The Linda Lindas Are Good at Being Angry, but It Doesn’t Come Easily

Since their viral moment performing “Racist, Sexist Boy” at the Los Angeles Public Library in 2021, the Linda Lindas have been defined by their youth, their anger and the COVID-19 pandemic. Guitarist Bela Salazar, bassist Eloise Wong, guitarist Lucia de la Garza and drummer Mila de la Garza — then between the ages of 11 and 17 — wrote their first album Growing Up while isolating at home with their families. On their sophomore release No Obligation, their songwriting is more collaborative, their vocals more confident and their sound more well-defined. They performed at Kilby Court last month as part of their first major headlining tour and chatted with SLUG ahead of the show about touring with Green Day, the joys of playing all-ages venues and the difficulties of expressing anger as a young person. 

SLUG: You’ve been described as many different genres — riot grrrl, pop punk, garage rock, emo. Are there any of those labels that feel more correct or more accurate than others? Or do you reject them entirely and say, “I just want to be defined by who we are as the Linda Lindas?”

Eloise: When we write, we don’t think too much about labels. It’s just whatever we like, whatever sounds cool to us. 

Lucia: Yeah, I agree. I think that we have different tendencies as writers, and I feel like that just creates the sound in itself … We don’t tend to limit ourselves, because we are always excited by trying new things. 

SLUG: Are there any artists or bands that are perhaps completely different from you, but that you would like to record a song with or perform with?

Bela: I’d say for me, the dream would be Remi Wolf. That would be fun.

Eloise: That would be very fun.

Mila: When the four are in the car together, we listen to Remi Wolf a lot.

Eloise: The thing is, in Bela’s car — she has the bass turned all the way up, and it’s really loud, and sometimes the windows are down. Maybe people find it annoying, but it’s fun.

Bela: It’s definitely annoying, but I want to feel the music! I can’t hear it, so I gotta feel it. 

SLUG: I also wanted to chat with you about some of the other differences that happened between creating Growing Up and No Obligation. Is there an evolution between those two albums?

Lucia: It wasn’t super intentional. But just in the nature of us, you know, getting older and stuff, there are different themes. I would say we expanded more musically and with our sounds. But we definitely did have growth in the maturity [of] our writing and stuff, which we’re really proud of. 

Eloise: I’m not sure about maturity in my writing, but I feel like I learned how to write the songs that I wanted to write, if that makes sense? Growing Up and the first EP — I mean, those were some of the first songs that I ever wrote. I was just like, “Oh, let’s get something out!” and then we recorded them. But with No Obligation, I figured out what sound I wanted and what kind of songs I like to play. 

Lucia: I would say that overall, this album is just a lot more intentional and well-defined. 

Bela: I think it’s so cool now that you can tell, like, “Oh, this is an Eloise song. This is a Lucia song. This is a Mila song. This is a Bela song.” We all have our distinct voices now, too. 

Eloise: Yeah, it’s not just four people singing, but also it’s four people writing.

SLUG: What does your songwriting process looks like. Are you all working together on writing songs, the same way that you all share vocals? 

Eloise: It depends on the song. A lot of our earlier stuff, [like] the first EP and Growing Up, was mostly written individually because of shelter in place. But the new album, No Obligation, has more collaborative songs on it. We were learning how to work with each other, and how to write together. We we all wrote in the same room. It’s scary, but it’s fun to bounce ideas off each other and just like, jam out and see what comes out of that. 

SLUG: This is your first major headlining tour, but you’ve opened for Bikini Kill, Paramore, Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins. What do you love and hate the most about touring? Are there any really memorable stories from your last tours, or anything that you’re really looking forward to this time around? 

Eloise: The last tour that we did was with Green Day and they had catering. That was so cool, I loved that so much. Like, we’d do sound check, and then we’d go to catering, and I’d pile up so much food. I ate so much on that tour, it was so great. And then after we played, I’d go back to catering and get more. It was endless. 

Lucia: Good story. I mean, we are really appreciative of touring, because we go with our families, so it’s kind of like a little family vacation sometimes — just with a lot of music. We’re not sick of it yet. It’s going to be cool to see the culmination of all these shows that we’ve done as an opening act for quite a while now.

Eloise: Also, a really fun part about going on tour is just seeing other bands play. Especially playing festivals — like, remember when we played Coachella and our tent had had Destroy Boys and Soul Glo and Horsegirl and The Breeders and Scowl? It was just like, ‘Whoa.’ We got to see so much live music, and everyone [was] so good. 

Bela: Yeah, not only do we get to see them, but sometimes we get to chat with them. Sometimes we have the same music taste, or we have a lot of things in common, and that’s really fun to see. 

SLUG: That’s amazing, I love Destroy Boys and and Soul Glo. Have you played in Salt Lake before? 

Lucia: No, it’s our first time.

SLUG: At first I was surprised that you’re playing at Kilby Court because it’s such a small venue for a band of your level of popularity, but then I realized that it’s one of the only all-ages venues in this city. Is that a limiting factor that you encounter a lot — feeling like you’re not able to book shows in a 21-plus venue or an 18-plus venue?

Lucia: We prefer playing all-ages venues, and we like small shows. 

Bela: If we were playing 21-plus venues, then our friends couldn’t go. It would be kind of sad. 

Eloise: Yeah, exactly. We want to play places that people our age can go to.

SLUG: Honestly, I think we need more all-ages venues in general. It’s frustrating that so many places are just excluding a whole age group. 

Lucia: Yeah, it’s really special seeing younger people at shows and seeing them kind of learn how to be in that environment. We started going to shows at a really young age, and that kind of sparked our interest in being the people on stage.

Eloise: It’s just cool to have that community in the crowd, you know? … If you’re in the crowd, don’t be afraid to participate. It’s more fun when the crowd is alive, when everyone’s dancing. 

SLUG: That’s one of my favorite things about going to live shows. I feel like when I was younger, I was a lot more scared to participate. I felt like people were looking at me, but no one cares. They’re all doing their own thing.

Eloise: It just makes it more fun for the people next to you, you know? If everyone is scared to move, it’s also weird for us on stage — we feed off of the crowd.

SLUG: Totally. I hope you guys really like Kilby Court. It’s one of my favorite venues in Salt Lake, because it’s really DIY. It’s very small. It’s basically a garage, and there’s a really cute courtyard with a fire pit, and it gets really hot and sweaty in there. But the energy in that room is always really, really amazing. 

Eloise: Alright, it’s gonna be fun. I’m excited.

SLUG: Do you guys have a favorite song — from that album, or in general — that you like to perform live the most?

Mila: Probably “Don’t Sing” or “Excuse Me.” 

Eloise: “Stop” is fun to play.

Lucia: I agree with Mila, and I also think that “Yo Me Estreso” is fun. 

Eloise: “Lose Yourself” is fun to play. 

Mila: I also like “All in my Head” because it’s one of the ones that the crowd knows better.

Lucia: We’re just naming all of our songs now. 

SLUG: I’ll name another one — in the song “Once Upon a Time,” you say, “I’m good at being angry. I’m good,” and then “Why are they all so angry? I hate taking sides.” I don’t know who wrote that song, but I wanted to ask about that lyric in particular, because that really stood out to me.

Lucia: Yeah, I wrote it because I don’t really get angry. Anger is just a strange emotion for me. It’s mostly internal, and I think that’s why I’m not really seen as an angry person, even though I can be … Anger is a strange emotion for a lot of younger people, especially younger girls, I think. It’s not my most easily expressed one, for sure. 

SLUG: With punk music — especially girls who make punk music — there’s always anger tied to it, whether it’s part of the sound or because people perceive that kind of music as angry. I don’t think it always has to be a really negative emotion. I think it can be harnessed in really good and useful ways.

Lucia: Playing whatever music I do is my form of showing what I’m feeling, instead of my behavior. It’s why I’m so grateful for it, I guess. It’s very therapeutic.

Eloise: I didn’t write the song, but playing with the band gives me a healthy outlet to express anger and frustration. You’re taught not to express a lot of anger, or be sad, or [express] negative emotions. But with this kind of music, you can scream on stage and play loud and dance hard. And I am just very grateful for that.

Read more interviews with touring musicians:
Model/Actriz on Longing, Coming Out and Gaga 
Poppy Injects Optimism Into Negative Spaces