A year of Goth Rock with Miss Teen America
By Yoshin Cheng
Miss Teen America (M.T.A.) is a Goth Rock five-piece from New York City.
It all started in 2023, when lead singer TJ Coffino posted flyers around Midtown East’s Hunter College reading “Do You Want to Be In A Goth Band?”
The goal? To make old-school connections with musicians who have a foundational love for goth, glam, and post-punk amongst the likes of Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
With Vic Vermin on bass, Marcus D’Aquino and Alex Escobar on guitars, Tom DeLaney behind the kit, and Coffino up front, M.T.A. was born shortly after.
“I feel so incredibly lucky to have met these amazing musicians who are just normal, nice dudes,” Coffino told Through the Monitor. “By the end of April (2023), we were a band.”
To date, the band has self-released three singles, all within the last 6 months; their debut, “Take Me Back,” on October 20th, “Savior,” later in 2023, and “Come With A Toy,” most recently on February 25th. It’s hauntingly heavy, featuring fuzzed out guitars, wailing vocals, and an earworm bass line that infects and infests with every listen.
By: Clementine Vernon
Cut to a February night in 2024 at Starr Bar in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood — Miss Teen America was showcasing their brand of goth rock while anticipating the release of their third single.
The tables situated cabaret-style around the stage filled out as the quintet set up.
There was a looseness in the atmosphere before the band ripped into their set of mostly unreleased songs along with the three singles and an homage to The Cure.
“Savior,” the band’s second single, stood-out during the set with its dreamy, upbeat, indie-disco groove. Twangy guitars echoed Coffino’s inescapable vocal phrasing paired with a persona reminiscent of Billie Joe Armstrong, David Bowie, and other rock greats of yesteryear.
Courtesy of M.T.A.
“I like being eye level with people,” Coffino told TTM.
“It makes it easier to really engage the crowd. People tend to let go a little more, dance, and throw themselves around.”
With the first three singles, M.T.A. “wanted to give a sneak peek of the beginning, the middle, and the end of a larger story without going too much into the details,” Coffino told TTM, referring to the batch of songs as anchors for an upcoming album.
“All of those songs can exist on their own and don't need a story, but when you zoom out, they all make sense with each other” Coffino added. “I would like to have an album recorded by the end of the year.”
We’ll have to wait and see what another year of Miss Teen America will look like, but you can expect them to keep making waves around NYC and the surrounding areas in 2024.