Suzzy Roche

Suzzy Roche

SISTERS' PSALMS

Suzzy and Maggie Roche Turn Prayer into Music on Zero Church
Zero Church, a collection of prayers selected and set to music by Suzzy and Maggie Roche, was actually conceived some time before the September 11th tragedy, but it arrives, like a blessing, right on time. Suzzy Roche had attended the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard run by the acclaimed actress Anna Deavere Smith; there, Roche gathered many of the prayers that would later be used on the album. Zero Church, named for the address -- Zero Church Street -- where the institute would often meet, was already finished, but the subsequent World Trade Center attack added new emotional resonance to the existing project. (Suzzy added a song of her own, New York City, that dealt directly with the aftermath of the tragedy.) Nicky Roe of Barnes&Noble.com spoke with Suzzy about the album and the power of musical prayer.

B&N.com: Whose idea was the project ultimately? Was it Anna Deavere Smith's, or did you guys sit around in a group and come up with it?

SR: No. I've had this idea for years and years, literally years and years. I just really had no idea where to go to do it because I didn't want to just have it be in the commercial context of, you know, making a CD and releasing it.Then, one day I got a letter and I don't really know why, but it was an invitation to apply to Anna's institute. I didn't know who she was or the institute or anything, but what the letter said, well I just started shaking because I knew it was the right place to go, except that I was very frightened to go to Harvard. I was very intimidated. And then I went to see Anna perform here in New York and I left there thinking: Oh dear, I'm really in way over my head. I mean, she's brilliant and what she has done with this institute is really valuable. It's not often that people of those varied backgrounds and races get together in the same room and talk honestly. You know, it was very strange, but it was so good, so good, so good.

B&N.com: Were you raised in a religious family? Did you always pray?

SR: I was raised in a Catholic tradition and, yeah, I suppose -- I've always sang in choirs, and so maybe in a way that was the way that I prayed. But people don't even wanna hear the word "god" and that's distressing. That's one of things I hope: that maybe some people will hear something on the CD that might open them up to it.

B&N.com: I heard an interview on the radio, and I was quite relieved to hear you talk about your own cynicism, because after I finished listening to this album, I thought, Oh no, she's so saintly.

SR: Really I'm so not. That's really the thing. It was very, very hard not to get cynical. I mean I'm kind of a wiseguy.

B&N.com: Yeah, that's how I always thought of you. Then I thought that maybe you went through a transformation when your dad died.

SR: Well, I think I did, actually, but at the same time I am not saintly. [laughs] And yet I am very moved by that open, tender place but find it very hard to live in that place. I mean, I have to admit I did struggle with that on this record because it's so pure, you know. It was an interesting challenge.

B&N.com: The prayers come from people who have suffered and who are suffering and yet still manage to reach through and they have their faith. I mean, that must make you feel much more open.

SR: They were given to me with such trust that I was amazed. I didn't know what I was going to get. I had no idea what kind of prayers, or what a prayer was to people, or any of that. And I didn't really have an agenda about that. I was just kind of curious, you know. But wow! After talking to people it became clear that this was very serious business.

B&N.com: "New York City" was written for a benefit after September 11th for a Brooklyn firefighting squad that lost 12 men. Many kids were left behind. I guess for a mother that's pretty poignant fact.

SR: Well that, sure. But what happened, I mean for everybody, the loss of life was huge, and I think we're all still reeling from it. But to have to sing for someone right after that happened, it was a very difficult thing for me to figure out, and you know, that's when I prayed. I got down and started praying for the song. Later we were at another funeral for a firefirefighter, where someone who had heard that song at the benefit asked us to us sing at the funeral for their brother who was lost in the WTC. There in the front row of the church was his wife and three young children, and you just realize how many of these funerals are happening all over the place.

B&N.com: Were you in town when it happened?

SR: Yeah. I was walking my dog and saw the second plane go in. It was unbelievable. I just happened to turn the corner and there's this big explosion, and a fireball came out of the side of the building. All of us on the street were just looking and no one really knew what was happening.

B&N.com: Will the Zero Church Project continue?

SR: Yes. It's going to be sort of one step further from what we did up at Harvard, but it will be all the prayers. It's going to involve dancers and actors as well.

B&N.com: You also work with the Wooster Group and the Four Bitchin' Babes.

SR: That's right. I'm all over the block. You can't get further apart than the Wooster Group and Four Bitchin' Babes, you know, they're totally at opposite ends. I do like to travel in lots of different circles.

B&N.com: Well, I'm sure it's very energizing and gets your creative juices flowing.

SR: It's not boring!

--January 2002