is the alias LA-based singer-songwriter uses to release her 90s alt rock infused music. But it’s not an alter ego she hides behind, Teitelbaum remains authentically herself  – Blondshell is just the megaphone she uses to shout about it.

Three albums in, Blondshell couldn’t be more genuine in a collection of eleven grungey tracks with beautifully introspective lyrics that read like poems on paper. Against watering anything down in order to create a ‘hit’, these tracks explore complex topics that musicians often shy away from including healing, violence, misogyny, religion and femininity. 

“I think it’s really nice to feel like you have stuff out there that’s representative of who you are now. I feel like I’ve changed so much just because of where I’m at in my life, with my age and what not. And, being able to put out music that feels up to date with who I am is really important to me.”

Although Blondshell can’t put a finger on exactly what parts of her have changed, there is one thing she knows for definite – she is more sure of herself than she has ever been. “I’m starting to feel more solid and self-assured. I think that shows up in a lot of different places in my life and it gives me more room to observe. If you’re not in fight or flight, survival mode, there’s more brain capacity available for observing other things.”

Blondshell’s sophomore album, ‘If You Asked For A Picture’, was released just last year and followed her experience with healing from addiction and unhealthy relationships. Now that she has less headspace taken up with woe, she’s able to look beyond herself and overwhelming feelings to “observe” the world around her. This newfound ability to observe is heard loud and clear on her third album through the perceptive lyricism which hits the listener as soon as they press play on the first track – ‘the pricing of a flower should just stay the same / blowing up the value just before it rains’. 

For ‘Violins’, Blondshell didn’t just take inspiration from her everyday experiences and observations, she also took inspiration from the art that surrounded her, commenting that “I like the idea that there’s no new ideas. 
Everything is just said in a way you’ve never heard before.”

For the track, ‘Lucky’, a hopeful piano ballad that explodes into an infectious indie-rock track, Blondshell was influenced by ‘Long Island Compromise’, a book written by Taffy Brodesser-Anker about a family dealing with generational trauma – “a lot of those ideas showed up in my song, ‘Lucky’, in the visuals in the lyrics.”

It wasn’t just literature that inspired Blondshell during the making of ‘Violins’, it was also other music –  “I make so many playlists and we always talk about them in the studio”. This playlist included artists from The Velvet Underground and Leonard Cohen to SZA, as well as her mainstay musical inspiration, a certain 90s melancholy art-pop lyricist – “always Fiona Apple.”

Looking back on when she first started making music over five years ago, Blondshell states that she wishes she knew then what she knows now. At the time she felt as though she was “being judged” for not having an in-depth knowledge of “production or the technical side of music”, adding that “I wish that I knew at the start of everything that the truth is nobody sees you and thinks about what it is you’re missing. They just see the fact that you’re coming with your own perspective and everybody has their own perspective. And that’s all people care about.”

Despite admittedly still “deal[ing] with wanting everything to be perfect”, Blondshell now knows exactly what she brings to the table. It may not be technical production knowledge about oscillation or sidechain compression, but it is songwriting and singing – something she can do much better than the average joe. 

Although she also knows her way around a guitar, Blondshell doesn’t take it on stage when she plays live, even if encouraged – “everyone’s always like, ‘oh, you should bring it. you should play your guitar. You should play an instrument’. And my perspective is kind of, isn’t it enough to be a singer?” In the music industry, being a singer-songwriter is often unfairly looked upon as ‘not enough’, but Blondshell disregards this sentiment, sharply declaring that “I write songs and that’s enough. It is enough to be a writer.”

For Blondshell, it is more than enough to be a singer-songwriter, having spent her life so far mastering the art, even being able to combat the dreaded writer’s block which she used to suffer from “for long periods of time.”

“I grew up with somebody who made music in my life, a family friend who was older than me. 
And she always told me that if you get writer’s block, you have to view it like you’re in your pre-writing phase. You’re living and processing subconsciously so that you can eventually write.”

Blondshell is so certain in her songwriting ability that she reveals, “I’ll go six months without writing a song and I don’t get stressed about it because I know I have the skills. I know it’s in me, that’s who I am and it’ll come eventually.” This confidence shines out in her third album, ‘Violins’, a record that is unabashedly Blondshell. 

Even though she rarely suffers from writer’s block nowadays, these songs were even easier for her to write having just released music. Blondshell released her sophomore album, ‘If You Wanted A Picture’, less than two years ago – a rarity within the music industry –  so having recently put out an album, she felt she had more freedom which made the process easier. 

“I just put an album out. There’s no stress. I don’t have time pressure. 
Nobody’s breathing down my neck to make new music. That all allows me to write and feels inspiring to me. So it’s sort of this weird thing, right when I put music out, I feel really inspired to write because I feel no pressure.”

Her striking vocals are her main instrument, but her relationship with it hasn’t been smooth-sailing, confessing that “singing is my first and most complicated piece of all this because when you’re a kid and people tell you you’re good at something, it becomes a part of you and you start to rely on people saying you’re good at it.”

For young Blondshell, singing was “a way of coping” and she soon became “obsessed with music and big vocalists”, naming legends like , from and especially as the reason for ignoring her pursuit of singing – “the way I learned to sing was by kind of imitating those people, singing their songs. I was always listening to Adele and trying to sing like her. I was always annoying the shit out of people by singing Adele.”

Her triumphant third album, ‘Violins’, ends with the soothing ‘Fur Elise’, a purposeful decision to end the album on a high, commenting that “I think Fur Elise is the most hopeful of the songs and ending with a little bit of hope is new for me. Ending with this idea of saying the things you want out loud, feels right for this album.”

And Blondshell should be hopeful – with two thoughtful and sonically rich albums released in under two years, she is undoubtedly one of our finest young voice.

‘Violins’ is out now. Catch Blondshell at London’s Roundhouse on December 15th.