While in the UK for a short promotional tour, Alter The Press managed to sit down with Taylor Momsen and Ben Phillips of The Pretty Reckless.

The guys spoke to ATP about how the band got together, their forthcoming debut album, signing to Interscope records, playing this year’s Warped Tour, Taylor juggling around the band with her acting career and more.

How did the band come together?
Ben: My song-writing partner and I (Kato Khandwala,) met Taylor about a year and a half ago; we then started working on writing songs together. He produced the record and my musicians play on the record; it became the band. Taylor has been writing and playing since she was a kid, and was getting to the point where she wanted to release a record; luckily we caught her on her “upswing” of artistic movements.

Taylor: It was a good fit.

How did the two of you meet?
Taylor: Through Kato. I was looking for producers to work with and I got hooked up with him, who was also Ben’s partner. I met with Kato, we were working together; then met Ben, ended up writing the whole record together, and here we are now.

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There are many faces of Taylor Momsen.
There’s Taylor the fashion icon: The gum-chewing, torn-stockings wearing Maryland-born 16-year-old splashed over the British and Americian glossies.

There’s Taylor the actress: Playing the squeaky-clean-gone-bad-girl Jenny Humphrey in American drama Gossip Girl alongside heart-throbs Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick.

And finally there’s Taylor the rock star: The Courtney Love-esque sneering frontwoman of metal-pop band The Pretty Reckless.

Music priority
In her mind, she’s pretty sure on which of the above she prefers.

I love acting and I’m doing it forever but music is my heart,” she says.

“It’s what I live for, to say the least – it’s kept me alive. Music is who I am. It’s the priority at the moment – it’s the focus.

“It’s not a pop record – I’m sure people were expecting one.”

Indeed, producers of the LA-based glamour series have given Momsen time off to concentrate on her new band The Pretty Reckless. Their single Make Me Wanna Die has already featured in blockbuster Kick-Ass, and they’re readying their debut album.

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‘It’s not a concept record, unless you consider life a concept,’ she tells MTV News of yet-untitled LP.

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — Taylor Momsen is quickly learning that making the transition from TV star to snarling rock princess isn’t as easy as she’d imagined.

In addition to having to win over fickle audiences on this summer’s Warped Tour — the type of crowds that don’t exactly take kindly to “actor-slash-musicians” — and make it clear to “Gossip Girl” fans that her band, the Pretty Reckless, isn’t just another cookie-cutter pop project, she’s already having to undo the damage from a quote she gave last month to Entertainment Weekly, in which she stated: “I don’t wanna be Courtney Love — I wanna be Kurt Cobain.” It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing, to be honest.

So really, at this point, all she wants to do is get the Pretty Reckless’ debut album in stores — and then, well, she’ll just let the chips fall where they may.

“I want the record out so people can hear it. I’m not a pop artist. It’s absolutely a rock record, and I get that people probably aren’t expecting that, but, buy the record and check it out,” Momsen told MTV News on Saturday at the Bamboozle festival. “If you like loud music, you’ll like it. Hopefully. It’s very loud. If you’re not scared of guitars screaming at you and a 16-year-old girl yelling at you, then you’ll like the record.”

According to Momsen, the yet-untitled album (which she co-wrote with Pretty Reckless guitarist Ben Phillips) will finally see the light of day “sometime this summer.” And, to be quite honest, that date can’t come soon enough — because she really wants to stop talking about what it will sound like and let the songs speak for themselves.

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“Gossip Girl” teen Taylor Momsen is gearing up to release her debut album with her band, The Pretty Reckless, but doesn’t want to be compared to the likes of other female rockers, such as Courntey Love.

“All of my influences are male influences,” Taylor told Access Hollywood on Monday in New York. “So to translate that into a female vocal and to have a female rock singer that isn’t someone like Joan Jett or Courtney Love… They’re great, but it’s not based on melody and range as much as it is attitude and cool and well written songs.

“Our record is based on the melodies and the lyrics and the detail to it, so to translate to you, it’s more like Robert Plant with a chick,” Taylor added.

The actress will be departing The CW show that made her a household name for a number of episodes of the show’s fourth season, due to what has been described as creative reasons.

However, Taylor chalked it up to more of a scheduling conflict, as she will instead be promoting her album in place of filming, including on the Warped Tour.

“The show’s been really great and I’m going to be missing from a little bit of it because I am finishing the Warped Tour,” Taylor explained. “I’m on tour this summer and the show starts back up during the middle of the tour.”

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