MISS BELLADONNA: Slayyyter and The Road to 'STARFUCKER'.

From aspiring pop star to cult gay icon, this is the story of the Internet's pop princess.

Slayyyter as she appears in the press release photos for STARFUCKER. [FADER Label / Photo by Callum Walker Hutchinson]

American singer-songwriter and rising pop icon Slayyyter is arguably the face of the underground pop music scene and helped pioneer the Y2K revivalist movement within the hyper pop sphere alongside her mentor, American singer-songwriter and producer Ayesha Erotica, but before becoming the fascination of gays everywhere, she was a smalltown girl with big dreams of becoming a star, and with the recent release of her outstanding sophomore record, STARFUCKER, I’d like to take you with me as we delve deeper into her rise to fame in order to contextualize the beauty of her success. This is the story of Slayyyter.

Hailing from Kirkwood, Missouri — a small suburb located just outside of St. Louis — Catherine Grace Garner grew up idolizing the great pop legends of the past like Madonna and Janet Jackson, but in her early teen years, she became particularly enamored with MySpace-era divas like Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag as well as big names like Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, and the style of these artists would greatly inform that of the music that she would go on to make.

Slayyyter first began releasing music in 2017, posting a handful of demos via SoundCloud under the name “SLATER” while attending the University of Missouri before dropping out to focus on music full-time. Her early output consisted of experimental synthwave and lo-fi tracks that she curated and edited herself. Some of these songs would later be reworked for her future projects, most notably the fan favorite “Swimming Pool” (intended for release on her debut mixtape before being scrapped) and the horror-inspired “Serial Killer” (which saw an official release on her debut album), while others like the ethereal “U” and the cinematic “Fallen Angel” would remain unreleased until they were leaked by Slayyyter herself in late 2018.

The cover of Slayyyter’s self-titled debut mixtape. [Slayyyter / Photo by Jason Omar Al-Taan]

Around mid-2018, Slayyyter met Ayesha Erotica through Twitter, who by that time had amassed a massive cult following online and became renowned within the budding underground pop music scene for her skills as a producer and vocalist. Unfortunately, Erotica’s career would come to a grinding halt later that year when she suddenly retired from releasing music following a personal dispute, scrapping her then-upcoming third studio album, horny 4 u, and largely disappearing from the public eye (although she would continue writing and producing for other artists before staging her official comeback this past Summer).

In August 2018, a few months prior to Erotica’s retirement, she and Slayyyter released “BFF” — Slayyyter’s official debut single and the lead single from her self-titled debut mixtape, which arrived in September 2019 following a slew of singles with now-iconic cover art designed by British graphic designer and visual artist Glitchmood. A few of these tracks were re-recordings of songs from the ill-fated horny 4 u, most notably “Hello Kitty” and “Alone”.

The year leading up to the mixtape’s release was truly a time to be alive, as Slayyyter gained wider success with the viral hits “Mine” and “Daddy AF” — the latter scoring Slayyyter her first proper music video via a collaboration with Big Beat Records that would also help organize her first headlining tour, The Mini Tour, that she promoted the mixtape with throughout the summer of 2019 — and she garnered a cult fanbase of her own while building connections with other rising stars on the scene, such as American singer-songwriter and fellow Ayesha Erotica protégé That Kid and Australian producer and DJ Donatachi, however, the mixtape also suffered numerous delays and tracklist revisions that impeded upon its arrival.

In spite of these challenges, Slayyyter was met with widespread acclaim for its sleek, electro pop production and Slayyyter’s impressive vocal abilities. The entire project, including its jaw-dropping cover art, is also incredibly polished considering it was produced without any label support and recorded mainly in bedroom studios. I’ve affectionately deemed Slayyyter the hyper pop equivalent of Lady Gaga’s debut album, The Fame (2008), as both were seminal records within their respective fields, influencing the sound and visual landscapes of the music that their contemporaries would go on to make while cementing their creators as powerful forces in pop. Notable tracks from Slayyyter aside from those mentioned above include “Cha Ching”, “Devil”, “Motorcycle”, “Celebrity”, and “Touch My Body”.

The cover of Slayyyter’s debut studio album, Troubled Paradise. [FADER Label / Photo by Munachi Osegbu]

In just one year, Slayyyter went from recording songs in her closet while working at a mall sushi restaurant to becoming a full-blown pop star, and she was only just getting started! In June 2021, after signing to FADER Label and continuing to build her following through virtual concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic, she released her debut studio album, Troubled Paradise, to further accolades. Initially conceived as her sophomore mixtape, the album expands on the general vibe of Slayyyter while ditching the Y2K aesthetic in favor of a more diverse sound that combines elements of dance pop (“Clouds”), bubblegum bass (“Venom”), electro-rock (“Cowboys”), and glitchcore (“Villain”). Other notable tracks from the record include the career highlight that is the game-changing title track, the fan favorite “Dog House”, and the airy ballad “Letters”. Additionally, Troubled Paradise received even more critical praise and allowed Slayyyter to reach a wider audience beyond the scope of the underground pop music scene, boosting her career to even greater heights.

The alternate cover of Slayyyter’s second studio album, STARFUCKER. [FADER Label / Photo by Evan Sheehan].

Now an established artist with two projects under her belt, Slayyyter would begin preparing for her next era by the end of 2021, which finally brings us to the present with STARFUCKER.

Released last month (just a few days after the fourth anniversary of the Slayyyter mixtape), STARFUCKER is a dark, seductive electro pop record that chronicles Slayyyter’s relocation to Los Angeles, taking sonic inspiration from 80s synthwave and gothic Europop and visual cues from the work of late French fashion designer and gay icon Thierry Mugler and erotic thrillers like American neo-noir film Body Double (1984). It’s also her most accomplished body of work to date in terms of songwriting and production quality paired with the absolutely stunning visuals of the era. This is her main pop girl moment!

In many ways, STARFUCKER (to me) feels like the sequel and spiritual successor to Slayyyter (much more so than Troubled Paradise). If Slayyyter was Slayyyter’s equivalent to Lady Gaga’s The Fame then STARFUCKER is her equivalent to Gaga’s iconic EP The Fame Monster (2009). Whereas Slayyyter (like The Fame) depicted a more glamorous view of fame and celebrity status, STARFUCKER (like The Fame Monster) reveals the dark underbelly of the Hollywood dream and explores themes of engaging in seemingly unavoidable debauchery (“I Love Hollywood!” and “Erotic Electronic”), loneliness and heartbreak (“Memories of You” and “Rhinestone Heart”), and losing oneself in the pursuit of fame (“Out of Time”). Slayyyter is about a young ingénue getting her first taste of fame and reveling in it while STARFUCKER sees her a few years down the line after losing her innocence to the cruel reality of being a star — a story that I believe takes center stage on tracks like “Tear Me Open” and “Miss Belladonna”.

The former is a cold, synthwave moment with a creeping electro beat that sees Slayyyter trapped in a toxic love affair with someone who she knows will only hurt her yet can’t seem to stay away from, which I interpret to be a metaphor for stardom with imagery that invokes the classic trope of “selling your soul to the devil” in order to become famous. The latter is a showstopping electro pop banger that follows “Troubled Paradise” as one of her strongest single choices yet and displays the young ingénue, who has been fully consumed by the evils of Hollywood and transformed into the villainous Belladonna Electrona — a wicked woman of the night with a deadly stare and a heart of stone — through a combination of excessive drugs (“Purrr”) and cosmetic surgery (“Plastic”).

Miss Belladonna reappears on the devilish bop “Dramatic”, continuing her reign of terror as she stalks the night in search of more power, however, the spirit of that beautiful, young starlet that she once was still lingers on the Barbie-esque, French house number “Girl Like Me”, proving that who a person was before fame is never truly lost and that redemption is always possible.

Another standout from STARFUCKER that I want to highlight (and my personal favorite track on the album) is “My Body”. This, in my opinion, is a prime example of perfectly-crafted pop. From the glimmering production and refined structure to the hooky melodies and passionate lyrics on which Slayyyter yearns for companionship in the coldest hours of the night, “My Body” is everything you could ever want from a pop song and more! It’s a thrilling, dancefloor-ready smash that could easily be a huge hit if it were to be issued as a single. I adore this song and have been deeply captivated by it ever since Slayyyter first performed it on tour late last year.

Now, critically speaking, I consider STARFUCKER to be a general improvement over Troubled Paradise, which I found to be rather disjointed and lacking cohesion. To me, Troubled Paradise felt like a collection of singles whereas STARFUCKER feels like the official debut Slayyyter album, as it follows the canon previously established by her mixtape while expanding its narrative and showcasing her artistic growth through its polished, cohesive sound and visuals. STARFUCKER is Slayyyter at her most powerful, most confident, and most pop — and it’s only up from here!

With that being said, the STARFUCKER era, like its predecessors, is far from perfect and suffered a few hiccups along the way, including the entire record (along with several of its many outtakes like the now-fan favorites “Tommy” and “Heartbreak In Stereo”) leaking online and budget restraints resulting in only two of the album’s four singles (“Erotic Electronic” and “I Love Hollywood!”) receiving proper music videos when both “Out of Time” and “Miss Belladonna” have the potential to produce high-concept, pop video excellence! Thankfully, not only did these obstacles have little impact on STARFUCKER’s arrival, but the music videos we did get (although low budget) are quite fantastic, especially the one for “Erotic Electronic” — who else could strut down the Hollywood Walk of Fame completely naked other than Slayyyter? Plus, there’s always hope that some of the outtakes could appear on a deluxe in the future. (Praying).

As a longtime fan, Slayyyter’s journey from rags to riches has not only been inspiring to me on a personal level, but the road from Slayyyter to STARFUCKER has been incredibly satisfying to watch. I believe that with STARFUCKER, Slayyyter has completed the first major arc of her artistic career, and the only way to close out such a remarkable arc is with a bang!

STARFUCKER is available now across all online and streaming platforms!

Watch the music video for “Erotic Electronic”: