THE PRETTY RECKLESS's TAYLOR MOMSEN On 'Dear God': 'From A Musical Standpoint, This Album Is Very Unproduced'

In a new interview with the 100.3 The Bear radio station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, THE PRETTY RECKLESS frontwoman Taylor Momsen spoke about the band's fifth studio album, "Dear God", which was released in June via Fearless Records. Speaking about her mindset while working on material for the LP, Taylor said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I went into this album writing it with the same, quote-unquote, process that I always do, which is I write songs... I write songs for myself, so I write songs for me in order to kind of process my life and process me, 'cause I have something in me that I need to express. It's a tool that I've used throughout my entire life and has served me very well. But when I got into the process of this record, it very quickly became apparent that there was a directness to this record that we've touched upon on previous albums, but not to this extent. There's a brutal honesty to this album that is not guised in metaphor. It is just simply laid bare for you all to hear, which I think creates a very, very special record. It's intimate and vulnerable, but it's aggressive and brutal and loud, and it kind of does all the things that I want it to do. And the way that I've been describing it is it just ... I don't quite know how to, so the way I've been saying it is it feels like me. This record feels like me and us in the most genuine way possible, where it almost feels like the first album again, where there's this purely inspired thing to it that we had on 'Light Me Up' where there's nothing manufactured about it. It just is. There's an effortlessness to it. So it has that kind of same energy, but from a much more grown-up and mature perspective. I've lived a lot of life, and it's all in there."

After the interviewer noted that its "gotta feel very freeing" as she and her bandmates go out and you get on stage and start performing these songs live and see interactions with fans who might be going through some of those same things she did, Taylor said: "Oh, it's beautiful. It really is. And from a musical standpoint, this album is very unproduced. It's very basic as to what we sound like, so to take it from the studio and translate it into the live setting has been very simple. It just is. So that in and of itself makes a very fun record to play live because it's just what we sound like. There's no affect to it. There's no pretense. There's no, 'How do we take this and strip it back to a three-piece band?' It just is. And so that kind of raw connection, I think, that we've created in the songs themselves is palpable, and it's felt between me and the audience. And to see their reaction every night of seeing which song is touching which person and that kind of intimate relationship that we have has just been a really beautiful experience so far, and we're having the best time on this tour."

Momsen also talked about the differences between the writing and recording process and taking the music on the road. She said: "To me, there's stages of things. I always look at the studio — the studio is for me. The writing of the record and the recording of the record, that's mine. And then once you've released the record, there's almost this... I always say there's a moment on release day of very real but brief sadness, where I'm going, 'I'm giving a piece of myself away. I'm giving this collection of songs and this thing that was just mine away to the world, and it no longer belongs to me. What it means to me and what I was writing about and my story and my everything, it doesn't exist anymore. It belongs to the audience.' And that's the point. And so when you get out on the road and you start playing these songs and you start seeing the reactions firsthand, there's this very beautiful thing that happens where the songs transform themselves into everyone else's story. And it's just a very cool feeling that kind of never gets old, and it's never redundant because it's different every single night. And it's just awesome. That kind of circle of music is so cool to witness firsthand."

Momsen once again produced "Dear God" herself with Jonathan Wyman and THE PRETTY RECKLESS guitarist Ben Phillips.

This past April, THE PRETTY RECKLESS released the single "Love Me", while previous single "When I Wake Up" entered at No. 10 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart, and the album's lead single, "For I Am Death", became THE PRETTY RECKLESS's eighth Mainstream Rock Radio No. 1.

THE PRETTY RECKLESS is bringing its stage performance to fans across the world with the all-new headlining "Dear God" tour. This trek follows THE PRETTY RECKLESS's two-year-long run of shows the globe alongside AC/DC on the "Power Up" tour.

THE PRETTY RECKLESS performed at the prestigious 2026 MusiCares Person Of The Year Gala, where Taylor honored the legendary Mariah Carey alongside the FOO FIGHTERS, and played at the 2025 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame where Taylor performed with SOUNDGARDEN for their induction. Additionally, the band released their holiday EP "Taylor Momsen's Pretty Reckless Christmas", which features the revamped "Where Are You Christmas?" — the lead single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.

Since THE PRETTY RECKLESS's debut "Light Me Up", they've earned global acclaim with hits including "Heaven Knows" and made history as the first female-fronted band to score eight No. 1 singles on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.

Image credit: Ben Wilson