Brief Biography
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Sukie has released her first solo album The Glass Dress and a Ringing Bell which is out now on hot pink vinyl, available here httsp://www.sukiesmith.bandcamp.com.
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While her band Madam has been on hiatus, Sukie has contributed vocals for Tricky's Hell is Round the Corner (reincarnated) for the rerelease of Maxinquaye, out now on Universal Records with more writing and recording planned for 2024.
Sukie has collaborated widely with artists, musicians and writers creating cross-disciplinary sonic work, exhibiting and performing internationally. She has released three critically acclaimed albums with her band Madam (Back to the Sea, Gone Before Morning, In Case of Emergency) touring throughout the UK and Europe.
Sukie trained as an actress at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has worked with many great directors including Nic Roeg and Mike Leigh. She has performed onstage at, amongst others, the Royal Court, West Yorkshire Playhouse and London's West End.
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Sukie regularly contributes to The Lab Mag, a bi-monthly art magazine curated and published by The Laboratory Arts Collective.
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Extended Biography
Trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Sukie worked on a series of high profile films and theatre projects with iconic independent directors including Nicolas Roeg, (The Witches), Mike Leigh (Topsy Turvy), Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger (The Lawless Heart) and collaborated on new writing projects at The Royal Court (Girl in a Car with a Man), The Lyric Hammersmith (La Bete), Soho Theatre, (Hundreds and Thousands), Edinburgh Fringe (improvised theatre) and Hampstead Theatre (Keepers). She was part of a troupe of physical theatre actors who created an avaunt garde interpretation of Vasclef Havels Temptation in the West End for James Roose Evans.
Interested in new creative environments Sukie joined the Workers Theatre Movement, established by activist Tam Dean Burns, co-created a sound piece for The Consumerist Theatre of Desire and began to explore a multi-disciplinary performance practice including early web games, experimental films and animation, which ran alongside a conventional career as a working actress .
She bought a 4 track and began to experiment with vocal sound pieces.
Relocating from London to the Peak District to film a TV series for a year she began to compose music and write songs.
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Returning to London she became embedded in the music coming out of the club nights at The Blue Note in Shoreditch Metalheadz and Anohka and was part of the DIY gallery scene that was establishing itself in East London.
She opened The Crown Gallery in Hackney and curated a year of exhibitions ; work by Serena Korda, Ian Johnson, Simon Wood, Cassie Howard, collaborating with Kevin Heavey on a series of art films and contributing to the international touring exhibition Record Collection.
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Sukie Recorded the narrative Saskia Olde Woldes' videography piece Placebo which won the Becks Futures prize (Tate).
She established a band Madam and recorded tracks with musicians including her long-term friend Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) and members of the indie underground (Pias, 4ad, Creation) playing sell out London shows.
She released music on Stolen recordings (Bo Ningen, East Indian Youth) with residences at Catch and the Spitz in Shoreditch. Guesting for other Stolen artists at Jarvis Cockers Meltdown at the Southbank Centre and establishing an independent music and art scene based out of Stolen headquarters in Tottenham.
Film director Tom Thyritt commissioned her to write the soundtrack for his debut feat Hush Your Mouth (Neophyte Films) tracks from which led to Reveal Records offering her an album deal while she was promoting the film in LA.
In Case of Emergency was released 2008 to universal critical success resulting in a huge amount of national radio support with plays and sessions for shows on Radio2 /3/4/6/Capital/LBC and Xfm..
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Sukie co-wrote and contributed the vocals for experimental electronic composer Silent Strikes album 3am (Left to Break) and Singularity (Stay Silent).
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Sukie was approached by artist John Lee Bird to be part of a celebratory series of portraits documenting the underground art and music. Madam played shows in a number of galleries for the Before Encore exhibitions.
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Madam toured extensively in Europe especially in Italy. Sukie co-wrote a track, 'Wild Dogs Run' with Italian band Hollow Blue - which charted in Italy. Red Eye films made a 3D music video (the first for an Italian band) and Wild Dogs Run won Best 3D Video at Sundance 2010.
Sukie performs with The Band of the Holy Joy in the spoken word/song poem Troubled Sleep which ran for a period of time at the Shunt venues under London Bridge station and toured the North East.
Speaker giants Bower and Wilkins offered Madam a weeklong residency at Peter Gabriels' Real World Studio to create an album for their online music club Society of Sound.
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Amicably parting company with Reveal, Sukie established a label Shillingboy Records with distributors Cargo Records and released Gone Before Morning. She launched the album at London's Kings Place in collaboration with Blip Creative who invented a ground-breaking LED installation for the show.
Contemporary composer Michael Begg (Human Greed/Forvea Hex) asked Sukie to contribute lead vocals for his track Black Glass Striptease.
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Madam played a series of prestigious shows at The National Portrait Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Late at the Tate and The Purcell Rooms,
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She established a studio at the legendary independent artist colony The Briggs Building in Shoreditch and wrote songs that would become part of her third album.
While at the Briggs Building, Sukie wrote and produced the credit track for The Truth About Angels directed Lichelli Lezar Lea.
She covered the Odetta song Waterboy for Wears the trousers compilation Beautiful Star and made videos for two singles from Gone Before Morning with directors Chloe Thomas, and Tom Thywitt (Weekend Love, was cited as the editor of the New York Village Voice top video tip ).
Back to the Sea was released on Shilling Boy Records and launched at London Moth Club to a capacity crowd and a month later Sukie is unexpectedly hospitalised and out of action for a year.
Back to the Sea is one of the Guardians albums of the year 2016
Sukie begins a project with directors, animators and artists to make a film for every song on the Back to the Sea, contributing collaborators include Devon Dickson, Brock Norman Brock, Chris Shepherd, Richard Morel, Sam Willard, Mathew Lynch and Eve Mahoney. The films have been screened internationally and are an on-going practice.
Sukie was invited to perform song and spoken word with visuals by Devon Dickson in Brno in Czech as part of a British art and music takeover of Kabinet Muz curated by war artist David Cotterill, including Sean Dower, Rose Buter and Lewis Sherlock.
She co-hosts a series of arts-based radio shows The Other Woman, playing an exclusively female playlist with journalist Ruth Barnes on Soho Radio .
Nashville resident, recording artist Nicole Atkins asked Madam to open for her UK tour.
As part of the Bad Punk collective Sukie performs a week-long series of live radio plays written by Bill Drummond (Cherry Blossom Quartet) adapted for radio by Johny Brown, featuring Tam Dean Burns and Joe Cushley .
Artist John Lee Bird brings the second part of his exhibition One Small Step at a Time to London and Madam with Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Gill perform sets for the 3 nights. It is hosted in a ballroom in Greenwich with pre-recorded soundscape from Xui Xui
As part of Champion Versions Blacking Out with ... Sukie performs with Rothko and Band of Holy Joy to present visual arts, multi-sensory installations and live performance/spoken word/ Song at The Old Church in Stoke Newington
John Lee Bird and Sukie are invited by LA based The Laboratory Arts Collective to create an exhibition at the Pacific Design Centre. Continuing the improvisational aspects of the London shows Sukie performs song and spoken word to a pre-recorded soundscape created with Sarah Gill to a dazzling sell out LA art crowd.​
Curated by Sean McLusky, Kevin Quigley & Bjorn Hatleskogband written by Johny Brown Sukie performs spoken word pieces at Liminality/Gallery 46 with Richard Strange and James Stephen Finn.
Sukie performs poems by Kirsty Allison on Resonance Bad Punk radio show with soundscapes by James Stephen Finn.
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Sukie performs live, reading texts written by Danny Amos Flynn on Resonance FM, Bad Punk with music by Madam and soundscape from Johnny Brown
Invited by former Lush front woman Miki Berenyi and her partner Kevin McKillop to join their new band Piroshka as a backing singer, Sukie tours with them around the UK and Europe promoting their debut album Brickbat.
Soho radio offer Sukie a monthly radio show SOUNDVISION interviewing visual artists writers and film makers about the philosophy of sound. Featuring artists and academics including Bruce and Flora Mclean, Georgina Starr and director John Irvin.
Sukie contributes backing vocals and harmonies for Band of Holy Joys' album Dreams Take Flight and during the UK lockdown performs a spoken word piece live at the on line launch filmed at Gallery 46.
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In an ongoing collaboration with Tricky, Sukie records 'Hell is Round the Corner (reincarnated)', released in October '23 on Maxinquaye (reincarnated).
Sukie records the melody for Adam Franklins song Black Flower ( ft J Mascis) released on his Bolts of Melody album Film Noir.
Sukie plays at John Lee Birds retrospective a " You are a Doll " and conducts an interview with the artist during his residency .
Sukie records backing vocals for the track Island State on Dave Lance Callahans album Down to the Marshes
Sukie debut solo album The Glass Dress and a Ringing Bell is out now on hot pink vinyl.Available from her Bandcamp page .
The lead single from the record "Into the Light " is played and supported by multiple Radio Stations , including Radio 6 and is profiled by Abbie Macarthy on her BBC Introducing show .
The worlds first AI generated music video for her song "We Try Not to Think About it Now" directed and created by Roxanne Ducharme is out now.
It is screened by The Laboratory Arts Collective at the magazine launch in Los Angeles Sept.2024