The members of the L.A. punk band the Linda Lindas are all under 20 years old but, in many ways, they’re already old hands at the music industry.
The quartet formed back in 2018 for a performance at a music festival called Girlschool USA when guitarists Bela Salazar and Lucia de la Garza were 14 and 13, respectively; bassist Eloise Wong was 12 years old and drummer Mila de la Garza was only 10. It was supposed to be a one-off appearance, but they enjoyed performing too much to stop.
A 2021 performance of their two minute punk song "Racist, Sexist Boy" at the Los Angeles Public Library went viral, and the next year they released their first album on Epitaph. They hit Outside Lands and other big festivals. A few years later, their song "Growing Up" was featured on the Inside Out 2 soundtrack, and this summer they toured with Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins and Rancid on a highly anticipated national stadium tour.
That’s a lot of career before for young musicians who have yet to graduate from high school (or from college, in Bela’s case). But the Linda Lindas are done yet: In October the band released their second album, No Obligation, on Epitaph, and are hopeful that they'll head out on their first headline tour. In the venerable tradition of DIY punk bands past, the album is less an evolution from their bare bones debut than it is a continuation, with more crunchy, three-chords-and-a-prayer riffs backing songs about being stressed out, saying what you mean, finding your own path, and telling harassers to cut it out.
The Linda Lindas spoke with GRAMMY.com about recording with Weird Al Yankovic, their songwriting process, and what their cats are up to now.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’re kind of music veterans now, right? How has that affected the recording of this album?
Eloise: I think we were more confident in our instruments and more confident in the recording process, and also more confident in our songwriting. Because the first record [has] the first songs that we'd ever written.
Mila: We were basically more confident in general!
Eloise: But I'm super excited for it to be out, and I'm super excited to play new music for more people.
Mila: I mean, we've only been around for like, six years, and when we started the band, that's also when we started learning our instruments. So our first record, we knew how to play our instruments, but I would definitely say that we're better at them now.
Lucia: We didn't really fully understand the concept of going through an album, putting the production on it, putting it out. We were kind of just "Oh, we're just gonna record the songs and put them out."
So we’re excited to show off how we have grown. Not necessarily putting down the first album, but just like, you know, showing that we are older, more grown. And that's partly due to all the opportunities that we've gotten since the first one was put out.
On the album, "Yo Me Estreso" is about stress and "Cartographers" is kind of about, indecision, or not being sure what direction to go in. Has making the new album been a stressful or confusing time?
Bela: I wouldn't say it's been stressful. I think it's just day to day things that happen in life, and like, making music is an outlet to just talk about what's going on in our lives.
Eloise: Yeah, what's great about being in a band is that we have this outlet to express our stress and we have somewhere to put those feelings. And I think that's really special.
"Yo Me Estreso" is in Spanish, obviously; I just wondered how you decide which language to write in?
Bela: We write mostly in English. I'm the only one that speaks Spanish. So if I write a Spanish song, then maybe there'll be one in there. But if I don't, there's no Spanish song.
Did "Yo Me Estreso" just come to you in Spanish?
Bela: Yes and no. I mean, I hate talking about my feelings. I have a really hard time doing that. And writing this song in Spanish felt like a way that I could talk about my feelings without exposing myself to the world and letting everybody know what the heck is going on in my life. It felt a little bit more intimate, rather than putting myself out there.
You collaborated with Weird Al Yankovic on that song. How did that happen? Are you fans?
Eloise: Oh, my god.
Mila: How can you not be?
Eloise: Well, basically, Bela had already written this song, and we were like, "Oh, it would be cool if there was accordion on it." And I guess he was just the first accordion player that came to mind. We were like, "This is not gonna happen." But he said yes!
And for the music video, he even brought his own suit and his own hat. He was prepared and super pro.
Bela: He brought a specific accordion that was correct for the genre. I guess he had a bunch of different ones, and he brought the one that was correct. So it was cool.
Mila: He was very nice and very professional.
Lucia: He’s going on tour now. We feel like we should try to see him, because I feel like that'd be so fun. Everyone that says they've seen him live, they say it’s a really amazing show.
Since we’re talking about tours, you toured with Green Day. What was that like?
Eloise: That tour was so fun. Everyone was super nice on the tour. All the bands were super nice, all the crews were super nice. We had catering, and I loved that. Just pile up as much food as we could eat.
And then the most fun part about the tour was that we only played like, 20 minutes. So then right after our set I could just go wipe the cat whiskers off — because I wear cat whiskers on stage — and then go into the crowd for Rancid and watch that. And we got to watch Smashing Pumpkins, and we got to watch Green Day. IWho else gets to watch those bands every other day, you know? I feel so lucky to have been on that tour, and I had such a great time.
Lucia: It was just a super great environment and such great music every night. It was really an honor to be on that stage, for sure. Cool crowd, too!
Were you touring over the summer? I’m just wondering how you balanced it with school.
Eloise: It started in the summer and then it went into some of the school year.
Lucia: We tried to do both.
Eloise: Yeah, we tried to keep up with the work, because after shelter in place [for Covid lockdowns], a lot of the work is posted online, so it's easier to access than it might have been otherwise. But, yeah, just kind of trying to do both to our best ability.
So I thought we might talk about some of the other songs on the album. "Stop" is a song about bullying or harassment. Could you talk about how you wrote that?
Mila: We were just writing, and I think at the time at school, one of my really good friends was being bothered by these other two classmates. And it wasn't cool. So [raises her palm up]…Stop.
How do you write? Do you write individually? As a group?
Lucia: That was a group one.
Mila: I remember this very specifically. We were sitting on the floor in our back house, and we were just songwriting. And then we moved on from one idea to, oh, what should we do next? And I was like, oh, there's this thing that's happening.
So are most of your songs sort of written collaboratively?
Lucia: No, we've written in every way. Any combination. We write individually sometimes, and we write together. Sometimes, we start individually and it ends up together. And sometimes it starts together and ends up individually. There's no formula. There's no step-by-step process that we have. It's just kind of whatever happens, happens.
Could you talk about writing "Excuse Me", which is a song that talks about being stereotyped or profiled?
Eloise: I wrote that. I think it’s about things that people expect you to be. And sometimes, when you don't conform to that, people are uncomfortable, and it just kind of winds up making everyone uncomfortable.
But it's cool that I have the band to write a song about it and I have an excuse to yell about it to a bunch of people.
So what's next for you all now that you've released this album? Are you going on tour?
Lucia: We’ve never really done our own tour for more than five shows or something. We’ve toured a lot with other bands; but for a band that doesn’t tour very much, we do a lot of touring as an opening band.
Mila: We haven't done a proper headline tour yet, and we really want to. [Crosses fingers.] Hopefully.
Lucia: It’s going to happen. And we’re excited to have the album out there and see where the songs go from here. Because they're going to evolve now that we're doing them live. They're going to sound different from the studio. And so it'll be cool to see what journeys they all take on their own.
So where are you planning to tour? In California? Or elsewhere?
Bela: Anywhere! Wherever they’ll take us!
Eloise: Invite us somewhere, please!
Mila: Europe, South America, Asia…
Okay, it’s kind of silly, but I did want to ask…we have a Siamese cat, so "Monica," your song about your Siamese cat from your first album, is one of my favorite songs. I'm just wondering what's up with Monica these days?
Bela: She's doing good! She’s kind of old. Both Monica and Nino are pretty old now, but she went on a walk about five minutes ago. That's why I was kind of late. I had to take her to go get some grass. My cats are indoor/outdoor cats but she needed some grass and she likes the sun, so she went outside to sunbathe.
How old is she now?
Bela: Both Monica and Nino are 13. Well, Nino's 13 and she's 12, turning 13 in March. So they’re up there.
Were they the cats in your video for "Growing Up"?
Bela: No those were fake cats. I mean, not fake cats. Actor cats.
Mila: They were professionals.
Bela: Though my cats are probably way better behaved than those cats.
Eloise: Working with those cats was such a weird experience!
Mila: The trainers would tell the cats, "Stay still!" But then we wanted them to act like cats, and not just stand there like [sits rigidly].
Bela: For that video, a family friend of ours did these wigs for the cats. So my cat, Nino, was the model for all the wigs, and he just was sitting there, just letting her do whatever. And then when she tried to put the wigs on the real cats, they were just knocking them off. It was crazy.
Mila: One time we played a headline show in Michigan and someone gave us bracelets, and one of them said, "Golden" on them.
Eloise: Because it's an inside joke that we have from our childhood. We had this game where we were cats. And one of us was named "Golden."
Mila: And yeah, we were freaked out, because it was like, where did you get that from? And then we realized that it was from that video, because we named the cats.
Is there anything else you’d like people to know about the album?
Bela: Stream it? Please. Buy the record. Buy a CD, anything.
Eloise: Yeah, we're super excited to have new music out, and we're super excited to play new music, and I don't know. It’ll just be fun.