Slayyyter Artistfacts

Slayyyter song list

Slayyyter Artistfacts

September 17, 1996
Slayyyter was born Catherine Grace Garner in Kirkwood, Missouri - a suburb west of St. Louis - where she spent most of her childhood and early adult life. She attended private elementary schools before switching to public school, where she was first offered proper music classes. For years, Slayyyter deliberately used the pseudonym "Catherine Slater" in press and media to keep fans and journalists away from her family.
Slayyyter's love of music was seeded early by her mother, a Polish American Catholic who would regularly play vinyl records around the house. "When I was very young, my mom would always put on Elton John and Michael Jackson," Slayyyter recalled to Pop Culturalist. "I feel like her being very into music inspired me to want to be a part of it. She would pull out her old vinyl collection and I would look through all the album art from the Beach Boys to Elton John to the Beatles - it all seemed so magical."
Slayyyter says she grew up "super Catholic," and her faith has remained a complex but ongoing part of her life.
Her parents had a "toxic" relationship while she was growing up, and she has been estranged from her father since childhood. In a 2026 interview on the Zach Sang Show, Slayyyter opened up about a formative memory - the moment her father left her at a gas station - and how she has been doing the self-work to break the cycle.
Slayyyter's stage name is derived from Ron Slater, the fan-favourite stoner character played by Rory Cochrane in Richard Linklater's 1993 coming-of-age movie Dazed and Confused. She borrowed the surname, added the extra letters, and created a persona that was a deliberate piece of pop-art reinvention rather than an accident. The triple-Y spelling also gave the name a visual style that fit perfectly with the early internet and MySpace aesthetics her brand was built around.
After one year studying at the University of Missouri, Slayyyter dropped out in 2016. She moved back in with her mother in St. Louis and began recording music from her bedroom closet while supporting herself through waitressing at a sushi restaurant, and a receptionist job at a hair salon. She described the salon job to The Fader as "long days dealing with bored housewives," but noted the upside: "plenty of time to write music."
In February 2019, Slayyyter posted a 14-second snippet of her Valentine's Day single "Mine" online. It blew up on social media, propelling her to mainstream attention almost overnight. Once the full track was released, it climbed to #38 on the iTunes Pop Chart - a remarkable achievement for an artist who had been recording in a closet just months before.
In an early Reddit AMA, Slayyyter said her music draws inspiration from Heidi Montag and Courtney Stodden, and that her social media presence was deliberately crafted to evoke the MySpace and AOL Instant Messenger eras. She has also cited Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Lady Gaga as formative influences - pop stars she worshipped growing up in the St. Louis suburbs, where Top 40 radio was the soundtrack to suburban life.
Slayyyter publicly identifies as bisexual, and her fanbase is predominantly LGBTQ+. Her queer identity and musical output are seen as inseparable rather than incidental.
Slayyyter's first three albums trace a deliberate artistic evolution. Her self-titled debut mixtape (2019) was lo-fi SoundCloud hyperpop; Troubled Paradise (2021), released via FADER Label, introduced more polished production from collaborators including Wuki and Gupi; and Starf---er (2023) leaned into new wave and retro '80s sounds. Her third full album, Worst Girl In America, debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Dance Albums chart, her first leader on any Billboard chart. The album's opening track, "Dance...", became a TikTok hit and earned her a television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in May 2026.

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