Until a few years ago, Slayyyter believed that luxury items were symbols of desirable status and style, and he believed it so much that he bought a designer bag that he couldn't afford. “It practically destroyed itself within a month,” he says. I meet her in the offices of Rolling Stone in New York. She wears torn denim shorts and fake-worn custom boots like Kate Moss at Glastonbury 2005. It's her idea of style today and it's a rougher aesthetic, with hair that isn't always combed, second-hand and, when necessary, self-created clothes that are perfect for the spirit of Wor$t Girl in Americahis third album released in March.
«I have never been one of those beautiful and chic pop stars. By making this music I accepted being ugly and dirty.” Wor$t Girl in America it's a departure from the Hollywood glamor of Starfucker three years ago. In hindsight, that record resembles the very expensive bag she bought and immediately got ruined. Slayyyter thought the public would believe his satirical fantasy of fame, but the illusion didn't last long. The money invested in the tours never came back and she wasn't even having fun.
Slayyyter got his first taste of pop success in 2019, when he released his debut mixtape featuring underground pop hits like Mines And Daddy AF. Growing up in Missouri, as a teenager she spent time on Tumblr and watched from afar the online rise of Marina and the Diamonds, Lana Del Rey or Tyler, the Creator. When she saw that something like this was happening to her, she decided she wanted more, more and more and after moving to Los Angeles people filled her head with great promises of her sure and imminent mainstream success.
Success that did not come after the 2021 debut Troubled Paradise and not even afterwards Starfuckerso much so that Slayyyter thought about giving up everything. She was convinced that people thought of her as cringe. Wor$t Girl in America it was therefore supposed to be his farewell to the stage. «While I was working on the album I was depressed, I felt finished. I said to myself: I'll make one last album that I'm proud of and that's fine if, as is likely, it doesn't go anywhere just like the others.”
Photo: Richie Shazam for Rolling Stone US
He could very well imagine a future without music and had actually thought about attending a course to turn his passion for fashion into a job, but his life would not have been anywhere near as electrifying as the one he is experiencing today. “Now everything is different.”
Things started to change around April, when she performed at Coachella. Thousands of people saw her at the Mojave Tent two weekends in a row. «It's like I had a blackout during that performance. I got off the stage and hugged my friend Anna, crying. I had the feeling that I had made it.”
It was his first performance with a live band. He only made pieces taken from Wor$t Girl in America to underline the beginning of a new phase, but if it is here it is also thanks to the lessons learned from the two previous works. «Those songs were the building blocks needed to build my sound and it took me a long time to do so». Now Slayyyter is working on new music in the wake of the attention she has also received from those who have started following her because everyone does it. “I want you to be like me on the inside.”
Slayyyter wanted that Wor$t Girl in America represented not only the artist she has been for the past eight years, but also Catherine Grace Garner, the person behind the pop star. “At first Slayyyter was kind of a fictional character because I didn't feel confident enough to be myself.” This time however «I didn't feel the need to create a character. I really am this person.”
When she arrives for the interview and photo shoot she introduces herself to everyone as Grace. At the beginning of her career, even the idea of people trying to find out her real name made her uncomfortable. At the time she would have been shocked by what she exposed herself to Wor$t Girl in America. «A lot of this album comes from feeling like the girl who is “too much” at a party, or from not feeling part of a group».
Photo: Richie Shazam for Rolling Stone US
In Missouri his favorite pastime was drinking with skater friends at “parties that were all trash, cigarettes and chaos.” As he approached 30 he started to stay at home a little more. The evening before the interview he made his debut at Tonight Show and celebrated for a few hours. «I've become very good at regulating myself. When you've been depressed or faced problems it's easy to fall into traps where alcohol or going out becomes a way to anesthetize you.” At the beginning of his career, Slayyyter felt that “people underestimated my abilities, my talent or my taste.” She then realized that “you shouldn't take ten shots and act crazy” in front of people who would like to be taken seriously.
She's also learned to accept comparisons to other pop stars like Chappell Roan, also from the Midwest, and Charli XCX, who gave her a boost by putting her songs on the playlist The Motherfucking Future. «It's natural that people need to make comparisons to frame something new. Chappell's first Coachella was a turning point, it seems like a similar trajectory, a slow accumulation of things over an eight-year career and then boom moments like these, but I'm me.”
In the videos he directed for Wor$t Girl in America Slayyyter uses body horror to dismantle the social and aesthetic standards imposed on women, especially in pop. She is passionate about scary films (“I saw The Substance six times at the cinema, I'm not exaggerating”) and she likes images that “make you feel uncomfortable or that make you think you shouldn't watch them” like the infamous Prodigy video Smack My Bitch Up.
She says she's been influenced by so many things, including a famous photo of Rihanna rolling a joint over her bodyguard's head at Coachella in 2012. “That one went triple platinum on Tumblr, it should hang in the Louvre.” When she returned to Tumblr in 2024, she remembered why she loved it so much as a teenager. “It wasn't a question of luxury.” And not even fame. “Being famous doesn't interest me.”
But maybe he can't avoid it. A quiet life in Missouri doesn't seem to be part of his plans, at least for now. Life in the spotlight is calling her.
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Photographic assistance: Austin Dewitt
Lighting: Chris Morel
Production assistance: Niara Knox & Lisa Gudmundsdottir
From Rolling Stone US.
