Suki Waterhouse pens a 'Memoir of a Sparklemuffin' on her wide-ranging sophomore album

NEW YORK (AP) — Suki Waterhouse discovered the Sparklemuffin spider during a late-night scroll.

“He’s wildly colored. He’s cute,” she said. Best of all: He dances. “I felt somewhat akin to him.”

The spider became a foil and a mascot for Waterhouse's sophomore album, “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin,” out Friday.

The release follows the British singer-songwriter's 2022 debut “I Can't Let Go" and her time playing keyboardist Karen Sirko in “Daisy Jones and the Six,” the Amazon Prime series based on Taylor Jenkins Reid's bestselling novel about a 1970s rock band. The record's 18 songs cover heartache and the search for a “Big Love,” but also the 32-year-old's time in the industry, which she entered as a teen, modeling first. The project wrapped just days before the birth of her daughter, now six months old, with partner Robert Pattinson.

After celebrating the release with stops at the Michael Kors fashion show and the MTV Video Music Awards, Waterhouse talked with The Associated Press about making the album while pregnant and how playing Sirko motivated her to fully embrace her music career.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

WATERHOUSE: I think the physical limitations were something that shaped the album, in a really good way. It was sort of amazing to not be able to leave the house for a couple of months. I mean, I really got to focus in a way that I don’t know if sometimes you are able to when the world keeps moving.

I’m someone that loves working at home. All of my music that I've made pretty much has been made in home studios — big studios can freak me out a little bit. There’s something especially about being in Los Angeles, there’s just so many talented people around you, so you’re literally able to call up the best guitarist and he lives 15 minutes away. So it was very much that feeling of having awesome people just flow in and out of my house, with also a good deadline. It wasn't just the deadline of — finish the record. It was, we must finish the record. There will be a baby here if we don’t.

WATERHOUSE: It's funny, when I wrote that song, I kind of had that loop going around — (singing) “call me a model, an actress, whatever” — and it was something that I thought was kind of self-deprecating and funny. But I also felt like I would want to be in my car singing that. It's dramatic, it's glamorous.

I love consuming stories about people's lives written by them, I love reading a memoir, I love reading from someone's perspective what really went down, what really happened. That song, I guess, I was a little afraid after I wrote it — like, I've been trying to get away from being called this, from having these kind of labels — and then I think that was why I ended up writing it. There were a couple of months where I was like, “I'm not going to have this as a single. Let's sweep that one under the carpet.” And then it's always those ones actually, that eventually, you're like, “No, yeah, this is reclaiming those words.”

Especially with the video, I wanted to have just like a ton of fun and play into the stereotypes. I actually feel very empowered by the song. The video is like, really funny and I hope everyone watches it because it's just like a giggle. I really feel proud of that.

WATERHOUSE: Looking at the book, she was cool and calm and collected and she knew exactly what she wanted to do and she knew exactly who she was. She wanted to be on tour for the rest of her life. And you know, there was a reason why I was drawn to the part. I think whenever you step into a role, you do just absorb — that’s the job. There’s just so much to be gained from that experience.

Something about playing her gave me that nudge, that voice in my head that was like: “Right, now is that time that you need to go and make that album that you’ve been wanting to make for years and years and years, that you’ve been working towards. You’ve got the songs, they’re all there, go and make the album.” Also, playing a role where we were all in a band, hanging out in Sound City Studios everyday, I was kind embracing that life of a musician. I had this hole in my heart like, that’s what I want to be doing too.

WATERHOUSE: (Laughs) Yeah, I guess. She’s always there, she’s always there.

WATERHOUSE: I feel like it’s difficult not to. When I did Taylor (Swift)’s show the other day, I went straight into the studio afterward. You're so inspired watching that show, so I was like, “I want to make a stadium song.” I ended up making a slow ballad, but obviously it’s still super inspiring.

The first record I made, I had so many voices in my head — like, “Don't do anything too upbeat.” Those voices, a lot of those insecurities, are kind of gone now, in many ways.

When I wrote “My Fun,” that was the first kind of upbeat song that I’d done that still felt like it was true to my palette and my world and that I liked. And I was like, “OK, I can write an upbeat song and not be cringed out by it.” And that is so fun, to do an upbeat song on stage. So 1,000%, from this record, I can’t wait to be going on tour and have those different songs that are a little more upbeat.

WATERHOUSE: There’s nothing better than having a bunch of new songs that you love so much and you feel like you’re putting together a show that’s like a whole level up, that you couldn’t have even dreamed of a year ago, you know?

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

OSLO, Norway (AP) — A beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation that it was a Russian spy, was not shot to death as claimed by animal rights groups but died of a bacterial infection, Norwegian police said Friday.

A final autopsy by Norway's Veterinary Institute “concludes that the probable cause of death was bacterial infection -- possibly as a result of a wound in the mouth from a stuck stick,” Amund Preede Revheim, head of the North Sea and Environment section of the police in south-western Norway said.

“There have been no findings from the autopsy that indicate that the whale has been shot,” he stressed, adding that the autopsy had been “made difficult by the fact that many of the whale’s organs were very rotten.” As there was no indication of foul play, there was no reason to start a criminal investigation into its death, Preede Revheim said.

The tame beluga, which was first spotted in 2019 not far from Russian waters with a harness reading “Equipment St. Petersburg,” had been nicknamed "Hvaldimir,” combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was found floating in a southern Norway bay on Aug. 31.

In September, animal advocate groups OneWhale and NOAH filed a police report saying that the animal’s wounds suggested it was intentionally killed.

They pointed at several wounds found on the animal’s skin, including what was interpreted as a bullet hole.

“Assessments made by the Veterinary Institute and the police’s forensic technicians are that these are not gunshot wounds. X-rays of the chest and head were carried out without any projectiles or other metal fragments being detected,” police said in a statement.

Earlier, police had described a stick about 35 centimeters (14 inches) long and 3 centimeters (1 inch) wide which was found wedged in the animal’s mouth, its stomach was empty and its organs had broken down, police said. No further details were given.

The 4.2-meter (14-foot) long and 1,225-kilogram (2,700-pound) whale was first spotted by fishermen not far from the Arctic town of Hammerfest.

Its harness, along with what appeared to be a mount for a small camera, led to media speculation that it was a “spy whale.” Experts say the Russian navy is known to have trained whales for military purposes. Media reports also have speculated that the whale might have been trained as a therapy animal.

There was no immediate reaction from OneWhale or NOAH.

FILE - In this photo taken in April 2019 a beluga whale found in Arctic Norway is fed. (Jorgen Ree Wiig, Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries via AP)