Gossip Girl Taylor Momsen has taken the rock and roll world by storm with her band The Pretty Reckless. The band’s 2010 debut album Light Me Up was pretty much critically acclaimed and the band has been touring extensively, including an opening slot on Evanescence‘s recent tour.

Now, the band is back with a five-track EP entitled Hit Me Like A Man (iTunes). In anticipation of this release, BD Music caught up with singer Taylor Momsen to discuss the current state of things with the band as well as Taylor’s opinion on how women are seen in the rock and roll world. Check below for this exclusive interview!

Bloody-Disgusting: How are you doing?

Taylor Momsen: I’m doing very well, thank you!

BD: Tell me about the ‘Hit Me Like A Man EP’. Why release an EP instead of wait for a traditional full release?

TM: We’ve been touring ‘Light Me Up’ for almost two years now, so we wanted give fans a taste of where the new record is going, the direction. And it was for us! We’re excited to play these songs. 

BD: There is a lot of touring in your future, including trips to South America. What other places would you like to visit and tour?

TM: Well, Australia was one of the big ones that I wanted and we just got back from Sydney. It was awesome. Everyone says Australia is one of their favorite places to tour and now I see why. It’s beautiful!

And we’re definitely excited about South America but, right now, I’m just so excited to be back in America. I’m excited to be on a tour bus for three months and not have to fly everywhere. I’m not a fan, I really don’t like flying [laughs]. I get very nervous flying. Plus, we’re going to be touring with Marilyn Manson! How cool is that?!

BD: I honestly think you’re the first musician I’ve spoken to who is excited about being in a bus for three months!

TM: [laughs] I love touring! I love the road and to not have to fly to every city? Australia was a lot of fun but it was a lot of flying. From Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide, Adelaide to Perth. It’s a lot of planes. And then there’s the customs. It’s just such a joy to not have to wake up and pack everything in the morning and have to deal with that.

BD: About seven months ago, you told Elle magazine that you quit acting to focus on music. How do you feel about that decision and where you are at now?

TM: I can say I haven’t had any second thoughts. I live for it. I love writing songs and I love playing every night and recording. To be able to just focus on that and have all my attention on that is just amazing. 

BD: Rock is generally seen as a male dominated genre. But throughout rock history, women have proven their strength and intensity from Joan Jett to Wendy O to Amy Lee and more. What do you feel about the state of women in rock?

TM: I don’t really like to look at it like that. I like rock and roll these days, whether it’s female or male fronted. I mean, most of the people I look up to are men, like Robert Plant or The Beatles. I just feel that there isn’t a lot of rock coming out so I listen to it all and don’t really think about that.

BD: Another example of the male dominance of rock is the constant need to sexualize women who enter the genre. There was the ‘hottest chicks of metal tour’, there are countless hottest girls in rock, etc… but not really anything of the sort for men. What do you think it would take to get women to the point where their music speaks greater volumes than their appearance?

TM: Image is always going to be a part of music. Yes, there are women who are clearly sexualized but look at Led Zeppelin! Sexual icons as men! So, I think that they can go hand in hand as long as the image doesn’t overtake the music. I think that’s the biggest struggle, that the music should come first. But you can’t hide your image either. 

BD: Taylor, thanks so much for your time and I wish you the best of luck!

TM: Thank you! Thank you so much!

source: bloody-disgusting.com

Before the models hit the catwalk at the Marchesa fall-winter 2012 show at New York’s Fashion Week last month, heads were turning: Who was the dignified young blonde in a posh black lace evening dress, there at the invite of designer Georgina Chapman and hanging with Stacy Keibler, Bar Refaeli and Petra Nemcova?

It was 18-year-old rocker and ex-“Gossip Girl” actress Taylor Momsen, more typically seen in Gothic attire: black leather jackets, microminis, thigh-high fishnets and 5-inch platform heels.

The blogosphere went wild over how The Pretty Reckless front-vixen cleaned up.

Momsen — who is visiting The City with her band today, backing their new EP “Hit Me Like a Man” — doesn’t understand the fuss.

“I’m a giant Marchesa fan, and Georgina is one of the sweetest people on the planet, and so talented,” she says. “I missed her show last year because I was on tour, but I was actually in New York this year and finally able to make it. And as we speak, I’m trying on clothes for a taping of the TV show ‘Fashion Police’ tomorrow. I’m getting interviewed by Joan f—— Rivers, so I’m really excited!”

Momsen, known for her charming childhood role as Cindy Lou Who in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” is growing up fast.

Her raccoon-mascaraed visage already has been the face of U.K. chain New Look, plus Madonna and her daughter Lourdes’ new Material Girl clothing line.

“That was definitely a shocking phone call to get — I mean, it’s Madonna!” she says of the unexpected offer. “She’s an icon, and one of the originators of controversy, so I have the utmost respect for her. And Lourdes has a great sense of fashion and style, so we put the looks together ourselves for those shoots.”

The thespian says she’s finished with stage and screen, though. She left “Gossip Girl” and gave up acting entirely.

“I’ve been doing it since I was 2, and it wasn’t something that I chose,” Momsen says. “So it was a great ride, but writing and touring and music are my world now.” The performer, who will head out as an apt opening act for Marilyn Manson  this year, is courting controversy with “Hit Me Like a Man,” and the line “Hit me like a man/ Love me like a woman.”

She says, “I like the music to speak for itself and let people interpret it however they want. And I tend not to speak of my personal life, so what it means to me is no one’s f—— business!”

Source: sfexaminer.com

Taylor Momsen’s life as the lead singer of The Pretty Reckless is far too chaotic to allow for luxuries such as free time. She juggled a phone interview with College Times while trying to find quarters in her purse to do some last-minute laundry.

Momsen was only a few hours away from boarding a flight to Australia, where her band was set to perform for the first time there. Upon their return, she and her band will jump straight back into their next headlining tour.

Momsen, a child actress who was previously best known for her role as Jenny Humphrey in the CW Television Network’s “Gossip Girl,” was quick to shed her preppy school girl character. With The Pretty Reckless, she’s now known for fronting a rock band and sporting heavy eye makeup and grungy lingerie as she commands the stage.

The band’s first album, Light Me Up, was released in fall 2010. The band has been on tour ever since.

“It can definitely get tiring at times, and you get homesick,” Momsen said. “But overall I love playing every night and being able to do that every night and not stop is amazing.”

She mentions as she shuffles through her purse that packing and getting everything ready to actually get going is the hardest part of touring, adding that once she’s on the road, she never wants to leave. While most 18 year olds are dealing with school and planning their spring breaks, Momsen is traveling the world with her band members and crew.

“We’ve been touring together for almost three years and it’s very much a family – everyone on the bus, even our driver,” she said. “It’s like going on the road with an extended makeshift family.”

The Pretty Reckless has opened for some big name acts, including Evanescence and Guns N’ Roses.

“It was a great honor and privilege to be able play and open for great bands,” she said. “It’s really exciting to be able to watch those bands every night and learn things from them and steal things from them. That’s a really great blessing.”

In April she will be touring with Marilyn Mason – a treat for Momsen, who said she’s been a “huge fan forever.”

These days, Momsen doesn’t seem to follow teenage girl trends when it comes to music. She still enjoys listening to The Beatles and anything with Chris Cornell.

Momsen sings like someone beyond her years and surely acts much older. But she was still fairly young when she wrote the songs for Light Me Up. She credits growing up as one of the biggest differences on The Pretty Reckless’ new EP,Hit Me Like A Man.

“It’s very exciting and [we have] new songs and some live tracks we’re going to be playing on this tour to give the fans a taste of what’s to come,” she said.

However, she doesn’t have much to say about her new songs.

“I don’t like to talk about the music that much because I like to let it speak for itself and let people make their own judgments of it, but I think the biggest difference is that it’s grown,” she said. “My opinion of what is good has changed.”

Momsen said that after touring with so many great bands and watching them nightly, her standards are high and she has raised the bar for herself when it comes to writing songs.

“I’m older and that alone – and my experiences over the past couple of years – I think it’s reflected in the music,” she said.

When she’s not touring and not recording music, Momsen is still probably working. Days off are unheard of.

“I’m literally talking to you and last minute packing, and it’s like this pretty much all the time,” she said.

She did manage to sneak a visit into New York Fashion Week, but Momsen said she doesn’t have a style or any kind of aesthetic.

“I don’t really know,” she said. “Whatever’s clean that morning that’s what I’ll end up wearing. Literally.”

Her vague careless-yet-so-cool attitude extends to what she hopes her fans will feel about her new EP.

“I want them to feel whatever it makes them feel,” she said. “If it makes them feel anything, I’m happy.”

source: ecollegetimes.com

Gossip Girl star Connor Paolo has his fellow cast member’s back.

Speaking to TV Line, the actor who plays Eric delivered a message for critics of his embattled co-star and on-screen sort-of-sibling, Taylor Momsen: Just back off!

“She’s 17 years-old,” Connor said. “I don’t think anyone has the right to say anything negative, being that she – as mature and self-possessed as she is – is still young.”

“It’s not fair. No one has a right to attack someone of that age.”

Read more of what Connor has to say about Taylor and how much he misses her over at TV Fantaic

Strutting across a field at the V Festival in Essex, she’s dressed in ‘stripper chic’. And with her super-long hair extensions, she looks like she’s channelling a cross between Courtney Love and Daryl Hannah in Splash. Here to perform with her band The Pretty Reckless, she’s sporting seriously heavy black kohl eyes and her favourite thigh-skimming studded vintage corset customised by a friend’s label, Sex Trash. Despite the mud, she’s wearing her trademark 3-inch stripper shoes with a slot in the see-through platforms where she stores paper money from countries she’s recently toured. ‘It’s useful for emergencies,’ she jokes, with a curl of her mouth which passes for a smile.

Continue reading the article here

The 17-year-old actress shot to fame playing edgy teenager Jenny Humphrey in US series Gossip Girl. She is also the lead singer of rock band The Pretty Reckless, and has become renowned for her skimpy outfits.

Taylor describes her style as “stripper chic”, and is rarely seen without her long blonde hair extensions, thick black eyeliner, thigh high stockings and eight-inch heels. Despite her extroverted style and public persona, Taylor insists she was an outcast at school, with no friends or confidence.

“I haven’t lived a normal life and even though I did go to school I was in and out. I had like, two friends growing up, but now my band is like my family,” she told British newspaper The Daily Mirror.

read the rest of the article here

SPIN magazine’s got some behind the scenes stuff for their upcoming article about Taylor and The Pretty Reckless on their website.

When asked about the basis for these suggestive lyrics, the otherwise chatty Momsen chooses her words carefully.

“I’m not really sure how to answer properly yet,” she admits. “I’ve had a lot of bad experiences, and whether that’s from sex or drugs or something else, they are adult experiences that would f— anyone up.”

Read the article and view the pictures here!

When the time seemed optimum to launch a music career Momsen went hunting for a team. And hey, if you were a serious 16-year-old musician which would you choose — some kids from a local garage, or solid, talented vets? — Smart out of the gate that one.

Read the rest of the article here