❉ Welsh Alt Pop artist Tara Bandito’s self-titled debut album is fierce, honest and comes with one hell of a back story.
“Exuding musical charisma from every pore” – BBC Introducing DJ Adam Walton.
After a string of successful singles, Welsh Alt Pop artist Tara Bandito is finally releasing her debut album and it’s a killer. Fierce, honest and comes with one hell of a back story.
Wrestler’s daughter, Tara Bandito, the artist and the self-titled album is the result and documentation of a journey that began with death and voyaged through self-sabotage and self-realisation. After years of an apologetic existence, this journey ends with her “fucking the haters with her unicorn horn.”
Eight-week-old Tara Bethan was babysat in the dressing room by Giant Haystacks whilst her father, legendary El Bandito, took to the ring and her mother manned the merch stall. With show business in her DNA, Tara’s own career began at age 5 performing in a summer season in the Welsh fairground resort of Rhyl.
In 2009, in the throes of the grief of losing her father and inspiration, Tara wrote her first ever song – 6 Feet Under – that, 13 years later, would become the opening track to her debut album. This was the catalyst for a journey of soul searching and despair that would end in the birth of the artist and the album “Tara Bandito”.
January 2022 saw the artist’s debut and the release of her 1st single Blerr with Côsh Records. Following its first play by BBC Radio’s Huw Stephens on BBC Radio Cymru, the pumping Welsh-language alt-pop tune spent three weeks on the Welsh A-List slot with BBC Radio Wales.
Soon to follow was Tara and her band’s first gig with BBC Horizons in London’s Roundhouse to which she received a Star In The Making review by God Is In The TV zine. Later that year we saw the releases of Rhyl and Drama Queen followed by Tara’s first English-language single, Woman, which also spent three weeks on the A-List slot with BBC Wales.
Sixteen gigs later, she was hailed by BBC Introducing DJ Bethan Elfyn as “a formidable live artist” and made it on to her Top 5 Artists Of 2022. Also making her mark on God Is In The TV‘s top 10 artist list for her “euphoric electronic indie pop” releases in 2022 as well as landing herself as Huw Stephens’ artist of the week.
“Exuding musical charisma from every pore” (BBC Introducing DJ Adam Walton), Tara has been a member of the widely acclaimed Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon for seven years, also playing keys and backing vocalist for indie pop band YNYS.
It was whilst playing a live session with YNYS for Marc Riley on BBC 6Music in 2019 that Tara decided it was time to cultivate her experiences and begin putting the final pieces of the jigsaw together for her solo project.
This album is the autobiographical experience of a woman trying to find her truth through all its joy and discomfort. ‘The Queen of Spectrum Extreme’ bares her soul and wants us to feel every bit of that journey with her on this musical rollercoaster.
As she put it, “I am a cataclysm of ups and downs, that’s my journey and therefore that’s my album. Expect a bumpy ride.”
Track Listing:
1. 6 Feet Under
2. Drama Queen
3. Blerr
4. Woman
5. I Do
6. Rhyl
7. Croeso i Gymru
8. Datblygu
9. Unicorn (EXPLICIT)
10. Thin Skin
❉ “Tara Bandito” is released 10 February 2023. Links: Twitter • Facebook • Instagram • Spotify • Apple Music
❉ News source: High Violet PR & Plugging. Images used with permission. All rights reserved.
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