{"id":5981,"date":"2025-10-21T15:46:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/?p=5981"},"modified":"2025-10-27T12:29:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:29:52","slug":"how-terror-jr-and-king-kylie-made-fourth-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/how-terror-jr-and-king-kylie-made-fourth-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"How Terror Jr and King Kylie Made \u2018Fourth Strike&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/assets.rebelmouse.io\/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy82MTc4NDE3NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTgwODczMDAwMn0.T-IJi3BRQbdP9b1fXkg3RJOrYfOt5so0_4dToWvduJY\/img.jpg?width=5824&amp;height=4368&amp;coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0\"><\/p>\n<p>We all remember where we were in 2016. The \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JtoRzI0vKJE?si=o_Y1x91tQ7XOWlE9\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Glosses by Kylie Jenner<\/u><\/a>\u201d commercial had just dropped \u2014 a hyper-saturated, honey-lit vision of Jenner&#8217;s \u201cKing Kylie\u201d era \u2014 and there was this song in the background that sounded so new, so effortless, that the internet decided it had to be her. The mystery voice was breathy and detached, wrapped in bubblegum production and soft menace. Within hours, theories spread: Jenner had a secret pop project. Jenner was the singer. Jenner had become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.papermag.com\/tag\/terror-jr\" target=\"_self\"><u>Terror Jr<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She hadn\u2019t \u2014 but in a way, she had.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>That Glosses clip didn\u2019t just launch a beauty product; it accidentally launched a band. The song, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/1mZF9TEc7gpw7by7NCZSKr?si=b2bcd1bc65f247a9\" target=\"_blank\"><u>3 Strikes<\/u><\/a>,\u201d was the first thing David Singer-Vine and Lisa Vitale ever made together. At the time, they didn\u2019t even have a name. A mutual friend, director Colin Tilley, played their demo for Kylie while shooting the commercial, and she immediately wanted to use it. Overnight, Terror Jr became a myth before they were even a group \u2014 an internet rumor with a SoundCloud link.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a Mandela Effect around this,\u201d Lisa of Terror Jr tells <em><em>PAPER<\/em><\/em>. \u201cPeople are always like, \u2018I loved you guys before Kylie.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, that\u2019s impossible \u2014 we were born in a Kylie commercial. But a lot of people swear they were listening to us before then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nine years later, the story finally loops back on itself. Jenner \u2014 now reclaiming her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DPxpDeCjvzi\/?img_index=1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><u>King Kylie<\/u><\/a> persona \u2014 officially appears on Terror Jr\u2019s new single \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JhaIuRajMmI?si=MPNIqSWEjIc02owK\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Fourth Strike<\/u><\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s a wink at the past and a reclamation of it: the voice that was once mistaken for hers now shares the mic with the real thing.<\/p>\n<p>For Terror Jr, the collaboration isn\u2019t just nostalgia bait; it\u2019s a reminder of what they do best \u2014 sneaking real emotion inside glossy pop. \u201cWe\u2019re riding the song like a Trojan horse,\u201d David says. \u201cThat\u2019s the mission \u2014 hiding substance inside something shiny.\u201d The track arrives alongside an upcoming album, <em><em>The Terror Jr Album<\/em><\/em>, a body of work that pushes their hyper-synthetic sound toward something more personal, political, and cinematic.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, they were the mystery. In 2025, they\u2019re the reveal.<\/p>\n<p>We caught up with Lisa Vitale and David Singer-Vine ahead of the King Kylie release to talk pop myths, politics, and the full-circle chaos of being the band that accidentally launched a Kardashian-adjacent conspiracy \u2014 and how they turned it into art.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"c37d6f37a707551f56d80f7af1f5bcf6\" style=\"position:relative;padding-top:56.25%\"><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Terror Jr &amp; King Kylie - Fourth Strike (Lyric Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JhaIuRajMmI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Y\u2019all ready for the Kylie event tonight?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David Singer-Vine:<\/strong> Oh, wow. That\u2019s like asking, are you ready to fly? You know when you\u2019re a little bird about to spread your wings? You never really know until it happens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa Vitale:<\/strong> I feel like I\u2019m jumping out of the nest, not sure if I\u2019ll fall on my face or fly into the sky.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> But no, I don\u2019t want to assume too much. We did FaceTime with her, and she\u2019s very chill. Over my career, I\u2019ve worked with all kinds of people. Like ten years ago, I did a session with 50 Cent, and he literally just sat in the corner writing lyrics on a piece of paper. These people you build up in your head as mythic or untouchable are often just normal. Kylie\u2019s the same \u2014 sweet and grounded. So yeah, I feel ready for the Kylie event.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Take me back. How did this all start? How did the idea come about? Because with \u201cThree Strikes,\u201d I remember the Kylie Cosmetics moment, when everyone thought it was her voice. That was such a buzzy internet thing. So how did \u201cFourth Strike\u201d actually happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa:<\/strong> In a lot of ways \u2014 not to use TikTok language \u2014 but we really did manifest this. We\u2019d been joking about Kylie being on a song for years. We always hoped it would happen, but didn\u2019t know if it ever would. When it finally did, it was surreal. We were like, there\u2019s no way this is real.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> We actually took the past year off to focus on our new album. We felt like we were drifting from what mattered most to us \u2014 making music we\u2019re proud of, that feels timeless and not just a flash-in-the-pan TikTok thing. During that time, my childhood best friend, director Colin Tilley, reached out. He\u2019s the one who originally played \u201cThree Strikes\u201d for Kylie back in the day while shooting her first lip-gloss commercial. At that point, Lisa and I had just started conceptualizing Terror Jr \u2014 we didn\u2019t even have a song out yet. Kylie heard the demo and immediately said, let\u2019s put it in the video. That was essentially the inception of Terror Jr \u2014 alongside Kylie Cosmetics. We\u2019ve always loved the lore of people thinking Kylie was Lisa. But this new song felt like divine timing. Colin hit me while we were deep in album mode and said, &#8220;Hey, I\u2019m shooting Kylie\u2019s anniversary campaign. Let\u2019s get a new Terror Jr song in there.&#8221; Kylie could\u2019ve chosen anyone, but she said yes. She thought it would be cool for both of us. That\u2019s how \u201cFourth Strike\u201d happened. It also brought together people from my past. Colin looped in our other childhood friend, Niles Hollowell-Dhar \u2014 who I used to make music with as The Cataracs and who now goes by KSHMR. It felt like my two musical worlds merging, right as Kylie was launching her own music. It\u2019s all these pop-culture threads colliding in one moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So Terror Jr wasn\u2019t actually formed before the Kylie Cosmetics video dropped?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Nope. We didn\u2019t even have one song.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa:<\/strong> We had just started writing together. Kylie heard a loose demo that ended up forcing us to finish it for her commercial.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wow, I didn\u2019t know that. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, nobody does. You might be the first person to actually really inquire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa:<\/strong> I feel like there\u2019s a Mandela Effect around this, because people are always like, \u201cI loved you guys before Kylie.\u201d And I\u2019m like, that\u2019s impossible \u2014 we were born in a Kylie commercial. But a lot of people swear they were listening to us before then.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"rm-shortcode lazyload\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"80964730e208eefe1b8e20f5ffc2c2fb\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" id=\"7274a\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-30.jpg\"><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>It <\/strong><em><strong><em>is <\/em><\/strong><\/em><strong>a Mandela Effect! That\u2019s so crazy. Were you guys in the studio with her for this one? Did you actually have face time with Kylie?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> For this, yeah. Well, not in person, but we did have real FaceTime with her. I actually love how it came together. She wanted to do it her way, and we just wanted her to be comfortable. She had her friend Carter, who\u2019s a music guy, bring a mobile studio to her. She brought in a songwriter she wanted to work with, crafted her verse, and sent everything back and forth with us. She\u2019d record, clean up some things, tweak vocals. She was really involved. For me, it was charming to see because I remember how terrifying it is to record for the first time. And again, she didn\u2019t have to do this. She could\u2019ve worked with any group bigger than us. This was pure fun for her. We just went back and forth until it felt right. On release night, we all FaceTimed again and just talked feelings, how proud we were, how at peace we felt. That\u2019s what matters. Whatever happens next is out of our control.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So you\u2019ll actually meet her tonight?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, as long as the Uber doesn\u2019t crash. LA\u2019s a dangerous place to drive!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa:<\/strong> Or we don\u2019t get tackled the second we walk out of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I saw that King Kylie received over 2.2 million Spotify artist profile views following the release of \u201cFourth Strike.\u201d That\u2019s kind of crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> It is! There are famous people, and then there\u2019s Kylie Jenner. We knew her reach was massive, but doing this song, we felt it. Lisa and I have been doing this for almost a decade, and this track made us feel like a brand-new group again. It\u2019s rare to capture that lightning twice, and it\u2019s directly because of her \u2014 her association, her energy, her willingness to be openly linked with us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>She knows what\u2019s good. I feel like she has great taste.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa:<\/strong> I mean, we think so. I might be biased, though.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you have any intel on her personal music taste? Like what she listens to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> I just remember back in the day she\u2019d help break artists. If Kylie featured you in something, you\u2019d instantly pop off. I don\u2019t remember all the names, but it was a thing. So yeah, the taste is there. She\u2019s got influence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s talk about your upcoming album, <\/strong><em><strong><em>The Terror Jr Album<\/em><\/strong><\/em><strong>. It feels like such a return to form. What\u2019s the vibe with this new record?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> First off, we\u2019d love to send it to you after this. Just keep it safe until November 7. We\u2019re in the final stretch, tweaking mixes and mastering. I\u2019m manic toward the end\u2014I keep hearing tiny things I want to fix. But honestly, I\u2019m so proud. Last night I had a dance party in my bathroom when I was supposed to be asleep. As a songwriter, I\u2019m proud of the craft. My housemate, who\u2019s also the executive producer, has become family. It\u2019s been a sonic family between him, Lisa, and me. We started this a year ago, and I doubted we\u2019d even finish. Some days I doubt the world will still exist. But it\u2019s here now, almost complete, and I\u2019m just grateful. And I\u2019ll admit, I\u2019m a film nerd first, more than a music historian. I\u2019m obsessed with narrative \u2014 writing lyrics that actually say something. We were purposeful about the social commentary, politics, and philosophy in these songs. I hope people listen and raise an eyebrow in a good way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That\u2019s what I\u2019ve always loved about y\u2019all \u2014 the lyrics. I don\u2019t think people give you enough flowers for how smart and clever they are, especially the political ones. Like on \u201cA-OK (Everything\u2019s Perfect),\u201d wasn\u2019t there even a line about Omarosa?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> Yeah! Lisa and I spent long hours on that stuff, not stopping until we knew the lyrics would leave a mark.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa:<\/strong> We actually wrote something similar when we posted the album artwork, saying how we\u2019ve been looking inward and at the world around us. The album is a mix of reflection \u2014 personal and global. We\u2019ve never made music that wasn\u2019t also commentary on what we see. What I love about working with David is how fearless it feels. We\u2019re not afraid to say things. A lot of artists hesitate to speak politically, but for us, it\u2019s in the lyrics \u2014 we don\u2019t have to spell it out in interviews. I remember doing laps in my pool in the Valley, it was 110 degrees, and David called saying, &#8220;We need another song.&#8221; I was literally melting, watching the news, thinking, <em><em>What do I even write about?<\/em><\/em> The world felt apocalyptic, and that energy seeped into the music. But there\u2019s also self-reflection and perspective in it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>There\u2019s a song on the album called \u201cIt\u2019s Exhausting,\u201d which kind of puts me on blast. It\u2019s me looking down the barrel \u2014 confronting myself and the world I grew up in. We talk about America, white privilege, limousine liberals, everything. I just hope people are surprised by the substance behind it, even as they\u2019re pulled in by the pop of \u201cFourth Strike\u201d with King Kylie.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DQCnfslAey8\/?img_index=1\" data-instgrm-version=\"4\" style=\"background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;margin: 1px;max-width:658px;padding:0;width:99.375%;width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px);width:calc(100% - 2px)\">\n<div style=\"padding:8px\">\n<div style=\"background:#F8F8F8;line-height:0;margin-top:40px;padding:50% 0;text-align:center;width:100%\">\n<div style=\"base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAAGFBMVEUiIiI9PT0eHh4gIB4hIBkcHBwcHBwcHBydr+JQAAAACHRSTlMABA4YHyQsM5jtaMwAAADfSURBVDjL7ZVBEgMhCAQBAf\/\/42xcNbpAqakcM0ftUmFAAIBE81IqBJdS3lS6zs3bIpB9WED3YYXFPmHRfT8sgyrCP1x8uEUxLMzNWElFOYCV6mHWWwMzdPEKHlhLw7NWJqkHc4uIZphavDzA2JPzUDsBZziNae2S6owH8xPmX8G7zzgKEOPUoYHvGz1TBCxMkd3kwNVbU0gKHkx+iZILf77IofhrY1nYFnB\/lQPb79drWOyJVa\/DAvg9B\/rLB4cC+Nqgdz\/TvBbBnr6GBReqn\/nRmDgaQEej7WhonozjF+Y2I\/fZou\/qAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC);height:44px;margin:0 auto -44px;position:relative;top:-22px;width:44px\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"margin:8px 0 0 0;padding:0 4px\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DQCnfslAey8\/?img_index=1\" style=\"color:#000;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none\" target=\"_top\">See on Instagram<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Your music is so interesting, because on the surface it seems almost plastic and bubblegum \u2014 but when you actually listen to the lyrics, it hits deep.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> Yeah, we\u2019re riding the song like a Trojan horse. That\u2019s the mission here \u2014 sneaking real substance inside something shiny. Hopefully, we fulfilled it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Well, I think that\u2019s all I\u2019ve got to ask you guys. I\u2019m such a huge fan of you guys. You\u2019re like The Beatles to me.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa: <\/strong>Oh, okay \u2014 so who\u2019s Paul and who\u2019s John?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David:<\/strong> [laughs] Yeah, exactly. But thank you, Ivan. That means a lot. It\u2019s crazy \u2014 most of our friends are self-funded indie artists like us, and it\u2019s hard out here. The music industry right now is full of haves and have-nots, especially in pop.<\/p>\n<p>So it really means something to hear that, because even before this Kylie moment, we\u2019ve always put our hearts into what we do. We\u2019ve never worked this hard on a project \u2014 truly. The blood, sweat, and tears are all in this one. So the fact that this Kylie crossover is happening now, and we get to share it with people like you, it\u2019s just\u2026 we\u2019re lit up right now. We\u2019re hyped. And this interview is part of that moment. We really appreciate you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisa:<\/strong> Yeah, and we appreciate that you were covering us before Kylie blessed us again. You did \u201cPuppy Eyes,\u201d and we still talk about that. We really appreciate the support \u2014 hopefully we all ride into the sunset of success together.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><em>Photography by <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/colinseyes\" target=\"_blank\">Colin Tilley<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all remember where we were in 2016. The \u201cGlosses by Kylie Jenner\u201d commercial had just dropped \u2014 a hyper-saturated, honey-lit vision of Jenner&#8217;s \u201cKing Kylie\u201d era \u2014 and there was this song in the background that sounded so new, so effortless, that the internet decided it had to be her. The mystery voice was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5986,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions\/5986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}