By Jim Barber
There has always been a deep wellspring of authenticity, reality and strikingly honest self-exposition in the songs of critically lauded and profoundly talented Canadian singer/songwriter Suzie Ungerleider.
Operating under her previous nom de plume, Oh Susanna, from her earliest days in the late 1990s crafted a reputation for compelling songcraft and exceptionally evocative, emotional live concert experiences thanks to the dark sweetness of her voice and the relatable, revelatory nature of her music.
After shedding the skin of her former brand, Ungerleider released the critically-acclaimed album with the title My Name is Suzie Ungerleider – a statement of intent that has opened her creativity up to limitless possibilities as an artist, and as a human.
Her new album, Among the Evergreens, sees Ungerleider stripping back any sense of pretense, instead opening up quite intimate aspects her own story in a manner that is as autobiographically accurate as it is startlingly relatable.
As with many songwriters, there isn’t necessarily a point in time where Ungerleider decides, ‘okay, now I am going to write a new album.’ Instead there is a consistent creative process that eventually leads to what can be described as a tipping point, when she realizes there is enough new material to move into a more deliberate album making process.
“As soon as the previous record is done I’m like, ‘okay, I’ve got to start again.’ But that doesn’t mean I do it. I mean, it’s not a concerted effort. It’s more like chipping away, basically. Like my last record, I decided never to wait until the whole record is written. I decided, okay I’ve got a few songs, I’m going to record them and see how they feel. That motivates me to do more because it then becomes a really fun process. Doing it the other way, waiting until they’re all done is kind of daunting. So that’s how I did this one, and I wasn’t even aware of the connective tissue between the songs,” she explained.
“In fact, like the way the record is organized into that ‘then and now,’ split over two sides and even the topics of the songs, I wasn’t really thinking I was going to write about the things that I did. It just happens. Or in some cases I thought, ‘well, here’s an idea. But I don’t know if I should write about this.’ Some of the other stuff is no big deal. It was just a pattern that I saw after I prepared the songs and I could sequence the record in kind of a narrative fashion. And it was really fun and exciting to see that all play out and end up being how it did.”
The album’s name, Among the Evergreens, is in reference … and quite possibly reverence – for nature and how Ungerleider draws inspiration from walking through the tall trees in the Vancouver area. She sees her life, and the construct of the album, resembling trees in that there is a solid circularity to them in the rings of trees, but that these rings, as they build on top of one another, also represent years lived – with each ring being impacted by the overall health of the tree. A season of wither and drought leads to narrow rings, while years of abundance and health lead to wider rings.
“I write in my head as I am walking. Not so much from scratch, but I may have an idea that I’ve been working on and then I’ll go out for a walk, because I have a dog, so I gotta go for a walk. And I’m lucky because I live near the Trans Canada Trail so I will go there a lot and I may be mulling over lyrics. I remember for the song ‘The Wilds’ I was trying to sort out the lyrics while I was walking along the beach one day,” she said.
“That was part of the draw of moving back here was to be in nature. I started to feel like that was more and more important to me, whereas when I was younger even though I had all this water nearby and it was normal to have all this nature around, it seemed boring, so I decided to go the big urban place [Toronto] but then I started missing doing walks in nature, so I moved back here. Being here since 2019, I am starting to realize that being in nature gets me into a kind of trance. And for me, that’s really important in writing, being in a kind of reverie. And it’s much easier to get into reveries in a hypnotic state if I’m around nature, especially if I am moving in nature.
“Maybe it sounds cliché, but things change, or they have cycles. I can be in the middle of something and it feels completely disastrous, but then something else will happen and it gets resolved, or it will move into another place of joy and light, or that softness is okay. Nature reminds me of that.”
Ungerleider’s music has always been deeply personal, enchantingly lyrical, open, honest and eminently accessible. For her, it’s also been powerfully cathartic experience – even more so since dropping her previous artistic moniker and going with her own name professionally.
“I think it’s refreshing. There’s always times when you might get into a creative struggle, like a song not working in the studio, or something happens and you’re full of doubt and it’s emotional. But most of that is balanced out by the high of creating something and putting it out there. I remember what a friend of mine once said to me that the process of writing, even if you’re not doing confessional type music, it’s just very cathartic to be coming up with something new and original,” she explained.
“And you know, I have lots of doubt where I am like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do. I have to start again. I don’t know how to write a song any more. How am I going to write a song that I like again?’ But then there’s the actual feeling of accomplishment – ‘I did it’ – which is sort of amazing. And I get excited about it and it feels like everything is full of potential. Although there is that moment after when you realize, ‘oh, I’ve got to do it again.’ Just when you’re feeling great about what you’ve done, ‘I did these things and it’s wonderful, but I guess I’ve got to do it again.’
“And the understanding that I have to do something again that’s going to mean something to me and I’m going to like it or feel proud of it or that someone else is going to like it. And at times that can be a huge block for me. So I try to put those feelings aside and just focus on the idea and just trust myself and trust in the stories I’m always thinking about. I’m always thinking about stories; it’s a natural thing for me. I don’t actually have to work that hard to write something, even though I think I do. I just let go of these ideas that it’s hard and how I am going to fill this blank page and all those kinds of fears, or that I am not working hard enough and not working at my craft all the time, because actually, I find that when I’m relaxing and not working, or even thinking about working, that’s when the ideas come and I get inspired. It’s these tricks that I try to find to make it enjoyable and invigorating, instead of the burden or pressure of having to do something. Making a record is full of potential, full of excitement and then comes the point of revealing what it is I’ve done, because I don’t really know what I’ve done until I hear the whole thing back.”
It doesn’t get much more personal than talking about key moments in your own life, including songs that probe into the yin and yang of the relationship between husband and wife [Ungerleider’s husband is noted drummer Cam Giroux] or of that between a mother and her daughter [Ramona].
The division of the ten songs into ones from the past and ones from present is a great way for Ungerleider to focus on very specific episodes from her life, including the beautifully evocative song ‘Juniper’ which is about being in love, and then the equally compelling ‘Mount Shasta,’ the narrative of which revolved around an argument between she and Giroux. Similarly, the song ‘I’m Sorry & You’re Right’ is riven with conflict between mother and daughter and yet is also so beautiful in its portrayal of honest and regret and miscommunication and the desire to want to do better and be better – without always knowing how. ‘The Wilds’ comes from the admiration Ungerleider has for her daughter’s strength and unique personality and the hopes she has for her future.
“Recently I said to my husband, ‘I’m about to go and perform these songs and I’m going to be on a stage talking about the songs, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to make you uncomfortable or say anything that feels like it’s crossing a boundary.’ But he said he trusts me. And I said the same thing to Ramona and she said it was okay too. But I am careful about it. Sometimes it’s easy to say something for the sake of a laugh and sometimes it’s easy to get swept away by the impression you’re making or the narrative you’re telling. And what you’re saying may not actually be true, but it won’t be clear to the person at the show who doesn’t have the microphone and isn’t telling the story that it’s not true,” she said.
“It is a sensitive issue, and it’s going to be something I constantly have to remind myself to be careful about – the fact that they’re not here to tell their version. So those songs really are my perspective. It’s not really what happened, it’s what I think, what I perceived happened, or what I’m talking about or the emotional aspect of what happened, from my perspective.”
‘I’m Sorry & You’re Right,’ pretty much hits the feels of anyone who has had kids, or who has been a kid. Yet the universality of the subject matter makes it relatable enough to most anyone. It is the detail, the descriptiveness, the shading and colouring and textures created by the lyrical setting that makes the song an emotional dynamo. Ultimately these highly personal, relationship-oriented songs are not about right or wrong, or pure love, but about the grey spaces, the muddied waters of life and loved ones, the resolution of conflict, – real life, real family stuff in all its hues.
“Of course that song started from a real thing. A lot of it is very real. But I remember thinking, am I really going to write a song like this? Because I just had this sort of melodic idea and then the thoughts, the words started coming out, especially ‘I cornered you in the bathroom.’ I’m like, ‘am I really going to sing about that?’ It feels weird, because it actually happened, and it was a specific moment,” Ungerleider said.
“Just reading those words is weird. It felt really strange at the beginning to do that. And then I said, well, it’s what’s in my head, I need to just trust that it will work out. And that’s the other thing that I’ve realized; sometimes I might write and I might not actually do anything with the words. They’re just something I need to write, and they may not be for public consumption. I think that’s what I said to myself when I was writing that song, and that helped me to be open for anything.
“At points in the song, it’s sort of lighthearted sounding. But it wasn’t. It captures this moment where I felt like I was showing a really ugly side of myself in that moment. And then to write it into the song, I wonder, ‘is that ethical?’ Or is it that I am just being cute? Am I just taking it easy on myself by writing a song saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ but am I actually going to be better? It still goes through my mind ‘am I going to live up to these words or is this just a funny little anecdote?’ So, yeah, there’ve been complicated moments of writing and I am constantly asking myself what I am going to reveal and how much am I going to say about it.”
The choice to write, record and release music under her own name invoked a sense of freedom from the restraints of the expectations of others, allowing for a more flexible creative process, where the only boundaries were ones imposed by Ungerleider herself. Part of this came from the fact that as time, and life and the universe, changed and evolved, Ungerleider found herself tapping into her own questions and quandaries more and more as sources of inspiration.
“There’s been a big shift for me from trying to sing songs that sound like what folk songs are about, that have a kind of truth to them through their telling, but which are highly fictionalized. I guess it was the Girl in Teen City record [2017] where writing about my own specific life really opened the door to where I could feel people really connecting to this new specificity. Now people talk about this all the time, so it’s not a huge idea in the greater scheme of things that something that is specific to the artist becomes resonant for other people. But I really began to feel it – I felt this encouragement and this emotional connection when I started singing songs that were very much autobiographical and that encouraged me to go further,” she said, adding that it’s more the depth of this self-examination is what’s really become more pronounced over the last two records.
“I’ve always been motivated to express things that I feel strongly about and then I hope that other people will feel that too and connect with it. It’s not all that different today, it’s just that what I’m revealing is more overtly personal. But I realize there are different ways to approach songwriting. Not everyone is writing to have this deep, personal, emotional connection. They’re trying to write to have fun and create joy or something to dance to. But I’m doing stuff to mine emotions and get closer to emotions and so if I’m feeling emotional about what’s coming out, then that’s a good sign, and I should move towards that, even if it feels embarrassing or vulnerable or strange, or even if I don’t think it’s going to mean anything to someone else.”
In an age when ‘branding’ is everything and linked to so many things outside of the actual creative output, Ungerleider admits there was a little trepidation before choosing to emerge from the cocoon of her former name.
“I had mixed feelings about it. I don’t regret shifting. Part of the reason why I blew it up was because my music didn’t really fit the branding any more. And so that felt really weird to keep using this name that indicated a whole slew of things that didn’t match what I was thinking about or doing and the style I was in, or the songs I was writing. And then there’s the fact that it [the name was based on a well-known 19th century American song] conjures up minstrelsy and slavery and repression, that was kind of the tipping point of getting rid of it. So, it did feel liberating to get rid of it, but also scary,” she said.
“I took me a while to get used to having my name be, like, the official artist name because I’ve always felt, ‘what does it mean to anybody else.’ I know what it means to me as a connection to my family and my ancestors and things like that. But that was sort of a private, personal thing. And now it’s my public name, which feels great, but it also feels a little bit nebulous. I can’t control what people see or think, which is kind of the scary thing to feel like you’re giving up control over. And I think that’s what I was doing at the beginning, controlling how people would frame me.
“And at first it was totally correct and it felt really good, like that was where I wanted to be. And then as the framing began to feel wrong, I had to let it go. But it has liberated me in that I don’t feel constrained to make certain kinds of music. I think I will continue to make music that’s, you know, folky and acoustic – it’s not like there’s any danger of me making a dance record. But it allows me to be more personal about it, and when I’m onstage, I don’t have to create a mystery persona anymore. I can just be a version of myself when I’m on stage, which I think also helps with connecting and letting me tell stories verbally, not just through the music, in a way that I would be if I was conversing with a friend.”
Since her Oh Susanna days, Ungerleider has worked steadily with noted Canadian producer/songwriter Jim Bryson, with the two once again getting together to masterfully produce Among the Evergreens.
“I guess we first started our relationship of producer and artist when I made Name Dropper, so that was 2012. We started to do that album, but we didn’t quite finish it or release it for a few years because I had breast cancer [in 2013]. So it was 2012 when I came up with the idea of him producing that project, and then we’ve done the last few projects together pretty consistently. But it’s not like I’m talking to him all the time. I’m off writing on my own and then we communicate as friends, but then when I say, ‘let’s do some recording,’ it’s go time. So it’s kind of organic that way,” she said.
“We’ve been friends since 2001 or something like that. So we had a decade or more of just being friends before we started working together. In fact, the idea of him producing is kind of out of left field because he wasn’t really producing records at the time. I just really liked his weirdness and that he would take me in a different direction than what someone else might. I knew he wouldn’t do the typical stuff that some other producer would do. And because we know each other so well, he can be quite honest with me and vice versa. Sometimes that’s an issue because as the person pouring their soul our in the studio, I want a bit of coddling or whatever, and it doesn’t always happen. I mean, we’re kind of like siblings in that way. But overall I think it’s been good. And I trust his judgement and I also trust his pace of work. For the most part, we pretty much agree on how things should go.”
After more than 25 years in the music industry, and with a powerful sense of introspective purpose, it’s going to be an interesting journey for fans and Ungerleider herself to see – and hear – what comes next.
“I’m still learning. I’m still learning how to be human. I’m still learning how to be in relationship with other people that I care about. And even with the broader world, I’m still learning. I think I am lucky, too, because as an artist, I’m in a world where all of that learning and growing is allowed. I’m allowed to navel-gaze. And I realize I am so blessed because that’s something that very few people can do – it’s not part of their work to be navel gazing, but my work encourages that,” she said.
As for seeing and hearing her live, plans are underway for some touring in Canada and other parts of the world over the next year or so.
“I’m doing a record release show in Vancouver on June 19 and I’m trying to get my shit together to come to Ontario in October, so stay tuned for that. I have some Alberta dates booked for March of 2026 and then I’m going back to Europe in April and May of next year and maybe the UK as well,” she said.
For more information, visit https://suzieungerleider.com/.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he works as a communications and marketing specialist, and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
