A conversation with rising shoe gaze artist Noelle Sucks on devastating heartbreak, poetry, and love for the 90s

Noelle Sucks defies easy categorization, blending indie, shoegaze, pop, and rock into an emotional soundscape. Born into a musically talented family, Noelle found her own voice after experiencing a brush with death at 13 during a major surgery. Growing up with extremely spiritual views from her parents, the absence of any heavenly visions during that near-death experience challenged her long-held beliefs and transformed her perspective on life.

Recovery from her surgery in her teens side-lined her from school but sparked her creativity as she started conceptualizing music videos for existing songs and discovering her love for editing homemade videos. This passion led her to film school and, ultimately, back to music after a significant breakup at age 23 inspired her first song. She describes her early work as "catching up," filling in gaps from her years spent in film and other pursuits. Noelle's “Out of Orbit” EP (2022) dove into the complexities of emotions stemming from a friend-group breakup, featuring connections nurtured at Emo Nite, an event that has now come full circle with her signing to Emo Nite's new label, Graveboy Records. 

I am really grateful Noelle took the time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions. 

NICOLLE: What was the first song you learned on guitar?

NOELLE: The first song I learned was Jumper by Third Eye Blind!! I’m self-taught, minus one 4-month guitar class in 7th grade where I learned the basics.

NICOLLE: What made you use your moniker Noelle sucks? Why do you suck? :D
NOELLE: I put out my first song, Manic, under my normal name. But my Instagram username was Noelle Sucks. I thought my normal name was boring, plus I love writing sarcastic lyrics, and I’m not a serious person. So I thought it fit me better! Also, I felt like it was doing damage control - no one can tell me I suck now.

NICOLLE: The first song I heard from you was Ugly Ugly. What is the story behind it? I am sure a lot of people can relate to it.

NOELLE: “Ugly Ugly” is about a person in my life who came in and took a lot of things from me after a falling out. Parts of my personality, “aesthetic”, hobbies, friends, etc. I found it so frustrating that no one else around me could see it… I was really mad when I wrote that song because people who can relate know that it takes a lot of pain and discomfort to turn your life into what people often romanticize on the outside. I don’t like people coming in and taking a scoop off the top! 

NICOLLE: At what age did you write your first song? What was it about?

NOELLE: I wrote my first song around age 23. I had always written poetry and stuff, but I didn’t think I was good enough at an instrument to carry it through to a song. But when I got my heart SHATTERED by a guy, I started pouring out my feelings into melodies. It was the most natural/instinctual process, and I’m so thankful for music saving my life that summer.

NICOLLE: If you could pick someone to write a song with, who would it be?

NOELLE: I mean if we’re talking DREAM collab, I’d love to write a song with Billie Eilish! Her first couple of albums inspired me to write music that is really conversational and real. There’s certain artists that I listen to their lyrics, and I just know we write from a similar place in our brains. But if they don’t have to be …alive… then KURT COBAIN always <3

NICOLLE: I am obsessed with your song Lavender Massacre. What prompted you to write it? It feels really raw and personal.

NOELLE: Lavender Massacre is that insane feeling of wanting to scream and lose your cool completely, knowing that you shouldn’t. So you swallow it down and smile. It feels like a fire inside my stomach when I have to do that. I used to be an angry person, I used to fight dirty, and I used to say a lot of things I regret when I got emotional. I work on it all the time, but that fire feeling still boils up at first. 

NICOLLE: What influences you the most when writing new music?

NOELLE: I usually start a session with some sort of phrase or concept, mostly from a poem I wrote in my notepad or something. If I don’t come in with a chorus/melody though, we usually look through a playlist I made of songs that make up my inner world, and we try to find that same over-arching feeling in a chord progression until we find something that “pulls at the heartstrings”, I always say. We loop it forever and I visualize what it makes me feel, and I just start to word-vomit into a shared notepad. Every session is so different and unique though, this was a hard question to answer! Hahaha.

NICOLLE: What are your biggest influences? Do you listen to old stuff from, let’s say, the 80s, or do you prefer contemporary music?

NOELLE: Ugh another hard question. My favourite genre is 90’s pop/grunge. (I’m a huge Nirvana fan, Third Eye Blind, and Radiohead). When I was in my most formative years, I was listening to a lot of pop punk, so those melodies are permanently in my bloodstream. It was when I found Tigers Jaw, Balance and Composure, Title Fight, and all those older Philadelphia scene bands. It changed my life. I love how the lyrics don’t have to be this linear story, they’re just a feeling, and they’re just ….SO COOL.

NICOLLE:  What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
NOELLE: My other love in life is working on set! I love working on the art department team, especially production design. That’s why I started doing my DIY music videos - I am always building up my portfolio to keep getting cooler jobs. Set it such a rad place to be. It’s fast-paced and never boring, and you bond with people because you’ll never be in that unique situation again. It’s really special.

NICOLLE:  Where have you performed? What are your favourite and least favourite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?

NOELLE: I haven’t performed much! I need to do it more though, because if I’m being honest, it still really scares me! Hahaha. At first, I played some acoustic shows, which are much more intimate, but I have loved playing with a band.

My favourite venue is Emo Nite, I’ve played it twice now. The crowd that shows up (in LA at least) makes it feel like such a safe place. I don’t have any least favourites yet, just because of lack of playing, but one of my dream venues in LA is The Regent. I’ve seen all my favorite bands play there and the sound is so good. 

NICOLLE: Where do you draw inspiration for your songs?

NOELLE: I draw inspiration from poems, old journals of mine, TV shows, books I’m reading, or a sentence my friend says could spark a whole song. I latch on to little phrases a lot, and I jot them down everywhere on anything I can find. Especially nuanced things that can be twisted to have multiple meanings that I can relate to. I write a lot about feeling like I’m looking in from the outside, from the 3rd person POV of my life, feeling like an alien, etc.!!

NICOLLE: If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
NOELLE: I think I’d faint if I got to open for Balance and Composure. They’re my favourite band of all time.

NICOLLE: What is your dream collaboration at the moment?

NOELLE: Billie Eilish, Beabadoobee, Royal and the Serpent :) (there’s a lot), or collaborating visually with Petra Collins, and Oswaldo Cepeda. They both never miss, in my opinion.

NICOLLE: What’s next for you? Can we expect more music in 2024? Maybe even a debut album?

NOELLE: Oh yes I have a lot of music in the vault, maybe not a full album yet this year, but I love grouping a cohesive world into an EP. It seems less intimidating!

You can find Noelle on Instagram and you can listen to her EP Out of Orbit here.

_

Nicolle Knapova is a 30-year-old young adult writer and freelance blogger from the Czech Republic. She has a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Publishing at Bournemouth University. She loves to write about music, books and TV shows. If she’s not writing her fan fiction, she’s writing her poetry and sharing it on her Instagram @elisecaverly