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the world – I question everything on a daily basis . I doubt everything all the time . But I think that ’ s just part of being human ,” she adds . “ I think everyone feels that way at times , if not all the time . And I think it ’ s part of what makes an artist . If you ’ re not questioning yourself and you ’ re just blindly going forward and going , “ I ’ m great ,’ then you ' re never going to grow . So you ’ re constantly pushing yourself to be better , and doubting yourself makes you grow as a human , and as an artist . In the band , the amount of times that we tell each other – and ourselves – that we suck is by the minute . Because it pushes you . It pushes you to be better .”
Ask Momsen about society ’ s current ills , and she ’ ll run down a daunting list , starting with the surprise election of Donald Trump . She fears that women ’ s rights will soon be under attack from his pending cabinet and Supreme Court choice , and she ( jokingly ?) mentions the possibility of relocating to a more forwardthinking country . She loves London . Paris is always nice , and Canada isn ’ t so bad , despite its frigid winters , she sighs . So we ’ re all ‘ living in the storm ,’ as the eerily prescient Mike Judge film Idiocracy comes true , minute by alarming minute . She thinks that “ South Park ” also taps into that angst , especially the xenophobic “ They took our jobs !” episode and the hilarious “ Guitar Hero ” send-up , when a dad plays Kansas on a real guitar for his video-gameobsessed kids and they just blankly stare at the device , with no concept of how to make real music .
What will The Pretty Reckless sound like on their next album , after two theoretical years of President Trump ? “ Oh , God ,” Momsen shudders , trying not to imagine it . “ But we already have a lot of material , so we ’ re trying to do it a little differently this time .” That ’ s probably the most important lesson she ’ s learned so far , actually . “ Going so long without recording any new music starts to wear on us , so we ’ re going to try and not do it that way this time around . We ’ ll maybe record a little bit , tour a little bit , record a little bit . Instead of that constant brutal tour cycle for two straight years , without creating anything new .”
But – as much as this still beau-less lone wolf enjoys being left to her own devices out in New England – she ’ s begun to realize that she does have a new family around her , one that backs her to the hilt and also needs her support . That ’ s right , she laughs , it ’ s her own band , The Pretty Reckless . She always swears she ’ s going to disappear , right after every tour or recording session . “ But then two days later , I ’ m calling our drummer , going , ‘ Hey , Jamie – you wanna hang out ?’,” she says . “ So it is very lucky and rare to find people that you get on with that well – people who are that musically compatible and personally compatible . We joke that we hate each other . But really , at the end of the day ? We ’ d die for each other .”
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