American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tara Lynch (‘Gui-Tara’) is back with a new single, Badassery, an anthemic song she wrote in dedication to her love for fast cars and the racetrack. Once again, she is joined by Heavy Metal heavyweights Vinny Appice, Bjorn Englen and producer Brent Woods.
“What you hear is exactly what comes out of me without any pre-programmed ideas,” Tara said. “I have lived quite a colourful life thus far and have lots of things to talk about, so when I write my music, I just say it like it is. I do the same with my guitar playing. I’m not out there to impress anybody, just to tell my story and hope that people enjoy what they hear and can even relate.”
Badassery is the first taster track to the follow-up to her last album, Evil Enough. In an interview with MetalTalk last year, Tara described her approach to songwriting as starting with the riff. “I have a beat in my head, I have a riff in my head, then I build on that riff and the melody, and it naturally flows in. I record track by track, and that is how I build my songs. I may or may not have lyrics first. I don’t have any order in which I do things. It just comes out of me.
“I have such a bizarre way of doing things that I pretty much just need to be left in my studio to do it. So when guys like Vinny [Appice] and Phil [Soussan] and Glenn [Sobel] and Bjorn [Englen] and Tony [MacApline] and Mark [Boals] get a hold of a track to listen and learn, it’s basically a finished demo.”
Tara’s debut album Evil Enough demonstrates her approach to songwriting is wonderfully solid. The instrumental tracks are great and packed full of melody. Mark Boals vocals are really good, and Tara shreds and sings elegantly.
“I think its a phenomenal record,” Tara said. “I am in love with it. My listeners on Spotify have just been growing and building. It’s just gone up and up, pretty much around the globe. I’ve built up quite the listening audience in the United States lately, which is great because it was mostly in Europe, having toured there in the beginning. So, it’s really nice that by doing these Last In Line dates [in 2021/22], I’ve been picking up an American audience.”
With the halt delivered by Covid-19, the sense that there is unfinished business with Evil Enough is quite rightly there. “I really think that Evil Enough didn’t get the attention it deserved at the time with everything that was going on in the world,” Tara said.
“You put it out, and then you tour to support it. Then all of a sudden, my tour schedule was just whacked by two years like everybody else, and as an up-and-coming artist, that hurts. Metallica is still going to have people listen to them. But for someone that has just come out, you could be forgotten.”
Tara toured UK and Europe with UFO on their Last Orders tour. “I loved my time out there,” Tara said. “I thought it was fantastic that people were just so lovely. The beautiful audiences, great crowds. There are English guys in UFO, it’s their territory, but it was just magnificent to be a part of all that.”
Tara played a number of US dates with Last In Line, and she also played at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival to a 160,000 crowd in September 2021. “Playing that show was quite the experience,” Tara says. “I didn’t know what to expect at a festival so soon after the lockdown was lifted. Other than the fact that they handed all of us tests backstage, it didn’t seem to be an issue at all. It was a pretty cool festival.”
With the new track Badassery released, it will be great to see Tara get some well-deserved momentum back, and we are certainly excited for the next album. The Last In Line rhythm section agrees.
“Tara is like discovering an unfound gem,” Vinny Appice says. “Combining fantastic guitar playing, great songwriting and amazing vocals, she is a new force to be listened to.”
“Tara is an as yet greatly undiscovered talent,” agrees Phil Soussan. “Writer, guitar player and singer, she represents a powerful presence in this mainly male-dominated genre. Working with her on her new record, it is evident that she is destined for greatness.”
