The Bangles Susanna Hoffs Talks New Album After 14 Years, Embracing Loneliness as an Empty Nester and New Beginnings (Exclusive)
The Bangles Susanna Hoffs Talks New Album After 14 Years, Embracing Loneliness as an Empty Nester and New Beginnings (Exclusive)
Meredith WilshereSun, September 6, 2026 at 9:59 AM UTC
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Susanna HoffsCredit: Shervin Lainez -
Susanna Hoffs’ new album, The List, is her first record of original music in over 14 years
The album explores themes of loneliness, aging and personal stories
Hoffs collaborated with artists like Rufus Wainwright and Dan Wilson, embracing vulnerability in the creative process
Music is at the “beginning, middle and end of every day” for The Bangles co-founder Susanna Hoffs. So when she was finally ready to work on her fifth studio album, The List, the music was already on her mind.
Hoffs tells PEOPLE she began working with producer CJ Camerieri to unpack the past 40 years of her life through storytelling and music. While she has continued to release music over the years, The List is Hoffs’ first album of brand-new, original music in over 14 years.
Looking back at how the process started, Hoffs says she and Camerieri “would just start talking.”
“CJ always said that I would start telling a story that might not have even had anything to do with anything, but it came into being and somehow worked its way into the song,” the 67-year-old shares. “So it was like stories from my life or things that popped into my head. I don’t even know where it comes from exactly.”
The pair, who recorded the album at Hoffs’ home rather than a studio, had decades of stories and lived experiences to draw from — from love and longing to loss and loneliness and reinvention and self-discovery.
Susanna HoffsCredit: Shervin Lainez
Despite being happily married to filmmaker Jay Roach for over 30 years, the musician notes that “feeling lonely” is natural — and something nearly everyone can relate to, no matter their phase of life.
“You can still sometimes feel lonely when it’s now the empty nest because our two kids have grown and left the nest. Sometimes, even when you have friends, there are still gaps,” she shares. “There was something there to write about, hitting a certain age in my life in my 60s now, and the kids are gone, and they have their own adult lives.”
However, she also emphasizes that “there’s always sex, love and rock ‘n’ roll to write about.”
Hoffs has never been one to hold back, and was able to be so emotionally honest on the album partly thanks to having written her debut novel, This Bird Has Flown, just a few years prior, expanding her storytelling abilities and opening her up to a whole new world.
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“So there was a lot of overlap of just ideas and things that I was reflecting on over a period of years,” she shares.
Throughout the album-making process, Camerieri introduced Hoffs to “a bunch of incredible musicians who are just great human beings, but they also happen to be incredibly talented and gifted, whether it’s the drums, the bass. The community is really so delicious. It just is.”
The album features collaborations with artists like Rufus Wainwright, Dan Wilson, Edie Brickell, Ryan Lerman, Desure, Jesse Harris, Ny Oh, Grant Milliken, Spencer Zahn, Greg Leisz, Larry Goldings and others.
Hoffs says that being vulnerable with her collaborators is “the best.”
While The List is Hoffs’ first record of all new music in over a decade — she released two albums of covers and lost recordings — she has never stopped working. Still, she felt it was time to come back and make “all brand new creations that we’re about to launch into the world.”
“I don’t hold back. I want to have every note, every syllable matter, really. It’s important,” she tells PEOPLE. “It all comes around to the human experience, and why do we love it? Because it is our experience as humans. I think if you don’t have some vulnerability or emotions, why would you be a musician anyway?”
At the end of the day, Hoffs says that she simply “loves to sing, especially when the song is good.”
“I find it’s transporting in some way. It’s also nice to know that maybe one day it will connect with someone,” she shares. “Someone will be having a heartbreak, and this is the song that helped them get through it, just the way music helps me get through life. Music is just a gift.”
The List is out Sept. 18.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
