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“I’ve done some fun collabs recently that will be good for my next era, but it’s like, I’m so small, no one’s going to fucking wanna be on my song. Slayyyter goes it alone on Troubled Paradise – why aren’t there any collaborations? “Um, I have social anxiety and I don’t like asking people to be on songs with me!” she says with a laugh. The music I was trying to make didn’t have any identity. I love pop music.’ I feel like there’s a way to incorporate (different genres) while still staying in your lane as an artist. After a while I was like, ‘Oh, fuck this.
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“I just wanted to do this really weird, indie-rock album that was like nothing I’d ever done before. I’d probably have lost all my fans,” she explains. “The idea and sound I was going for was meant to be this shoegaze, 90s, New Radicals-type project. The sound that Slayyyter had originally envisioned for the album is a million miles from the finished result. Being in that bad place, but moving on to paradise.” It’s shifted and started to get better as I’ve worked through stuff and grown, so I needed the album to reflect that. My life over the past few years was in such a scary, bad place.
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I wanted it to have a bit of an interlude and then open up into a more emotional space. “I wanted that first half of the album to be insanity. Moving from its angry opening salvos into big pop moments and ending on a softer note, the album goes through ever-shifting moods. “It helps being a fan of pop music because I feel like I know when things aren’t cool,” she says. Slayyyter’s affinity with pop radiates through her music, and it’s something that sets her apart from other artists. I started sticking to this (idea) that all the songs are either heroes or villains.” I was reading Dante’s Inferno, and there was this quote like, ‘The path to paradise begins in hell.’ So I was like, ‘Right, OK, the most hellish, angriest song on the record is “Self Destruct”. “Originally I wanted “Villain” to be the lead. “I feel like I have a good sensibility of what my favourite songs are in my own music,” she says. Slayyyter clearly knew which songs would define her next era. For Slayyyter, the bridge is one of her favourite moments on the album: “I didn’t actually realise how long and weird it was until people were like, ‘32 lines? Woah!’ and I was like… ‘I guess that is pretty long.’” The title track is the centrepiece of the album, a huge, synthy, power pop moment that is pure euphoria. Slayyyter’s mixtape was great, but Troubled Paradise is a step to a new level. I’m gonna save these for my debut album where it’s more my own sound.’” She was right to do so. “I was like, ‘Well, these don’t sound very Y2K. “When I was making my mixtape, we actually started the title track,” she says. Slayyyter elaborates on the process of how she created the Troubled Paradise era, and how it differed from her 2019 self-titled debut mixtape. It just really fit the music I was making.” One day I was a receptionist, the next day everything changed. I’m in this crazy world that I never realistically thought I’d end up in. “The whole ‘We’re not in Kansas any more’ (thing) felt so true. This is my music career.’” It’s easy to draw parallels between Dorothy getting swept away to a magical land and Slayyyter leaving St Louis for LA. “It’s always been one of my favourite movies since I was a kid, but this time I was like, ‘God, I relate to this so much. “In early 2020 I was watching The Wizard of Oz,” she explains. Our chat’s focus – her new album – has a shiny ode to The Wizard Of Oz as its artwork, with Slayyyter imagined as Dorothy Gale if the queen of Kansas somehow ended up in a sweaty gay club at 4am. One day I was a receptionist, the next day everything changed” – Slayyyter “‘Oh, she’s actually really ugly!’” she says. I just had to let you know, because I keep seeing myself on the screen and I’m like… this is messed up, I have to say something.” I tell her I’m absolutely judging her and can’t wait to tell everyone that Slayyyter has the messiest hair. I slept on wet hair last night and I promise I don’t look like this all the time. “My hair looks so fucking ridiculous today. When I jump on Zoom with Slayyyter, it feels like a rare glimpse of the ordinary girl behind the pop veneer – like seeing a drag queen out of drag, in the best way possible. She’s a MySpace-era superstar in the wrong decade – her sex appeal as infatuating as her musical prowess. Raised on a diet of Britney Spears and Heidi Montag, she’s a self-styled Y2K princess with a provocative grasp of X-rated lyrics and old-school pop star power. 24-year-old Catherine Slater was born in St Louis, Missouri, before moving to LA to pursue the pop star dream.