Pretty Reckless

One night several years ago, Taylor Momsen’s father took his daughter to a White Stripes show. “Before that, the only concert I’d been to was Britney Spears,” says the singer, songwriter, and guitarist. “But once I saw Jack White onstage, that was it. I grew up as a dancer and I thought you had to dance to be a girl in the music industry. Then I saw the White Stripes and I was like, ‘No, you don’t. I can do that.’” Momsen was nine.

Jack White’s raw power and deceptively simple guitar-and-vocal attack proved to be highly influential on the now 16-year-old Momsen, who began humming melodies before she could talk and writing songs at the age of five after falling in love with The Beatles. “I was obsessed with them,” she says. “I also loved Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, Audioslave, Soundgarden, Oasis, and Nirvana. That’s what I listened to. My rock idols are all men.”

So it’s not surprising that Momsen channeled a lot of masculine energy on LIGHT ME UP, her rock-and-roll-heroine-in-the-making debut album with her band The Pretty Reckless. The album’s ferocity could raise an eyebrow from those expecting a pretty, blonde teenager to gravitate toward straight-up pop songwriting. “It’s heavier than people might expect from me,” says Momsen, who is best known as the actress who plays Jenny Humphrey on The CW’s Gossip Girl. “But this album is the most honest expression of who I truly am.”

Momsen is a smart, emotionally complex young woman who has developed a strong identity despite growing up in the notoriously critical and fickle entertainment industry. Born and raised in St. Louis, MO, Taylor spent much of her time in NYC and at thirteen, she relocated to Manhattan. At two years old, Momsen signed to a modeling agency and a year later she began acting professionally appearing in commercials as well as films such as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. In 2007 Momsen was cast as a lead in the CW show Gossip Girl.

“I didn’t choose acting or modeling, I got thrown into it,” Momsen says. “I liked it, so that wasn’t a problem, but music and songwriting are what I’ve always really wanted to do. I’ve been working with producers and hanging out in recording studios since I was five, I just couldn’t put out an album when I was eight,” she says with a laugh. “Now I can.”

Sophomore album, Going to Hell, was released in March 2014 and follows the raw energy of LIGHT ME UP, featuring hit tracks “Follow Me Down” and “Burn”.