Siiickbrain

Caroline Miner Smith^[1] was born and raised in Morganton, North Carolina, where she lived on a farm. She has stated that she "didn't fit in" with those from her conservative hometown and that she had anxiety stemming from her agoraphobia, which kept her from pursuing music as a career. She moved to Brooklyn to attend the Makeup Designory, a cosmetology school in SoHo, and later worked as a makeup artist. She also started modeling after walking the runway at a hairstylist convention and soon moved to Los Angeles and signed to Next Management.^[2][3]

In March 2020, following the death of her best friend from a drug overdose, she wrote and independently released her first song, "Cigarettes and Cartier", as Siiickbrain, which was her Instagram handle at the time.^[4][5] She was featured on Maggie Lindemann's single "Gaslight!" in September 2020.^[6] Siiickbrain appeared in the 2021 film Downfalls High, which was directed by Machine Gun Kelly and based on his 2020 album Tickets to My Downfall. Her single "Power", a collaboration with Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, was released in March 2021 and later included on the soundtrack for the 2022 film Bullet Train.^[1][7] She was featured on the Skrillex song "Too Bizarre" alongside Swae Lee in May 2021 and on the Willow single "Purge" in April 2022.^[8] Her single "Hellslide" was released in September 2021, while her single "Jealousy" was released in July 2022.^[3][9]

Siiickbrain was featured on Maggie Lindemann's song "Break Me!" in June 2022 and performed as a supporting act on Bring Me the Horizon's North American tour in fall 2022.^[10][11] Siiickbrain released her single "Bloodpuddle" in March 2023.^[12] She was featured on Maggie Lindemann's single "Deprecating" in October 2023.^[13] She signed to Lowly Records in 2023 and her debut studio album, My Masochistic Mind, was released through the label on December 1, 2023.^[14] Its singles "Die Quietly" and "Psychopath" were released in August and October 2023, respectively.^[15][16]

Siiickbrain has listed Death Grips, Deftones, and Suicideboys as her biggest musical influences.^[17] For V, Kala Herh wrote that Siiickbrain "blends dark pop with alternative rock", while Sam Law of Kerrang! wrote that she was "caught between the worlds of airy alt. pop and thumping dark electro" and described her lyrics as "a runaway stream-of-consciousness".^[12][18] Steffanee Wang of Nylon wrote described her songs as "jagged part-metal, part-hyperpop explosions on which she screams most of her downcast lyrics".^[19] Her music has also been described as alternative metal, alt-punk, and experimental rock.^[14][3][20]