NOVEMBER 21 • 2024 | 47
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a particularly inspirational show by 
the Patti Smith Group. 
Hoffs played in a band — the 
Psychiatrists, later known as the 
Unconscious — and found a home 
in the southern California punk 
clubs of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
“My older brother and I were 
both fascinated by punk rock,” 
Hoffs recalls. “When I came back 
to L.A. (from college) I got to see 
the Talking Heads at the Whisky-A-
Go-Go, and there’s Tina Weymouth 
playing bass and I was like, 
‘Omigod …’ And the Go-Go’s, that 
idea of an all-girl band, that really 
inspired me and energized me.
“I felt like like, ‘Oh, I can do that! 
I don’t know how to read music, 
but I know how to play all the 
chords I need on my guitar. Let’s 
go!’”

PRINCE COMES CALLING 
Hoffs got going with the Colours, 
which became the Supersonic 
Bangs and then the Bangs before 
becoming the Bangles. The group’s 
self-titled 1982 debut EP led to a 
major label deal, and their second 
full-length album, Different Light, 
was a triple-platinum smash in 
1986, spawning the chart-topping 
single “Walk Like an Egyptian” 
along with the No. 2 “Manic 
Monday,” which was written for the 
band by Prince under the moniker 
Christopher. 
“He’d started to show up at our 
gigs … and, I’ll never forget, at the 
Palace he just sort of swaggered 
onto the stage while we were 
playing ‘Hero Takes a Fall,’ already 
shredding (on guitar) because 
he really loved that song,” Hoffs 
recalls. “I had recently discovered 
the Purple Rain album, and the 
movie, too, so it was this kismet 
moment of him discovering 
the Bangles right when I was 
discovering Purple Rain. From 
there, he would continually come 
up on stage whenever he was 
around, multiple times.
“Then we got a call that Prince 

had a song for me and wanted me 
to come to the studio — that was 
‘Manic Monday.’ I think he was 
expecting us to sing on top of the 
(musical parts) he’d recorded, but 
we did our own. I do know that he 
really loved our version and was 
very pleased with it.”
The Bangles first broke up in 
1989 and have been reuniting at 
intervals since 
1998. It was 
after the first of 
Hoffs’ five solo 
albums — When 
You’re a Boy 
in 1991 — was 
released that 
she got a call 
from the writer-
musicians who’d 
worked on 
Sheryl Crow’s 
award-winning 
Tuesday Night 
Music Club 
about doing 
some writing 
and recording 
with them, 
creating the 
songs that 
comprise The Lost Record.
“It was a very creative time,” 
Hoffs remembers — including Joni 
Mitchell showing up to play “Love 
Potion No. 9,” a personal favorite, 
with the ensemble. “We would meet 
weekly and sit around, working on 
songs, just creating.” 
Those sessions would run their 
course, but, in 1999, Hoffs — then 
in “a non-Bangles chapter” after the 
group reunited to record a song for 
Roach’s film Austin Powers: The Spy 
Who Shagged Me — got a call from 
one of those collaborators 
“Dan Schwartz reached out to me 
and said, ‘You want to make some 
music? Should we continue where 
we left off from the (previous) 
sessions?’” Hoffs says. 
“I told Dan, ‘Yeah, but can we 
do it in my garage. I have a new 
baby and I’m kind of staying at 

home right now.’ 
He said, ‘Yeah,’ 
and we had 
all these great 
people … It was 
a true garage 
band situation, which I loved. The 
Bangles were formed in the garage 
of my childhood home, so I’ve had 
a lifetime of recording in garages.”
The Bangles wound up recording 
one of the songs, “Under a Cloud,” 
for its 2011 album Sweetheart 
of the Sun, while another, “Life 
on the Inside,” was written with 
Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin 
from Hoffs’ heroes the Go-Go’s. 
The songs are mostly melodic, 
singer-songwriter fare, some 
stripped-down, others with lush 
orchestration. 
“I think I was just reflecting 
on my life at the time — having 
children, being in a marriage,” says 
Hoffs, noting that she and Roach 
were “likes ships passing” at the 
time with his filmmaking career 
taking off, reflected in songs such 
as “Living Alone With You.”

“It was this sort of identity crisis; 
I was a mom and married to a 
filmmaker and finding myself at a 
crossroads, like, ‘How do I juggle 
all this stuff?’ We always, as artists, 
try to find ways to use what we 
know and what we love and make 
something out of it. It always finds 
its way into the thing.”
As The Lost Record finds its way 
out, Hoffs is already immersed 
in other projects. A Bangles 
documentary is on the runway, 
while her 2023 novel This Bird Has 
Flown has been optioned for a film 
adaptation. She’s also working on 
a second novel and is recording a 
follow-up to her 2023 album The 
Deep End that will include new 
material and fresh versions of 
Bangles songs with the New York 
string ensemble YMusic.
“I live for art,” Hoffs says, “and 
art and music has always driven 
me. I think when I put my mind to 
something and have such a passion 
for it, I can’t stop myself. I’m so 
grateful I’ve had that ability in my 
life.” 

ABOVE: This self-portrait was taken in Hoffs’ garage. 
LEFT: Hoffs’ novel has been optioned for a film.

SUSANNA HOFFS

