To celebrate New Zealand Music Month, The Courier has caught up with some of South Canterbury’s musical maestros to talk about their journeys and experiences with music. In this week’s edition, reporter Connor Haley talks with indie-folk musician Susan Be.
Q: Where did your love for music first start and who were some early inspirations?
A: The core of my early musical experience is centred around family, that bond between generations, passed on from my grandmother to my mother. Growing up in East Germany, where fear shaped daily life due to geopolitical tensions, music was one of the few refuges we had as a family — and sing we did.
There’s something about that I’ve never forgotten: within four walls, you could find a freedom that nothing else could give you. Being brought up in a strict military household, with my father a naval captain and my mother a teacher, music gave me a way to daydream and be creative. I would sit for hours with my guitar in my room. That’s still what I’m reaching for with my own songs.
Q: When did you start thinking music was a hobby or interest you wanted to pursue?
A: Music has never been a hobby. It has been the foundation upon which everything else was built. I studied musicology for a year at Humboldt University of Berlin, but another calling led me to complete a PhD in Social Sciences. While pursuing my research career and leading organisations, music remained the constant.
In my early 20s, I set the guitar aside entirely to spend two decades immersed in Northern Indian classical music on the violin. It is a completely different philosophy, a sound system built around improvisation and passed on primarily through listening. In 2019, I started seriously pursuing poetry and music. The two found each other naturally. Melodies began forming around the words, and I wanted to hear what my poems would sound like. That was the beginning of writing my own indie-folk songs.
Q: What are some fond memories of performing or writing music?
A: Some of my most meaningful musical memories happened far from any stage. For two and a-half years, separated by Covid, continents, and time zones, I sang to one person: my now-husband, JP Bell. We fell in love through poetry, anonymously, before ever seeing each other’s faces. Music became the bridge across that distance.
JP Bell, an abstract painter, poet and photographer, encouraged me to record my songs, and from that came my two albums, The Same No More (2020) and Home (2022). When I flew to New Zealand in 2022, we got married immediately the day after I arrived, and New Zealand has been my home and creative base ever since.
Two more albums and a handful of singles have followed since I got here. With our story of love found through art, across borders and during a pandemic, I suddenly found myself being interviewed by German newspapers, podcasts and television. We tell it gladly, because the world needs more evidence that love, trust and connection are still possible.
Q: When did you first perform live and how have you found the South Canterbury music scene?
A: Through JP’s encouragement and inspiration, I entered the music stage. It was here, in the South Canterbury music scene, that I first performed my music in front of an audience, and the warmth I received from fellow musicians and listeners was extraordinary.
Q: Do you feel there is support in South Canterbury for local musicians?
A: There is absolute support for local musicians, and I see that support growing year after year. I believe live music in a community is not a luxury. It is part of what makes a place alive.
Q: How important is it that people support local music and that local musicians are given a platform to perform?
A: I think supporting local musicians is incredibly important because music thrives through human connection. Behind every local artist is someone putting their heart, time and vulnerability into their work. Giving musicians a platform is not just about entertainment. It’s about nurturing creativity, preserving community spirit, and allowing authentic voices to be heard.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I am beginning what feels like the most exciting chapter yet. My new music is born in collaboration with JP, with each song named after one of his abstract paintings and drawn from the colours and energy he puts on to canvas.
The album is called The Good Earth, after one of his recent series, and will come out later this year. The first single from the project, Layers of the Land, was released on May 10, just in time for New Zealand Music Month.
This new direction brings everything together: my indiefolk voice, the ambient landscapes I’ve been building in my studio, and the improvisational spirit I absorbed from decades immersed in Indian classical music. I record and produce everything myself, which gives me the freedom to experiment and follow a sound wherever it leads. That is exactly what music has always meant to me.
