Taylor Momsen in Kerrang! Magazine: The Vinyl Countdown!

Total Guitar Magazine Interviews Taylor Momsen and Ben Philips!

LIVING RECKLESSLY

From LA riches to ‘Back iin Black’ rags: Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless risked it all for the love of rock ‘n’ roll. We dare you to judge them.

Words: Matt Parker / Photography: Rob Mark

We all know the drill: the bored Hollywood princess releases a record, because, well, she fancies herself as a singer and it lood good on the CV. Hilton – we’re looking at you. Once, we’d have forgiven you if that was your snap opinion of former Gossip  Girl actress and Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen, but frankly, in 2014 that argument sounds pretty ridiculous.

Three years on from quitting her TV meal ticket and going full-time with the band, Momsen has cut her touring teeth and then some – Building a sizeable and devoted fanbase the world over, with new album Going to Hell, crashing into the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic. Alongside talented lead guitarist Ben Philip and producer Kato Khandwala, Momsen and The Pretty Reckless have formed into a formidable force, and there are few who would now deny they’re in it for the long haul. We tracked down Taylor and Ben at the start of another long stint on the road to talk electrocution, ear-melting amplifers and Punishing Telecasters.

When did you first realise that you wanted to play guitar ?

Taylor Momsen: “I picked up the guitar when I was around five or six. I was playing piano before that, but all of the bands I liked played guitar, so I figured that would be a smart move.”

Ben Philips: “We have the same kind of story: both of our fathers had a nylon-string classic guitar thats was hanging around, and we both picked it up from there. There’s a very early video of Taylor playing a song that she wrote when she was about six or seven on a TV news spot.”

Who are the players or songwriter that you most admire ?

Ben: “I think when songwriters gel, it’s often because you have similar tastes, or your opposing tastes work well together, and in this case I think it’s very similar tastes…When Taylor came in it was all the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, Pink Floyd – anybody from the Renaissance period of rock was the mainstay; and then Taylor’s super Soundgarden fan, and Nirvana, so it’s an influence of those two eras of rock dominating in an important way.”

Taylor: “Then, I’ve watched every Oasis thing I can and I play Oasis songs, but I’m more of a singer/songwriter guitarplayer – I’m not a leadman [Like Noel Gallagher] by any stretch. I will often sit down and play on Oasis song front to back, through, so in that capacity absolutely [Noel's an influence].”

How would you describe your guitar style ?

Taylor: “Again, I’m just a singer/ songwriter guitar player. I’m a rhythm guitarist – Iv’ got the tambourine down ! It’s not really a style. It’s very basic for me. Whereas Ben is very much the lead guitar player. “

Ben: ” I don’t know how I’d describe it, either. We’re both “to-the-song” players. It’s whatever emotion teh song brings out. It’s bluesly or jazzy, or rock, or shred, whatever it calls for. If I’m involved in the song, I’m involved with the guitar. [Whereas Taylor] can kind of play everything but prefers the guitar – because guitar is obviously the collest instrument !”

Taylor: ” Yeah ”

Ben: “You can tell my drummer I said that.”

How did you evolve as players and writers on Going to Hell ? 

Taylor: “I think this record was definitely an evolution fo us as a band. We made the first record before we had toured as a live band, so we had to take the produced record and figure out how to strip it down as a four- piece, because we won’t play with (backing) tracks. When we did that, we really ended up honing in on a sound and I think this record, Going to Hell, is much more reflective of what we sound like as a band . “

Ben: “also I got really bored, touring for two and a half years playing, chordally, the same songs every night. So when we started writing the record I was conscious to make sure that there were riffs in there interesting enough that I would want to play them for a long time.”

Taylor: ” The idea is that it has to be good enough to last – that 10 or 20 years from now, I’ll still want to play this song.”

What are your main touring instruments ?

Taylor: ” It’s a specific fender Telecaster custom (with two DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers) called the Punisher – Because it got a big punisher sticker on it – and that’s what I play live. i have other guitars, but I’m always going back to that one. I also have a ’73 Strat, but I don’t like to bring it out on the road, because it’s nice ! Then at home, i play a Guild acoustic that I write on.”

Ben: ” I play Les Pauls live. I actually grew up playing stratocatsers, but I need to fill up some space, and you just can’t beat a Les Paul. We tried very hard to simulate it. I have a Telecaster on the road, where the back is full of lead to make it heavier and the pickups were wound specifically, but there’s just something about the Les Paul that gives it that ‘Thunk’ !”

 What amps and effects do you use ?

Ben: ” We play wizard amps, it’s Rick ST Pierre, who’s the ampbuilder for AC/DC (customing the Marshall stacks). “

source: TaylortheZombie

Taylor Momsen for Kerrang! Magazine (UK) – March 2014 Issue

     

source: CelebMafia

"Acting Was Just My Day Job": Taylor Momsen Talks New Pretty Reckless Album, Rock n' Roll Fashion!

Taylor Momsen is used to staring down adversity: The multi-talented singer/actress and her band, the hard-rock outfit The Pretty Reckless, had to scrap their entire first swing at their second album, Going to Hell (due on March 18th), after Hurricane Sandy tore through their recording studio. “We definitely had a few setbacks,” Momsen told ELLE.com when we rang her up on a recent afternoon. Fair enough. But still, no one can plan for laryngitis! In true Momsen fashion, the singer didn't bat a heavily mascaraed eyelash when she fell ill: After several days on vocal rest, not to mention four long years on the road and several in the studio, the 20-year-old former Gossip Girl star chatted with us about her band’s follow-up to their breakout 2010 debut, Light Me Up.

Taylor! We’re so glad you can actually speak now. We hear you had a nasty case of laryngitis and couldn’t talk for days. For a hard-rock chick who screams her lungs out on the regular, that must have proved a bit challenging, to say the least.

It’s the last thing I ever wanted. Playing live is why we write these songs. I’m getting closer to one hundred percent and can’t wait to get in front of the fans. I’m actually on my way to the airport now.

The new album has been wrought with many delays, gthe largest being your studio getting destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. How has this affected the album? Does it make it even more satisfying now that the album is complete?

After Sandy not only did we lose all of our gear but it took time to put the studio back together. Shortly after, suddenly we also lost our producer’s wife and good friend, Lisa. We are still recovering from that time. But from tragedy came two new songs, "Going to Hell" and "F**ked Up World," and we can’t wait for everyone to hear the record in its entirety. It really represents a moment in time in all of our lives.

I'm sure you are proud of every song on the new album. But are there any in particular that stand out as especially meaningful? And if so, take me inside the writing and recording process for them.

Picking my favorite song is like picking your favorite child. You just can’t. They’re all my favorite.

Fair enough. What was your life like while recording and writing this album? Did you have to shut everything else out in order to completely focus on the task at hand?

We had come off of touring Light Me Up for two-and-a-half years and it was awesome. I got back and shut the world out for a couple of months in order to come down, regroup and jump into the next record. I’m always writing, but this was the time that we really started to pick the songs for Going to Hell, and when I’m in that zone, I’m completely dedicated to it. I have to be alone to write so I took a few months and disappeared to write the record.

How did it feel when people responded so positively to your band and your music? I have to imagine there was a part of you that wondered if people would always think of you as an actor even though I know you’ve long been a musician.

Acting was my day job; music has always been in me. I grew up on my dad’s record collection and now I’ve been able to give back with our own vinyl. I just wanted to record music and play it live. Having people to play for makes it that much better. I really just make the music I want to make. If people like it or hate it, it's just me doing what I love.

Was it important to go full-out with music and ditch acting?

You got it. It didn’t feel like ditching at all; music is who I am. I met the guys that would become my band, Ben and I wrote songs we were proud of, we made a record, we went on tour. I’ll continue that for as long as I can.

You've been working since you were super young. Have you ever wished you could have lived a "normal" teenage life instead?

What is normal? I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing, I don't know any different so I can't really say.

What is a typical day like for Taylor Momsen?

The majority of my life is spent on the road so I wake up, usually take some time for press, head to sound check, play a set, meet the fans, hang with the band, go to sleep and get up to do it all over again. I love food and wine and also like to paint and sculpt when I have the time.

Fashion, it seems, has always played a large role in your life and career. When did you start getting especially interested in clothes and picking out your particular looks?

I’ve always felt that music and image were related. And therefore it’s always been a part of what I do. I experimented with different things when we toured Light Me Up. For the Going to Hell tour I started making my own stage clothes and that's been a really great way to express myself.

Before we let you go, what is your ideal onstage outfit?

Leather pants, a cross t-shirt from my collection, and boots or heels depending on my mood that night. I move around a ton, get down on the floor. I’ve gotta have functional stage clothes that are cool and represent my music.

Photos Courtesy of Razor & Tie

source: ELLE

Taylor Interviewed for "Fiasco" Magazine + Photoshoot!

The Pretty Reckless return this month with GOING TO HELL, their second studio album, after an extended period of touring and the title is, in part, a defiant sneer at the chain of events that ocurred during its making.

Taylor Momsen, 20, is she of the killer boots and peroxide mane, the raspy voice and provocative stage wear. But she’s also an uncompromising artist, devoted to the band she’s spent the last five years fronting and her ongoing development as a songwriter. Critics have often presented mixed views of The Pretty Reckless, some deriding them as “generic”, others eternally suspicious of Momsen’s graduation from actress to singer, but you can’t argue with the stats. Over a million combined singles and albums sold. Yeah, take that haters.

Little has changed with Momsen since first interviewing her several years ago. She’s as opinionated as ever though perhaps more careful with her words which are, today, spoken with the cracked, frail tones of one suffering with laryngitis. “I sound like a boy going through puberty,” she croaks with a wry smile.

The most obvious place start is ‘Going To Hell’, which closes a four year gap between full albums, and is the first new material since 2012.
It took a lot longer to record than we expected because we had a lot of tragedy occur during the recording of this record. We wrote the songs and had them ready to record and everything was great, then Hurricane Sandy came in and wiped out our studio so we lost of all of our gear and the studio and we had nowhere to go so that took time, rebuilding the studio. We finally got into the roll of things again then our producer’s wife passed very suddenly and unexpectedly and that stopped everything again because she was very much like a mother to the band. We’re still not over it at all and we wrote the song ‘Fuck The World’ after that. Then (after recording) there was the business side of things to sort out.

How did that kind of adversity alter making the album?
We wrote the song ‘Going To Hell’ after the hurricane so it’s affected some of the songs though the majority had been written before. The tragedy though has definitely added to the record.

Going To Hell is darker than Light Me Up, what was behind that shift in sound?
It wasn’t a conscious decision to do that, it was more touring Light Me Up for two years and we don’t play with tracks so we became a really tight unit as a band. So this record is much more reflective of what we sound like live and it’s much more mature. I wrote the first record when I was a 15 year old girl and now I’m a 20 year old woman so I think that the subject matter has moved forward. So it got heavier and darker but the songs dictated that, it wasn’t intentional.

Given that gap between albums and going through a time of experience and learning, do you look at your older material and feel, oh, definitely written by my 15 year old self.
No, no, I’m very proud of my work and we always write with the idea that you have to be able to song these songs 10-20 years from now and not be embarassed by them. So we have very high standards and keep raising the bar so it gets better and better.

The Pretty Reckless have toured relentlessly for a long time, how do you write material when you’re in that bubble you get into on the road?
Well, as a writer you’re always writing but the good stuff comes when you’re off the road because to write you really need privacy and be alone with your thoughts so none of the songs on this album were ones written on tour.

Have you been taking those live/travelling experiences and putting them into the record?
Yeah, after seeing the whole world with your own two eyes it definitely changes your perception of it and your perception of your own life and we talk a lot about that on this record – like in the way the world is stuffed, man, like we’re doing it really wrong! And no one is really talking about it so we did. No one communicates, the imbalance of power, violence.

Was there a fear that people might think, “like, what do you know about world injustice and what are you going to do, you’re in a band”?
I think if you don’t have something to say then don’t say anything. And we have something to say, that’s why I like writing songs, I have a voice and an opinion and you don’t have to agree with me but at the same time I don’t think anyone is going to argue with me that the world is pretty fucked up.

Can it be changed by people like yourself?
I certainly don’t have the answers but I hope to get people thinking and talking about it, you know, music, like pop music, is great for escape and it’s great to go to clubs and have fun but you’ve gotta have some depth in your life as well.

One of the things I’ve admired about you is that you’ve not budged an inch with your work despite the sweeping changes in music and trends. In a way by locking that out you’ve given yourself a freedom.
Oh yeah, we don’t follow trends or anything and we wrote this record with the intention of no boundaries at all. We’re not writing for anyone but ourselves and I hope it connects with people in some way. If I’m honest enough you should be able to relate to it in some way.

Although you have a strong fanbase does it disappoint you that everything seems to be being sucked down by the pop machine right now, at least on a mainstream level.
After the 90s and grunge scene, that was the last time that rock had a real impact and a movement on culture and people. Pop music always exists and it’s never going away but music is very cyclical and guitar needs to come back into the forefront so we’re hoping that rock will make a resurgence and that we’ll be a part of it.

Your parents are Catholics and growing up with that comes into your lyrics and the visuals in ways that push a few buttons. How do they feel about what you’re doing?
They’re very religious but they respect that I’m my own individual and I have my own views on things. I’m not against religion by any means but I have my own take on that. They respect me as an artist and they know I’m going to speak my mind. They’re very supportive, they understand that they have to allow me to make my art the way I’m going to make it and that I think for myself.

When I first met you you were very reluctant to talk about anything but music. Your personal life was strictly off limits.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s anyone’s business.

But as a musician you tend to write in a personal way. Where’s the line drawn then when it comes to sharing parts of yourself, even in a song?
The line is if it doesn’t have to do with the art then it’s none of your business. When it comes to anything about Taylor and behind closed doors it’s only my business. But if you listen to the songs long enough and hard enough, you could learn everything about me. It’s all right there, I’ve said everything about myself in the music so I don’t feel the need to repeat myself in an obvious way. There’s a way to do it, to keep your personal life private. I don’t want to be known for something that is irrelevant, I want to be known for something that I’ve created and am proud of.

Which song from Going To Hell would you tell fans “this is my baby, this means the most”?
Ah, they’re all my babies!! It’s like asking someone to pick a favourite kid. It’s impossible! (laughs)

I knew you’d say that, you have to pick one, I’m being bossy about this.
I am very fond of the song ‘Sweet Things’ but they’re all equally important. We have a lot of fun playing ‘Sweet Things’, the band really enjoys that live cos it’s really complicated and elaborate.

Interview by Taylor Glasby
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
Stylist: Aiden Connor
Stylist assistant: Larissa Besch
Make Up: Yuko Fredriksson and Lan Nguyen-Greali using MAC
Hair: Sami Knight using UNITE

(1 – dress: Vivienne Westwood. 2 – dress: Vivienne Westwood, shoes: Dr Martens. 3 – dress: Mark Fast, boots: Stella McCartney. 4 – leather bra: Dolce and Gabbana, skirt: Dioralop, jacket and shoes : Taylor’s own)

   

source: FIASCO

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New Magazine Photoshoot Pictures!

  

source: The Pretty Reckless Italia

Taylor on French Magazine "My Rock" (March Issue)!

 

  

New Magazine Photoshoot Pictures!!

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Taylor in 'Kerrang!' Magazine UK!

New Photos from Maxim Magazine USA (November 2013 Issue)

  

To read the interview and view more pictures, click here

Taylor Interviewed for Maxim Magazine USA (November 2013 Issue)

She may be only 20 years old, but Taylor Momsen, the ridiculously hot front woman of the Pretty Reckless, has already accomplished more than most of us lazy bums could imagine. She starred as Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, enjoyed a four-season stint on Gossip Girl, toured the world with Marilyn Manson, and was selected as the face of  Madonna's fashion line. Now with the release of her band's second album,  Going to Hell, and their current tour, she  clearly has her sights set on becoming a bona fide music star. Gentlemen, prepare to get rocked.

How was the shoot?

It went great! We shot at the Ace Hotel in  New York, and I brought my guitar. It has a rock n' roll vibe, which is a bit  different for Maxim.

Do you have a lot of input in your photo shoots and music videos?

I'm very involved in anything to do with creative, and I actually co-directed the video for "My Medicine". I like to blend music with image, and at  my age sexuality is a big part of that, so it seems fitting to me.

You started the Pretty Reckless while you were on Gossip Girl. Were you worried you wouldn't be taken seriously as a musician?

I've been making music since I can remember, and a  few years ago I got to a place where I have a band and could quit acting, that was my day job, I was 12 when I signed on to Gossip GIrl, and since then I've had two records, toured with Guns n' Roses... I mean, it feels like a different world.

Are your fans a weird mix of teenage girls and  heavy metal dudes?

It's definitely a combination. We have old rockers who've never heard of Gossip Girl as well as parents bringing their kids, and then going, 'Oh, just kidding. We're leaving'. We've literally had parents call the cops during our shows reporting that  it's inappropriate for their child.

Maybe they confused you with a different Taylor. What's the craziest thing that's happened on tour?

Most of the stories probably shouldn't get  printed! But somehow a tradition started where female fans jump on stage and strip down to our song "Goin' Down". I think is began in the States with girls taking their tops off, and by the time  we got to Argentina they just got fucking naked.

Your own outfits are pretty provocative.  What makes you feel the sexiest?

It's less about what I'm wearing and more about feeling powerful while performing. That gets my  blood flowing.

Are your parents ever in the audience?

Yeah, but I kind of put them in the back so I don't have to see them! It's hard to play in front of family, but they're very supportive.

Were you always into rock?

I just like good songs. My dad has a huge vinyl collection, so I grew up with the Beatles, Zeppelin, and the  Who. It's like they say: Once you listen to great  music, how can you listen to shitty music?

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