By Joshua Miller
Los Angeles-based The Linda Lindas are punk to the core. So when the Cypress Park department of the Los Angeles Public Library requested the band in the event that they wished to carry out there as a part of their Asian American Pacific Islander heritage programming, it was a straightforward determination. They noticed it as a enjoyable approach to elevate consciousness of racial points (the band members are Asian American and/or Latinx) and promote equality, in addition to a approach to help one among their favourite libraries.
“We instantly mentioned sure as a result of we love the library!” says 14-year-old bass participant Eloise Wong.
The band additionally options Wong’s cousins, sisters Mila de la Garza, 11, on the drums and Lucia de la Garza, 15, who performs guitar. 17-year-old household good friend Bela Salazar additionally shreds on the guitar. On the cusp of releasing their debut album, Rising Up, they give the impression of being again on the gig that made them a viral sensation.
“We all the time take a look at a number of books anyway,” says Lucia, “however through the pandemic, Eloise and I had been reserving and selecting up books stacks at a time.”
Throughout their efficiency, surrounded by a few of these similar novels, the band launched right into a fiery model of their music “Racist, Sexist Boy,” which was impressed by a unfavorable expertise Mila had with a classmate.
“Mila and I wrote it as a result of she was mad at her classmate who mentioned one thing racist and I used to be fed up with all of the sexism I’d seen since I used to be in kindergarten,” says Wong. “It was a approach to course of our emotions, and the music got here out actually quick — only a few hours over Zoom.”
Mila says it was a “good alternative to play loud music in a spot that’s normally quiet.” As an added bonus, they obtained to eat there.
None of them ever fathomed the video of the efficiency would go viral, a lot much less the sheer attain it could have worldwide. Within the days and weeks forward, it obtained over 4 million views on Instagram, Twitter and different social media. It additionally garnered reward from Hayley Williams, Questlove, Flea, and members of Rage Towards the Machine and Sonic Youth.
“None of us anticipated the video to explode,” says Salazar. “I imply, it’s a library! I’ll always remember that day at college when my telephone wouldn’t cease vibrating solely to seek out out it was our band that was taking on my feed and that musicians like Flea and Questlove had been sharing the video.”
Mila provides, “It was wonderful to see all of the help we obtained, and it was additionally a little bit unhappy to see how many individuals might relate to it.”
The members say they’ve a blast taking part in the music at their reveals, particularly because it’s taken on added, extra inspiring that means. “As we hold taking part in it, it’s gone from being an indignant music to being a joyful and empowering one,” says Wong.
Nearly a 12 months after their efficiency on the library, the band is releasing Rising Up digitally tomorrow (April 8), with bodily codecs out June 3 through Epitaph Data. The complete scope of their rising reputation hasn’t fairly dawned on the group fairly but (“Every part kinda occurred on-line so we haven’t fully skilled all of it,” Bela says), however now that they’re selling the LP, it’s begun to sink in.
“Now we’re doing extra interviews and photoshoots and will likely be happening tour quickly,” says Lucia. It’s been a enjoyable course of thus far, and as Mila provides, the snacks and Boba assist.
After hanging viral gold in Could, the band set a objective of ending their album throughout their summer time break. A lot of the songs had been written whereas the members had been attending faculty remotely through the COVID-19 lockdowns. “They had been a approach for us to course of what was happening,” Lucia says.
Along with the pandemic, the motion for Black lives picked up, however so did hateful rhetoric towards individuals of colour and the LGBTQ+ group. These weighed closely on their minds as they composed tracks. “And simply rising up, which is difficult anyway however much more tough while you’re away from mates, household, and normalcy,” says Salazar. “We had been fortunate to get to undergo it collectively.”
Terence Patrick/CBS through Getty PhotographsOver the course of the album’s 10 songs and roughly 26-minute runtime, the band captures the complexities of getting older, the great and dangerous, and determining one’s identification.
In “Speaking to Myself,” the band examines the maze that anxiousness and stress pressure us to navigate, typically “about issues we can’t assist.” Nonetheless, the band stays hopeful, singing, “I’m nonetheless right here and I’m nonetheless livin’.” In the meantime, on “Oh!”, the band examines the tug of battle of deciding the suitable time to say one thing private. The music begins with the lyric, “Oh once I say one thing / I want I had shut up (oh!) / And when I attempt to assist / I all the time screw issues up (oh!).”
The band feels these themes of rising up are a common message that applies to everybody. “We hope it resonates with everybody and never simply children,” says Lucia. “You don’t cease rising up after you’re a child!” They filter this message via a dynamic vary of influences, together with punk, post-punk, power-pop, and new wave. Everybody within the band takes turns singing on the album, permitting extra variety of their songs.
For instance, on “Sexist, Racist Boy,” Wong and Mila ship spitfire vocals on high of a charging melody that will match snuggly subsequent to riot grrrl classics. And in “Rising Up,” Lucia vocals pair properly with the band’s triumphant power-pop romp.
“I feel that it’s nice for us to have 4 vocalists,” says Salazar. “We get to point out the varieties of music every of us listens to as people, and all of it works collectively to type a very cool depiction of ‘punk’ or our definition of punk. Like I grew up listening to a number of rock en español.”
Lucia discovered inspiration in bands resembling The Beths and The Breeders. Mila admires Blondie, Greatest Coast, and Go-Go’s, whereas Wong drew from bands like Avengers, Adolescents, and Black Flag. And within the studio, the band had a well-recognized face serving to them: Grammy-winning producer Carlos de la Garza, who’s Mila and Lucia’s father. In addition to making the songs “extra rockin’,” his presence put them relaxed whereas recording.
“It’s nice to have the ability to have a producer who we belief and are snug with, particularly for our first album,” says Lucia. “It’s additionally nice to get to know him differently now.” Mila provides, “Earlier than, we didn’t actually know what he did for work!”
The band has come a great distance since forming a number of years in the past. In 2018, they began taking part in collectively in a new-wave cowl band of children assembled by Dum Dum Women member Kristin Kontrol for the women-led company Girlschool, which offers varied technique of empowerment and encouragement to younger girls in music.
“I’ve been going to punk reveals since I used to be only a child, and sometimes went with Lucia, however the Girlschool mission was the primary time I used to be requested to be in a band,” Wong says. “In fact, I mentioned sure to Kristen and naturally I requested if my cousins Lucia and Mila might be in it, too.”
For Mila and Lucia, devices had been all the time simple to seek out round the home rising up. Nevertheless, they hadn’t thought till then that they may truly play them. “After the primary follow with us and another children, we invited our household good friend Bela to affix us as a result of we knew she was taking guitar classes,” Mila says.
Whereas their energized and eclectic covers had been removed from good, Salazar says that she had a lot enjoyable that she wished to maintain taking part in as a band. “I used to be invited to play one other present that summer time and requested Lucia, Eloise, and Mila to be my band,” she explains. “After that, we didn’t need to cease! The Linda Lindas shaped after that.”
The band’s identify was impressed by the 2005 Japanese movie Linda Linda Linda and the Blue Hearts music “Linda Linda.” They constructed up their chemistry via gigs at all-ages matinees in Chinatown. They finally opened for riot grrrl legends Bikini Kill and Alice Bag, in addition to Greatest Coast and Bleached. “It was nonetheless only for enjoyable, however then we had been requested to open for Bikini Kill, obtained to look in [Amy Poehler’s movie] Moxie, and did the library video,” says Lucia. “The band being greater than a pastime simply sort of occurred.”
“Attending to play the small punk profit reveals in Chinatown for my faculty’s music program after we began helped us quite a bit,” provides Wong. “It was an actual small stage, however we obtained to play with and get to know lifers like Phranc, Alice Bag, The Dils, the Alley Cats, and Mike Watt. And Greatest Coast and Bleached have been coming to our reveals because the starting, too. It was superior to play The Odor, the DIY membership the place they got here up from! Being a part of a multigenerational underground music scene like that may be a actual honor and thrilling to be part of.”
The band is at the moment within the midst of a nationwide tour and will likely be on the street a lot of the 12 months. They’re opening for The Beths, Jawbreaker, and Greatest Coast this spring and are a part of the When We Have been Younger competition in Las Vegas in October. As for what’s subsequent, it’s fairly easy.
Wong: “Enjoying extra reveals.”
Salazar: “Touring the world.”
Mila: “Getting Boba in each metropolis.”
Lucia: “After which making extra new music!”
