Susanna Hoffs Is Finally Ready To Tell These Old Stories

Susanna Hoffs calls it “the list”: a faded portion of insubstantial ripped from a Filofax time planner connected which are scrawled nan names of each feline she’s ever gone retired pinch — immoderate famous, immoderate not, immoderate “kind of douchey,” arsenic she puts it pinch a what-can-you-do shrug.

“It was for illustration a making love floor plan but pre-internet,” Hoffs says of nan tally, which she composed sometime successful nan precocious 1980s arsenic she was racking up hits — among them nan chart-topping “Walk Like an Egyptian” and “Eternal Flame” — arsenic nan frontwoman of the Bangles. “I’m a bully Jewish girl,” she adds. “I was conscionable keeping track, doing my homework.”

Today astatine nan bottommost of nan database successful each caps sits nan sanction of Jay Roach, nan movie head whom Hoffs met connected a unsighted day successful 1991. He’s nan taxable of a caller opus called “None of Them Were You,” successful which nan vocalist runs down immoderate of Roach’s predecessors — “a very dapper Brit,” “a suave and handsome actor” — earlier musing connected her heavy relationship pinch nan man to whom she’s now been joined for 33 years.

“I ended up pinch specified a bully guy,” she says. “It almost brings a tear to nan eye.”

“None of Them Were You” isn’t nan only tune pinch that imaginable connected an medium Hoffs is preparing to merchandise adjacent month. Due Sept. 18 from her Baroque Folk label, “The List” — Hoffs’ first group of original worldly successful much than a decade — collects a twelve rubbing and witty songs based connected tales from her life arsenic an artist, wife, businessperson and mother. At 67, her winsome singing sound is remarkably unchanged from nan era of large hairsbreadth and dangly earrings. Yet nan euphony reflects an affectional contented that had to beryllium earned done experience, arsenic successful nan folky “Time,” which ponders her and Roach’s relationships pinch their 2 big sons.

“I spot you dancing successful nan room / I consciousness your mini manus successful mine,” she sings, “What if you alert backmost location this summer? / We could walk a small while.” (Beware, parents — this 1 will wreck you.)

A voluble beingness pinch an easy laugh, Hoffs points retired that she’s hardly been “hiding successful a cave” since 2012’s “Someday.” In 2024, she put retired a long-shelved solo grounds of songs she’d trim backmost successful 1999; earlier that, she made a bid of expertly curated covers albums, including 3 she recorded pinch nan power-pop maestro Matthew Sweet. But publishing her first caller successful 2023 — “This Bird Has Flown,” a charming bestseller astir a one-hit wonderment looking for a comeback — rejuvenated Hoffs’ devotion to songwriting.

“I ne'er thought nan book would sell, and I ne'er thought it would get awesome reviews,” she says connected a caller day astatine her location successful Brentwood. “That was a large move career-wise.”

For “The List,” Hoffs teamed pinch CJ Camerieri, a musician and shaper known for his activity pinch Paul Simon and Bon Iver, among others; Camerieri successful move recruited an array of songwriters to collaborate pinch nan 2 of them, including a mates of Grammy winners successful Dan Wilson and Jesse Harris.

“Sue has built up decades and decades of goodwill successful this town,” Camerieri says, seated adjacent to Hoffs connected a sofa, “so you telephone up personification for illustration Dan and you say, ‘Hey, you want to constitute a opus pinch Susanna Hoffs?’ and he goes, ‘Great, yeah, I’m in.’”

The process was simple, nan shaper explains: “We’d commencement successful Sue’s room pinch java astatine 10 successful nan greeting —”

“I’m really bully astatine coffee,” Hoffs interjects. “I mean, I usage Nespresso. But I’m bully astatine being a hostess to each nan lads.”

“So I’d springiness everybody a yellowish ineligible pad and Sue would commencement telling stories,” Camerieri continues. “We’re each scribbling notes, and aft astir an hour, we’d go, ‘I deliberation we sewage capable here,’ and we’d spell constitute songs astir what she’d told us.”

They recorded astatine Hoffs’ spot — “We’d move this sofa and nan drums would spell correct here,” she says — beneath a vaulted ceiling that provided conscionable nan correct ambience. First-call players for illustration Greg Leisz and Wendy Melvoin stopped by to return portion successful nan sessions; for harmony vocals successful a country-ish ditty called “Bad Case of Loneliness,” they sewage Rufus Wainwright, pinch whom Hoffs had done a type of nan Turtles’ “Happy Together” for Roach’s 2025 drama “The Roses.”

The dreamy-rootsy arrangements are ne'er little than handsome — and ne'er prettier than successful “Fool,” which Hoffs says was inspired by her emotion of nan records Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach made together. Yet “The List” was built to showcase Hoffs’ rich | storytelling.

The LP opens pinch “Casablanca,” successful which she recounts a run-in pinch nan Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir successful New Orleans successful nan precocious ’80s. The Bangles were connected circuit opening for George Michael; nan Dead had a gig astatine nan University of New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena. After Hoffs and Weir ended up astatine a crawfish boil put connected by nan Neville Brothers, nan 2 took a locomotion on Lake Pontchartrain — “He was very cute,” Hoffs says — past later strolled again done nan French Quarter.

“At 1 point, I looked backmost and location was a oversea of Deadheads who realized it was Bob Weir,” she says. “But I was pinch him. I sewage to beryllium his pal, which I conscionable couldn’t judge was happening. It was delicious.” (Between nan 2 walks, nan Bangles famously jumped onstage pinch nan Dead to execute “Iko Iko.”)

As we’re talking, Camerieri tells Hoffs that he precocious met Weir’s erstwhile circuit head — Weir died successful January astatine property 78 — and that he’d relayed Hoffs’ representation of nan encounter. “He was like, ‘I cognize this story,’” Camerieri says nan head replied. “‘Bob utilized to talk astir nan clip he sewage to locomotion astir New Orleans pinch Susanna Hoffs.’”

“Oh my God!” Hoffs says, eyes starting to glisten. “So it meant thing to him too.”

Bookending “The List” is “What Are Wings For,” a stately ballad astir sticking to one’s guns that Hoffs and Camerieri wrote pinch Edie Brickell, who’s joined to Simon, connected a travel they took to nan couple’s ranch successful Texas.

“We were location during nan World Series [in 2024],” Camerieri recalls, “and we watched nan Yankees crippled pinch Paul each nighttime aft moving connected songs.”

Adds Hoffs pinch a laugh: “He besides told maine that he thinks nan Bangles’ type of ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ is amended than his. I was like, ‘Please don’t — yours is nan iconic version.’”

By nan clip nan Bangles covered that Simon & Garfunkel tune for nan soundtrack to 1987’s “Less Than Zero,” nan set was already a fixture connected nan power and MTV. Hoffs formed nan group successful 1981 pinch sisters Vicki and Debbi Peterson, who learned to play together successful nan car shed of Hoffs’ parents’ house, conscionable a fewer blocks from wherever nan vocalist lives today.

The Bangles came up done L.A.’s ’60s-steeped Paisley Underground segment and recovered stardom aft nan summation of Michael Steele pinch “Manic Monday,” a sparkling pop-rock gem talented to nan set by Prince. (Beyond her database of boyfriends, 1 of Hoffs’ prized possessions from backmost successful nan time is Prince’s original cassette demo of “Manic Monday.”)

“He was superb but mischievous,” Hoffs says of the precocious trailblazer, connected whom she modeled nan characteristic of Jonesy from her novel. “I retrieve 1 clip he invited america to Sunset Sound successful nan mediate of nan night. We get location and we’re jamming, past abruptly we look astir and he’s disappeared. ‘OK, I conjecture we’re done.’”

The Bangles pinch an assortment of euphony execs successful Los Angeles successful 1987.

(Lester Cohen / Getty Images)

After 8 Top 40 singles and a triple-platinum LP, nan Bangles divided successful 1989 amid differing ideas astir nan band’s imaginative guidance and ambitions. The members pursued solo and different projects but reunited to grounds a opus for 1999’s “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” which Roach directed; 2 much Bangles albums followed successful 2003 and 2011, nan 2nd minus Steele, whom Hoffs says she’s not successful touch pinch astatine nan moment.

Compared to the Go-Go’s, whose parallel profession was elaborate successful a 2020 documentary and who were inducted into nan Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a twelvemonth later, nan Bangles haven’t rather cemented their legacy, though an authorized curriculum vitae came retired past twelvemonth and a doc is presently successful development.

Yet Hoffs doesn’t look particularly troubled by nan anticipation that nan Bangles mightiness beryllium underappreciated, possibly because she’s sewage plentifulness of her ain worldly going on. Before “The List” comes out, she’ll play her aged hits successful a Sept. 5 gig astatine Largo astatine nan Coronet and successful a fistful of dates opening for Billy Idol; aft nan caller medium drops, she’ll caput eastbound for a residency astatine New York’s Café Carlyle.

She and Camerieri are besides astatine activity connected a philharmonic adjustment of “This Bird Has Flown” for nan shape aliases nan screen. And conscionable nan different time she recovered a files connected her machine afloat of songs she wrote years agone pinch her friend Marvin Etzioni of Lone Justice.

“I don’t for illustration utilizing nan connection ‘bucket list,’ but each these things are labors of love,” Hoffs says.

What’s nan problem pinch “bucket list”?

“Oh, I don’t know,” she says, smiling. “It conscionable seems, like, death-y.”