, I was playing a very confident woman who knew exactly what she wanted and knew she wanted to be out on the road till she dropped dead. And I think the characters always seep into you in some way. And it was funny. I played a musician going on tour, and then I made the record while I was shooting "Daisy Jones." So as I wrapped "Daisy Jones," it was a really, like, kind of extraordinary year, where I was finished playing someone on tour and then actually went on my first tour.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FADED")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) You used to call me Yoko 'cause I made a joke that all your friends are leaving. And I'm your lover.
SIMON: Why did you want to write songs?
WATERHOUSE: Growing up, like, music was religious to me. That kind of was my compass point. It's been, like, the only way that I've really been able to kind of create this sort of tapestry of my life that is from my point of view.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FADED")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) Living in a movie, 'cause you look just like James Dean from the internet.
WATERHOUSE: I love that I can have these benchmarks of my own history, where I can go back to a song and know exactly where I was and kind of be reminded of who I was and what I kind of thought about my world at that point. To get to share those songs and kind of build community through them and feel connected to other people through them is just - it's a pretty cool job.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FADED")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) Doo-doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
SIMON: And you opened for Taylor Swift in London, your hometown, at Wembley Stadium this summer.
WATERHOUSE: That was one of the craziest nights of my life, for sure. To do that in my hometown was so exciting. As it got closer and closer and it hadn't been announced, my dad was like, oh, it's not happening, and it must have been called off. He didn't really believe it until he was there in his seat, and he was kind of just quite bewildered by the whole thing. Yeah, it's Wembley Stadium. It's where we grew up going. You know, it was like this kind of reunion, in many ways.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO GET YOU")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) Honey, you'll never know...
SIMON: If I might put it this way, I gather you have your own sparklemuffin in your life now.
WATERHOUSE: Do you mean my baby?
SIMON: Yes, exactly.
WATERHOUSE: Yes, she is the muffin. It's funny. I got home from work the other day, and she was dressed up for the release day as a sparklemuffin. It was quite the outfit.
SIMON: Aww.
WATERHOUSE: It really just made my heart combust.
SIMON: Well, children do that. They make your heart combust.
WATERHOUSE: They do. They really do. It's just, like, an unbelievable love.
SIMON: Suki Waterhouse - her second album, "Memoir Of A Sparklemuffin," out now. Thank you so much for being with us.
WATERHOUSE: Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY FUN")
WATERHOUSE: (Singing) Blood on the grass, blood on my knees. Waited so long to find some peace. Call up the past, scream on the breeze. You make me laugh, you bless my sneeze. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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