The Test Drive: Tara Bandito – Tara Bandito

Tara Bandito is set to drop her new eponymous album on February 10th. Constructed from a set of stellar and unique singles, Tara creates a story filled with world building resonance base solely on her music. Almost like a soundtrack for herself.

Atmospheric in all the right spots and delectable in all the right places, Tara shows us that a collection of singles can be a lucid experience meant for the music and susceptible to the self. This is one of those albums that can be defined by you as much as you inspired by it.

About Tara Bandito

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.”

8 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 throws 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 Radio1 DJ Huw Stephens on Radio Cymru, the Welsh language pumping alt pop tune spent 3 weeks on the “Welsh A List” slot with BBC Radio Wales.

Soon to follow was Tara and her band’s 1 st 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 3 weeks on the “A List” slot with BBC Wales.

16 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 the “God is in the TV Zine” 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 7 years, also playing keys and backing vocalist for indie pop band “Ynys.” It was whilst playing a live session with “Ynys” for Mark Riley on “BBC 6 Music” 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.”

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/tarabandito
https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/tara-bandito/1598946919
https://www.instagram.com/tarabandito
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5VYH0aQE8gzQjVBiXs2RYo