When this issue of Australian Guitar hits shelves, Thea Taylor will be in the country for her first-ever shows on local ground. Just a few years ago, however, she would’ve sworn that the closest she’d ever come to Australia would be in the form of something smuggled out of there illegally. Before making a name for herself as Carolesdaughter, the SoCal-native was a problem child, rebelling against her strait-laced Mormon parents by delving into body mods, hard drugs and perhaps their greatest fear of all, punk-rock.
Taylor’s four-year stint of inter-personal calamity – into which she was thrown at age 13 – saw her dragged in and out of rehab multiple times. Her last trip lasted six months, and thanks in no short part to the acoustic guitar she brought along to. She’s clean these these days, but the chaos hasn’t stopped – only now it’s the kind that leaves her cheeks sore from smiling so much.
