The Review - MUSIC - grooves with ROISIN GADELRAB Published: 28 August 2008
The Benwahs: Mikey Proud, Suzie Smart and Karen Waddell
Punk shocker: Suzie’s story...
Benwahs founder Suzie Smart reveals how she discovered a natural talent for anarchic pop.
SUZIE Smart is an accidental punk.
She didn’t mean to write punk songs when she first picked up an electric guitar, they just came out that way. Now, although she hasn’t quite ditched her acoustic guitar, the 28-year-old musician has formed Camden pop-punk band The Benwahs.
In just six months the unsigned fledgling three-piecea have played “the whole of London”, and – after writing to producers to settle an argument – have scored a spot on Sunday morning hangover soap Hollyoaks.
The Benwahs were first formed when Suzie was working in a record store.
Suzie, 28, who lives in Camden, said: “I didn’t realise London was so hard to meet people. Working in HMV I though it would be easy but everybody’s already in bands.”
Then, on a work night out, she met Karen Waddell who became The Benwahs’ bassist. They roped in Suzie’s flatmate drummer, Mikey Proud, and so it began with their first gig last December.
Suzie’s musical beginnings are more Sound of Music than Sex Pistols. “When we were children we’d always sit round my Dad’s knees and he’d play Dylan and Cat Stevens to us,” she said.
She learned three chords and began writing her own songs.
But when she tried them on electric guitar, people started telling her she wrote great punk: “I always write on acoustic – you get the melody, structure and then you can move to electric, speed it up, add attitude and it comes out punk,” she said. “I’ve got a very messy style. It’s so haphazard it sounds like more than one guitar. It’s not just about noise. For people to pick out lyrics in a punk song, that’s what I want.”
Friends should stay on Suzie’s right side or could find themselves the unwitting target of one of her songs.
She said: “I’m a big drama queen. If someone pisses me off in a tiny way I’ll write how you’ve broken my heart and left me dying or if you don’t pick up the phone I’ll write how you left me waiting forever. “You have to exaggerate stuff. If I’ve an argument with a mate then it’ll come out in a song – everything I wanted to say but don’t dare.”
She resents being listed alongside female bands: “None of us is really girly, but every time we do a gig we’re always on the bill with all-girl groups. I wish they wouldn’t do that. I’ve never been into girl singers. I’m not writing about love and all that. We don’t dress up with loads of make-up. I like that people aren’t concentrating on the look of me.”
To settle a rumour that they had been mentioned on Hollyoaks, Suzie wrote to the programme. Next thing they knew they were being asked to play on the show.
She says she doesn’t want much from life: “I just love doing music. I don’t want to be rich. I don’t want to be famous. I just want to do music for my job.”
* The Benwahs appear on Hollyoaks on September 10 and play The Dry Bar, Finsbury, on September 5 and the Hope and Anchor, Angel, on September 13.
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