While in line to enter Slayyyter’s WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA album release party in Brooklyn, I overheard a conversation between three out-of-towners. The trio stumbled onto 9 Bob Note, the gay club hosting the event, but they didn't have tickets. Nor had they heard of Slayyyter. Deciding whether to spend the exorbitant price for tickets at the door (...$50?!), they did a quick search on who this Slayyyter-with-three-Y’s is.

One looked through the tracklist for the new album (“It literally says Cannibalism…"). Another glanced at the humanoid rabbit haunting the entrance of the club, a repeat character in Slayyyter’s recent music videos. “We’re in New York. The night is young. Let’s go back to Manhattan,” she decided. And so, they called an Uber X and made their way back to, in my mind, Midtown West. 

Slayyyter is not for the faint of heart. The star prioritizes her hypersexual lyrics and earbud-bursting production over any radio-friendly palatability (see: "Purr," "Throatzilla"). Though she often receives comparisons to Lady Gaga or Charli xcx, Slayyyter has always been raunchier and messier than her gay guy music video night peers. That's been for the best.

Her charm comes from constraints — building an outsized persona on a budget through scrappy visuals and a razor sharp eye for aesthetics. 

Slayyyter's third album, WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, is her first to be released via Columbia Records. Still, there’s no major label gloss here. WOR$T GIRL is grimy and harsh. Her vocals snarl as she pivots between cheeky one-liners and self-reflection. WOR$T GIRL gives weight to the moments when wants (for sex, money, bitches, per lead single “BEAT UP CHANEL$”) become needs. It’s her loudest, most honest, and best record yet.

I chatted with the star about getting the perfect scream, boring pop tropes, and more. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Andy Steiner @ TND: I love the vocals on this album. Tell me about how you approached your vocals and screams. 

Slayyyter: I was playing around with things that my voice can do in a different way around this project. In the past, I hadn't really experimented too much with different vocal styles or inflections. I actually started screaming during my live show when I would do “Daddy AF" or another older song, and I just loved the way it felt. I was like, “God — I want to make crazy, brash, electro, punk music. I want to scream."

So we leaned into that in the studio. Distortion became the holy grail, the saving grace for every song. Without fail, every time we would go to record, I'd be like, “Put distortion on it. Can you put distortion on it?” I feel like every song has that tough, grating, and crunchy element to it, which I personally really like. I love very loud, grating sounds in music. 

You and me both. “YES GODDD" is so satisfyingly loud and blown out. The screams on it are awesome. What were you feeling to get those screams out? 

I don't even remember. Fuck, I actually think I watched a tutorial on how to scream without hurting your voice. I was letting all this pent up angst and frustration out into a lot of these songs. I keep saying, there's this delayed teenage angst on this project. I'm really angry on a lot of things. I had to get it out of my system. It was very therapeutic to scream and like, get over it.

Why did this project bring out that angst? There's some Starfucker songs that go pretty hard, but it feels different with this album.

I got to a point of making music where I wasn't afraid to try things that didn't seem so pop leaning, you know? In my day-to-day, I don't really listen to dance pop music or pop stars. I'll listen to old Lady Gaga, but I was listening to a lot of older music, punk music, shit with screaming on it, old electronic, electroclash, electropunk. I was influenced by everything I was consuming, and being pissed off. I’m always pissed off about something, honestly.

It's surprising to hear you say you don't listen to a ton of pop stars. I feel like your reputation is how well-read and aware you are of what it means to be a pop star.

I mean, in ways, yes. But I also feel like I'm a bit of the anti [pop star]. I don't really walk and talk and brush my hair in the way that I think a good pop star would be expected to. I've always felt this trashy St. Louis outsider. I don't feel very cookie cutter with the way that I am.

But I do love pop music. In my personal day-to-day — unless it's old, famous Britney or Madonna or The Fame by Lady Gaga — I don't really listen to pop. I keep my finger on the pulse of what's out right now, but I don't necessarily listen to it. I listen to new artists, but I like finding new bands or new rappers. I try to keep the pop separated because I think my music is taking a turn that's a little less leaning on that.

Totally. Do you ever feel pigeonholed by the expectation of what it means to be a pop girl, especially now? 

Definitely. I think it can get tiring. And I don't really like using the same formula that's expected or that other people use. It's funny because I do have a music video that has choreography, the “DANCE…” video. But I made it very clear at the beginning, I was like, “I don't want to do the choreo thing. I don't want to do fancy designer fashion and I don't want to look a certain way.”

It's interesting because I've noticed that fans really relate to the sort of outsider's insider impulse in pop music. It has to really come from you.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I feel like that's the only way to approach pop these days because the formula has been hammered into the ground, beating the dead horse at this point. Bringing something new or influences that are new or screaming or punk music or metal or whatever it is, it keeps it alive rather than having everything feel so copy-paste or like a parody of someone big from the past or something. 

What pop formula are you most against? What feels the least Slayyyter to you? 

I wouldn't say I'm anti anything. I'm really stubborn about the creative process, and I'm really stubborn about the making of my music. I don't really like pitch songs anymore. That's something I would do when I was younger. If someone had a song where it’s like, “Oh we wrote this song for you,” I’d be like, “Oh, cool.” I don't really like that. I don't use a lot of songwriters. Every once in a while, I'll do a session with a songwriter. But this album was pretty much me and producers, every single session. I find the formula of putting my creative visual identity and music into someone else's hands… that freaks me out. Sometimes, that works for an artist. There’s great artists from the ‘90s where it's like, they never wrote a single song. But they're still iconic and a star in their own right. Everyone's different. I personally need to be really involved on every aspect, every front. 

Would you ever write for other artists? Is that something you've done before? 

I would love to. That's something I'd love to explore at some point this year. I feel like I write in a way that's so distinctively me that I would need to work on bringing it into someone else's world and not using my own lingo and terminology. But yeah. I would love to do that.

If you could choose an artist that you would want to write for, who would you choose? 

Maybe a girl group? I think that could be cool. I grew up loving Destiny's Child, so I love intricate harmonies and stuff like that. I feel like a girl group would be fun to write for because you can play around with more than one voice and more than one register and tone.

What felt different or better this time around in the studio?

I think it was maybe my “over it-ness.” I don't even know what word I would use for it. I was over it in this industry. It led me to want to go crazy in the studio and not be like, “Oh, today we have to make a pop song,” or “Today we have to make a dance-pop song that’s like Confessions Madonna and four-on-the-floor.” This time around, it felt a lot better because I was so at the end of my road with my career. I was just like, “You know what? This shit’s not for me. It’s not working. I’m just gonna make this project and be done.”

And that was such a freeing place to create from. No commercial expectations, no trying to make something that sounds like a hit. I was independent at the time, so there was no label to show things to or to appease anyone. Every creative decision came from a very pure place.

It’s super interesting that you were independent when you made this, but then you ended up signing to release it. Why did that feel right? 

I feel like in early conversations with [the label], I explained my vision for this album. I kept saying, “I want to be ugly. I want to look really ugly for all the visuals.” And everyone was like, “Okay! Sure. What does that mean?”

I kept hammering in that this is an ode to my teen years. It’s trashy, it’s St. Louis. I didn’t want to follow current trends or do things in the way that people are doing them. Even in early meetings, I was talking about how I wanted to self-direct some of the videos, and I want to be involved in the creative. From the first moment I met everyone at Columbia, everyone was on the same page. It felt nice to not feel like I'd have to compromise the vision or the music. They had trust in me and trust in the vision and trust in the music. I wanted to do a proper rollout for this album. I wanted to give it a proper platform and visuals. So it felt like a no-brainer. They’ve been amazing. It's been a really good relationship with everybody there.

Did you feel – from other people, from fans online or from yourself – that this had to be the moment? 

Not really. We kept it pretty secret that I had signed well into releasing some of the singles. It wasn’t until I put out “BEAT UP CHANEL$” that fans were looking at the credits and figuring it out. We kept it under wraps. I feel like I put a little pressure on myself because I was like, “Oh my god. I don't want to let anyone down that’s putting trust, effort, and work into my project.” Once you involve more people, it’s a team effort. I put my own insecurities on myself where I'm like, “Oh fuck. I don't want to let anyone down. I don't want to flop and let these people down.” Everyone let the rollout unfold as it needed to. We tackled it visual by visual. It all made sense.

Your relationship with your fans is so interesting to me, especially because there's this shared sense of being in on it, and what it means to be a pop star. What's your current relationship with your fans like?

It's been super positive. I don't think every artist might feel this way, and that's okay – I might be chronically online that I feel this way – but I feel like me and my fans have this very parasocial thing with each other. I don't know them, they don't really know me. But I really don't consider it to be this musician barrier. I don't even like the word "fan." It makes me uncomfortable. There should be no separation between me and the people who listen to my music or support me.

Some of them are young too, and I'm just like, “God I was just like you. I was online and loving pop music and tweeting at pop stars.” I feel like I'm so much like them. I just feel very close to a lot of them. Even when they poke a little fun at me, I can always take the piss. It’s funny, I always say that it’s parasocial on my end. I'm more parasocial with them than they are with me.

Do you feel like you have to balance your instincts as a pop fan with your own artistic creative impulses?

I feel like the choices that I make are always like, "Would I love this if I was younger and scrolling on Tumblr?" That's not the guiding force that makes every decision, but as a fan, it makes me think about releasing it differently. I love pop music so much, but I’ve been getting such fatigue with perfectly mixed, good-sounding, electronic pop music. That's what led me to make this crunchy, bass-boosted album. I feel like every song is clipping, and the mixing is intentionally meant to hurt your ears a little bit. My own consumption of pop leads me into the direction of what I make and how I roll things out: getting bored with the pop that I see, so I make something that feels crazier and more like me.

WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA is out now.