The Linda, Lindas on Their New Record, Ageing & Community

If you haven’t heard of The Linda Lindas, where the hell have you been? The punk-rock group consist of sisters Lucia and Mila de la Garza, their cousin Eloise Wong and family friend Bela Salazar. They went viral in 2021 and shook the world with their performance of their song ‘Racist, Sexist Boy’ at the LA Public Library. Their determination to call out racism and injustice in the loudest, most badass way possible is one of the many reasons they are so heavily adored.

Our Community Editor, Halima Jibril, spoke to them about their new record ‘Growing Up’, ageing in the music industry and more.

So your song 'Growing up' on your debut album of the same name is incredible. To me, the song is all about community and reminding people that even though growing up can feel scary and frightening, many people are going through it as well. As long as you have people, you'll survive basically. Lucia, you wrote the song, right? I'm wondering if this was the messaging you wanted to put across? If not, what inspired the song? 

Lucia: I just wanted to get out the feeling of being alone. It was really hard during the pandemic. There was this pressure to grow up or figure out who you are. But it was really difficult to do that without the people that are the most important to me, you know? I'm just really lucky to have these people and I really just wanted to write a song about it because being apart from them made me realise how special they are to me. These are the people that make me want to stay young forever. When I was writing it I was being really nostalgic for a time where we would just goof off during practice, because we couldn't do that anymore.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

Bela in a Rolling Stone interview you mention that when you first heard ‘Growing Up’ you cried. If you feel comfortable can you share why you had such an emotive response to hearing the song? 

Bela: I'm in my last year of high school, and I was just thinking about how everything is ending. My childhood is ending and I have to be an adult in a few months, and all my friends are gonna move away. So it was just that week when everything hit me. This was the end of my childhood. Then Lucia played that song and I was like, this solidified everything for me, but in a good way.

Have you ever seen the movie Little Women by Greta Gerwig?

Bela: Yeah!

Very much all about growing up and leaving childhood behind. I watched that when I was like, I think I was 19, going 20 and oh my god I had the exact same feeling of like, "Oh, god like my, my youth. Where is it going?"

Lucia: But we know that we're always going to be growing up. It's always gonna be resonant. It's not going to stop being relatable I hope once we hit 18 or something.

“We want to change the world because the world needs a little bit of change.”

Absolutely. As a 22 year old let me tell you the thing doesn't go away. I have another question for you, which might seem a bit weird. Could you close your eyes for me and tell me what colours you associate with growing up and why? 

Eloise: Red. But I don't know why!

What about you Bella? 

Bela: I think of blue but I think it might just be because of the album art.

Lucia: Green!

Mila: I think grey, yellow and pick.

Lucia: I'm glad we got asked this question because I feel like I know you all more.

Aw, I'm glad! thank you guys. Okay so, one of my favourite songs on the album is ‘Talking To Myself.’ You guys told Rolling Stone that the song was about loneliness and “needing other people in order to stay sane”. This album is clearly so much about community, togetherness and friendship and I was wondering if community has always been important to you all? If so, why? 

Bela: Well, Mila has a big social life, I'll say that.

Mila: I'm not even like that!

Lucia: No, no, we're just teasing you because last week during band practise she was like, what time are we ending? I have a dinner tonight.

Mila: It's just because we had to go to grandmas!

Lucia: We're just teasing you, don't worry. Anyway yeah, I think community is really important. It's important to know that there are people that have your back, it's important to feel like you're not alone. Once you feel like you're alone, it's easy to fall into a downward spiral. I've always been kind of a loner, but I also have always known which people have got my back. The people that I love are really, really cool people.

Did you think about community in this way before the pandemic?

Bela: I really saw the value of my friends from, like, missing them so much. Cus at one point they're always there and then one day they're not! You only really remember how much people mean to you when they're not there anymore.  

Lucia: When you spend a year and a half by yourself, that's a lot of time to spend with yourself and your thoughts. There's so much chaos going on and songwriting is an outlet. It helps you make sense of what's happened in your brain and what's going on in the world. We've learned more about ourselves through songwriting, and we've learned more about each other through each other's songs. The pandemic reminded me of all the people that I write songs for, and, you know, the people that make you want to write songs.

Eloise: I think that since the very beginning, we've been really lucky to have a community supporting us. We came out of the same shows that that like The Dils and Alice Bag played, and it's so cool to be part of that community. Punk is really based on community, the people around you and people that support you. I think we're really lucky to have people like that. 

In an article with NME Lucia, you mentioned that a fear of yours is that people won’t want to listen to your music anymore when you’re older and not as young and cute anymore. I think that’s a really gendered fear, so it’s a fear that not a lot of men in music have (and if they do, they don’t really say it out loud) because they assume that as they age and get older, essentially the world will change with them.

Is this something you guys think about often - and if so, how do you sort of combat that fear or anxiety about ageing in the music industry? 

Bela: It's like in the back of my head, but I try not to think about it because I want to have fun right now. I don't want to have to worry. I just want to live in the moment.

Lucia: It's in the back of my mind sometimes too. I'm just like "oh no!" I try to remind myself that it doesn't matter, because right now, I'm just having a really good time. I'm really having fun, just making music.

Eloise: It is scary thinking about me changing as a person because there's so many more people for me to change in front of now. But, I also try not to think about it too much. We're really lucky to be surrounded by people like Hayley Williams who've been doing it for so long and they're still at it. They're still doing what they love! So I think that's what really gives us inspiration. We can still do it, even when we're 90 years old.

In an interview with the New York Times, the writer spoke to people in your first out-of-town show, and somebody in the crowd mentioned that you guys “make them feel hopeful and that you have an energy that makes them believe that maybe the world will be a better place.” 

Do comments like that ever overwhelm you guys? You must have gotten a lot of comments like that after you went viral with “Racist, Sexist Boy.” 

Lucia: We want to change the world because the world needs a little bit of change. But we’ve gotten a lot of comments like "wow, you're so inspiring to my kids" and I love those comments but they can get a little overwhelming. Those comments were overwhelming at first, because we felt like wow, we could mess this up really easily. For example with "Racist, Sexist Boy," we want to let people know they're not alone if they have experienced something that they felt didn't matter, but I think, deep down, we all know that it hurts and it matters and it sucks. You feel like you can't do anything about it when you're younger. But knowing that there are so many people that place their hope in us, that say we inspire them, I think that makes me believe that something amazing can happen.

Eloise: We're just for kids, you know? But it's so cool to think that we can make such a big impact, and that's what we do actually matters. We can actually create change with what we do, and I think that really gives us hope and confidence.

Mila: For me, I think those comments are really cool, and I totally appreciate them. But, when I get them I just never know how to respond to them.

I can imagine I don't know how I would respond to people being like, "you're the change the world needs." It feels like saying thank you isn't enough because they've just given me this massive compliment. 

Mila: All we can say is that we'll try! we'll try! 

What are you most looking forward to this year in 2022? 

All: Travel! 

Eloise: We’re gonna play a few shows in New York and that’ll be amazing, and we’re playing with Jawbreaker! Which is sooooo cool. Adam from Jawbreaker was like an uncle to me when I was little, so it’s so awesome that we’re playing with Jawbreaker.  When he was little, his uncle took him out of school for a few weeks to go to New York and it completely changed his perspective of life and now he’s that uncle for us! We’re also going to Japan in August, which will be really fun, and Las Vegas in September. 

Lucia: I’m really excited to play more shows, put out more music and for our new album to come out. 

Words: Halima Jibril | Photography: Issey Gladston