Today, gold-certified alternative pop artist carolesdaughter—a.k.a. Thea Taylor—returns with a new single and music video entitled “Target Practice” via Arista Records.
About the song and video, Thea commented, “I wrote ‘Target Practice’ as an anthem for the misfits. My mom always told me if you got made fun of in school, it meant you were going to do well in life—and this song is what I wish I could’ve said.”
The track’s soft acoustic guitar gives way to the hum of hard distortion as she asks, “Do you think I’m target practice? You’re not even on my axis!” She speaks directly to a generation of outsiders with clever lyrics like “So talk your shit and squash your bugs, while I read my books and do my drugs.” The accompanying music video collates Thea’s high school experience of being bullied at no less than five schools into a moment of empowerment. Inspired by the late ’90s and early 00’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer meets “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” she endures the malaise of class (complete with “How to Fit Into Society” scrawled on the blackboard) only to grab a black Fender Stratocaster and scream back over a power chord crunch in the gym—surrounded by goth cheerleaders, to boot.
carolesdaughter plans to hit the road with nothing, nowhere. this spring. The tour kicks off on April 21 at Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ, visits major markets coast-to-coast, and concludes at Irving Plaza in New York City on May 27. Check out the full confirmed itinerary below. Tickets are available for purchase here.
“Target Practice” arrives on the heels of “My Mother Wants Me Dead,” meanwhile, her breakthrough debut single “Violent” has amassed hundreds of millions of streams and is certified gold. It picked up plays at Radio 1 from Annie Mac, Mollie King’s ‘Best New Pop’ and Jack Saunders’ ‘Tune of the Week’. Plus further praise came from Sunday Times Culture, The Line of Best Fit, Wonderland, Spindle and an array of streaming highlights including the cover and #1 position in the notorious Misfits 2.0 playlist on Spotify.
Watch the music video for “Target Practice” BELOW:
The youngest of ten kids born to educator parents, she grew up south of Los Angeles and just north of San Diego in Oceanside, CA. The siblings shared a passion for music, singing together and teaching one another piano. The family’s strict Mormon faith precluded “listening to anything beyond what was on the radio” though. An outsider since birth, Thea shuffled in and out of middle school, spending seventh grade and eighth grade in home school. In the face of various trouble, trials, and tribulations, she eventually attended five different high schools before dropping out. Simultaneously, she developed a diverse musical palette. After seeing a tattoo of the iconic logo, she researched Black Flag online and unlocked the worlds of punk, hardcore, and goth. Her tastes spanned everything from E.L.O., The Doors, and The Carpenters to Christian Death, Crystal Castles, Rico Nasty, Jinjer, and Lil Peep.
Around the same time, she started doing drugs, falling down a rabbit hole and taking multiple trips to rehab. “The last time I went to rehab, I was there for six months, and I had a guitar. I wrote prolifically all the time. It clicked, ‘This is what I was meant to do’. I told myself I would record and release music when I got home.” She made good on this promise and uploaded “wish I wuz dead” to Soundcloud, gaining traction right out of the gate. She chose the name carolesdaughter in honour of her mom Carole.
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