Interview: An Evening with Susie Suh

I recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Susie Suh (pronounced "Sue") while she was in San Diego to open for Jonny Lang out at Viejas Casino. Suh was gracious enough to allow me the opportunity to spend a few moments with her. If you're not yet familiar with her, or her eponymous debut CD, prepare yourself - she's on the verge of becoming a household name, especially with a song on the soundtrack for Must Love Dogs.

Suh had just returned from walking her dog Nyima, a handsome young Tibetan Spaniel, and was getting settled in as I was shown to the room. Susie introduced me to her keyboard player, Kris Pooley, who stepped out of the room a moment later. From there, we did the typical girl thing and talked shoes for a moment (it's genetic, boys, it really is) before we got down to my questions.

Tell me a little about how you went from Brown University to opening for Jonny Lang?

I began performing when I was really young with a Korean children's choir in Los Angeles. By the time I was in high school, I was writing songs on a guitar my brother had given me and was becoming more comfortable with expressing myself through music. It was a great medium to hash out what I was going through and it seemed like such a natural choice for me. While I was going to college in New York, I began to gig around here and there; coffeehouses,clubs, wherever I could get booked. It was mostly just me and my guitar out there, singing my heart out.

As I'm played and moved from place to place, I began meeting people. One person would introduce me to another person who, of course, knew someone else. Then one day, there was someone who heard my songs and they liked what they heard. They wanted to publish me, get me recording.

How long ago was that?

It was a few years ago.

And, how long did it take to go from having your songs published to recording and releasing your CD?

I began performing when I was really young with a children's choir in Los Angeles. By the time I was in high school, I was writing songs on a guitar my brother had given me and was becoming more comfortable with expressing myself through music. While I was going to college, I began to gig around here and there; coffeehouses, clubs, wherever I could get booked.

Article Author: Joan Hunt

Former Baywatch babe, Playboy centerfold, and stunt double for Abe Vigoda, Managing Editor of Blogcritics and member of the board of directors for BLUSD, Joanie juggles her love of words, music, photography, wildlife, and television with her greatest love -- her kids. …

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