Music – «Death By Rock And Roll»: The musical testimony to a rebirth

Tragedies shaped the US rock band Pretty Reckless. Her fourth album “Death By Rock And Roll” documents her will to survive.

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Taylor Momsen is at the most lethal age for rock stars – Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse all died at 27. But the blonde-haired singer from The Pretty Reckless isn’t worried, not until her 28th birthday on July 26th to accomplish. Because she has left the nearness of death behind. “When I was 25, I wasn’t sure I would pack 27,” she says.

«My life hung by a thread. At that time I was terribly desperate and maximally sad. I couldn’t decide between the options of death or carrying on. “

In this darkest phase of her life, the singer wrote the emotionally gripping piece “25” with lines like “at 25 all hope has died”. To be able to write “25” in the midst of her desperation meant a huge leap forward for her.

“Death By Rock And Roll”, the fourth album by Momsen’s band The Pretty Reckless, founded in 2009, is more than anything else the musical testimony to a rebirth. You don’t hear the drama that the four musicians and especially Taylor were exposed to so clearly in the songs. Which is a bit to be regretted. “Death By Rock And Roll” is a loud, powerful rock record that hardly anyone makes these days. “We had to learn everything from scratch as a band,” says Momsen.

“That’s why this album has the same energy and tension for us as our debut. It’s almost a small miracle, without music I wouldn’t be here anymore. “

Momsen became famous as the leading actress in the teenage series “Gossip Girl”, but has left her acting career behind. She reports from Maine, where she owns a house. She actually lives in New York, but such a lockdown is far easier to sit out in Maine than in Manhattan. “I live by the water and have been in the ocean all summer. Now I watch the baby foxes, badgers and squirrels in the garden. ” Even a cute skunk is an occasional guest. Taylor Momsen has her life under control again.

But if you ask about the history of “Death By Rock And Roll”, the first The Pretty Reckless album in five years, you have to swallow as a listener. In May 2017 they played the last concert of their joint tour with Soundgarden in Detroit. “I hugged Chris (Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell) and woke up the next morning to the news that he had committed suicide that night. He was a one-of-a-kind person. I completely crawled into my grief, “says Taylor.

Pink Floyd and the Beatles saved their lives

Just as Taylor was slowly thawing again and planning for a new album began, regular producer Kato Khandwala was killed in a motorcycle accident. «Kato was my best friend. I didn’t know what to do anymore. I fell into a hole of depression and drugs. I lived isolated and enveloped in deepest sadness. I gave up and wasn’t sure whether I could or would ever leave this state again. ”

What did Taylor Momsen get out of the malaise? In addition to psychiatric therapy, music. “Pink Floyd and the Beatles saved me from dying and gradually brought me back to life,” she says. The songs then just flowed out of her. The fact that the band christened their album “Death By Rock And Roll” has no morbid or death-longing background. On the contrary.

«That was Katos and our battle cry. Our mantra. We’ll make rock music until we die. But until then we want to live. “

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