Continued from page 20
set in 2014, TPR was headlining its own
world tours. And Momsen was no longer
the wide-eyed naïf. Now she’s seen it all,
she says, visited all the countries, and gotten a much wider – and wiser – perspective
on the world. And she’s learned simple
techniques for surviving on tour – drink a
lot of water and get as much sleep as possible. “So I don’t know if I’ve necessarily
learned lessons, but as I’ve gotten older,
everything becomes a little more clearer,
you know?” she says. Still, she wasn’t prepared for the existential crisis that blindsided her after Hell’s extensive – and physically grueling – attendant global juggernaut.
Momsen returned to New York, then
her Batcave, totally spent, drained of all
creative energy. She reckons this happens
to a lot of artists, she says – once you com-
Phillips sat down to start writing, the
songs came quickly. “So it was probably
written in six or seven months,” she
recalls. “And I think the epiphany for me
was getting it all out in the songs – I was
expressing myself through our music, and
when you finish a song – and it’s good –
it’s the most elating feeling on the planet.”
Finishing Who You Selling For – finally getting every track down perfect in the studio
– also raised every band members flagging
spirits. Momsen believes that she phrased
everything for maximum emotional – and
socio-political – effect. Starting with the
consumerist-society-addressing title cut
itself, her claws are razor-sharp and out for
blood. What’s going wrong with the world
today? She thinks she nailed it.
The number opens on soft percussion
brushstrokes, gentle bluesy guitar chords,
and Momsen at her most folksy and
restrained on reflective words like, “In the
middle of a dream on the darkest night/
Woke up in a scream thought I’d lost my
sight.” The breezy “Bedroom Window”
follows, wherein she coldly, clinically
stares out her portal and murmur-notes “I
see the chaos that’s calling me…Is it all real
or just fantasy/ I have lost touch with what
Taylor Momsen
of The Pretty Reckless
photo by Taryn Decken
plete a huge project like a world tour cycle,
or even finishing an album or any big body
of work, you’re left with a giant hole in
your life. An abyss that often sucks you
over its edge and downward, until depression sets in and you begin questioning
everything. Her own self-doubt left her
with two huge queries – Who am I? she
asked herself, over and over again. And
What do I do now? She remembered a
quote from a famous musician, possibly
Clapton, she thinks. “He said, ‘When
you’re left with that artistic hole, you fill it
with drugs and alcohol,’” she relates. “But
I try not to do that – I try to fill it with more
art, but that’s not always easy. So when we
got off tour, we were all pretty beat, and
kind of at a low point.”
But this composer had something to
say, and she soon emerged from her slump,
reinvigorated. She wanted to track an
organic record with her band, sans any
gleaming overdubs, a gravelly rock and
roll magnum opus that unleashed all of her
pent-up lyrical fury. And once she and
26 illinoisentertainer.com december 2016
makes me human…It’s all too much for
me.” The more amped-up anthem “Livin
in the Storm” pushes the concept further,
with the vocalist growling, “They’re killing
brains in all of my friends/ When I look
inside of ‘em there’s nothing happening.”
Like Lady Gaga, Momsen has a gorgeous
bluesy-ballad voice, which can accelerate
to a high-decibel banshee wail in a heartbeat, as on the punk-propelled “Oh My
God,” when she explodes with “Wish I
was a normal human being…I am a victim
of my own self worth.” And she can sing
the blues like a retro purist, in down and
dirty dirges like “Already Dead” and
“Back to the River” (featuring Warren
Haynes).
And you can’t truly sing the blues
unless you’ve lived them, Momsen understands. Does she deal with extreme selfworth issues? She snorts. “Of course! I am
the most insecure person you’ve ever met
in your life. Everything worries me. I’m
constantly questioning myself, questioning
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