Evident in how rapidly their sound has grown between their 2022 debut album, Growing Up, and last October’s follow-up, No Obligation, The Linda Lindas stopped being just another punk rock band for pundits to proudly peg as the future of the genre. There’s still plenty of rapid-fire breakneck numbers like “Resolution/Revolution,” and “Don’t Think” among them, but an abundance of straight-up pop with “All in My Head” and the chugging tilt of “Too Many Things” proves the SoCal quartet is just getting started musically.
That makes sense, as only one of the band members, 20-year-old guitarist Bela Salazar, is out of high school while the youngest of the bunch, 14-year-old drummer Mila de la Garza, is fresh out of middle school. Mila’s older sister Lucia (18) plays guitar, and Eloise Wong (17) is on bass. All four handle vocal duties on various songs.
They’ve drawn the attention of some major players in the industry, be it festival organizers around the world or headliners from The Rolling Stones to Green Day to Paramore, who have all handpicked the band as an opening act in recent years. But while much has been made about their ages, corresponding talent, and continuing uptick of musical experiences, you’ll be hard pressed to find more down-to-earth subjects of a success story, who just seven years ago were discovered after playing at the Los Angeles Public Library.
“Just getting to travel and play shows… we’re super, super grateful,” Eloise tells Vanyaland.
Now, following all the craziness that comes with playing Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Boston Calling, along with supporting heroes like Bikini Kill, The Linda Lindas are on an inaugural tour of North America, which stops at The Paradise on Wednesday night (April 23).
We caught up with the foursome ahead of the gig to do a 617 Q&A (Six Questions; One Recommendation; Seven Somethings) and discuss how things have changed since that library performance amid the stacks, the stresses that come with playing smaller shows, and some of the coolest things that have happened in the past few years. Bela, Lucia, Eloise, and Mila excitedly reminisced about their favorite moments, collectively and individually, but perhaps even more so about what the future might bring.
:: SIX QUESTIONS
Michael Christopher: When you look back at the library performance from so many years ago, what do you think, considering how much has changed?
Eloise Wong: I mean, I haven’t looked back at the video yet. That was so long ago. I’m sure we sound different. I don’t know. I’m scared to look at it.
Bela Salazar: Our hair is probably all different.
Eloise: Our hair is probably all different. Sometimes people make posts with that recording of “Racist, Sexist Boy” on it, and it sounds so much different from how we play it now. So I don’t know how the rest of it sounds too. But I’m really grateful that that was a launching point for all that we’ve been able to do now. We’ve been able to play so many shows after that.
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What do you see as the biggest differences between Growing Up and No Obligation?
Lucia de la Garza: We kind of put out Growing Up straight out of the pandemic, almost, and it was kind of these first songs that we’d written, pretty isolated from each other. And then we got all this touring experience off of Growing Up. We traveled a bunch, we played so many shows after that album came out. And then once we had all this experience of actually playing live and being together and figuring out our sound in a live setting, then we kind of knew what we wanted out of a studio album a little bit more.
And it was really cool going into No Obligation, because we knew that we wanted to write more collaboratively with each other as well. I think all those things… we recorded, we tracked live all in the same room for No Obligation, which was different than Growing Up. And we wrote more, like, duet kind of style songs for No Obligation, and we knew what we wanted, we knew kind of more of what our sound was, I guess, based on playing together so much. And we kind of just found our voices that way.
Eloise: Yeah, ‘cause we could play our instruments better. And we had written more songs, so we were able to figure out what kind of songs we wanted and how to execute them the way that we intended them to sound.
Were you thinking more about how the songs were going to come off live and how you’d be playing them onstage?
Eloise: I think we had just played together live more, so we kind of knew what we wanted to sound like on the recording.
Bela: Also, on Growing Up, we recorded everything kind of piece-by-piece separately. So with this record, we were all in the same room together.
You’ve been to Boston a couple of times. Boston Calling two summers ago, then you did the No Saviors tour at Fenway Park. This time you’re going to be playing The Paradise, which is a lot smaller. Do you prefer the bigger shows or the smaller ones?
Eloise: I think they’re a lot different. The bigger shows, or at least the big stadium shows that we played with Green Day, the audience felt so far away, and the crowd was also spread out [in] the stadium, so it felt like you had to perform bigger in order to really try and connect with the audience. So, there’s that. And then for smaller clubs, they’re right next to you. And sometimes that’s scary, but also it’s really fun to play with that energy. And coming off of the Saviors tour, I feel like I learned how to just put out all of the energy into a performance. And bringing that same energy into the smaller club that I put into the bigger stadium is a lot of fun, ‘cause it fills up the smaller space, and it’s a lot of fun.
Lucia: It’s not like a preference between the two, it’s just kind of what can we learn from doing both of these, and how can we just make them the most fun, no matter what we’re doing.
How exciting is it to be headlining shows when you know that everyone is there to see you, as opposed to festivals where they may want to see you, but they also want to see a dozen other bands? At these shows, they’re coming just to see The Linda Lindas.
Lucia: So weird.
Mila de la Garza: It’s a little bit nerve-wracking.
Bela: I’d say it’s kind of a weird feeling, I mean, a good weird feeling just because a lot of the things we’ve done have been opening for other people. And I don’t think we realize how many people know our songs until this tour. And it’s been so wild to just hear – the crowds have been so loud, singing every lyric to every song, which has been super cool.
Lucia: It’s super inspiring, super gratifying, and I think, I don’t know, it’s just so special that we get to do that.
Bela, you’ve graduated from high school. Is it hard to be only able to tour when the rest of the band is on break?
Bela: Sometimes I get a little annoyed just because I wish we could tour all the time. I’m counting the days ‘til they all graduate.
Lucia: You get the most homesick, too.
Bela: I do, but I want to play more, you know what I mean? Also, think about it this way: When we’re on tour, usually all my friends, my college friends, are home because we have the tour in the summer. So, this tour has been great because I’ve gotten to see a lot of my friends. I have a bunch of friends that go to MIT, so I’m really excited to see them because we’re in Boston. And yeah, it’s just like, I wish we could tour during the year so I could see my other friends. And then we’re gone during the summer, so when my friends are home, I’m not home.
Now, to flip that around, do the rest of you wish that you could tour and work on music all the time?
[collectively] Yeah.
Lucia: But it’s still nice to have school. We still try to do school and the band to the best of our ability right now. But we plan on doing music when we graduate. [laughs]
Eloise: Last week, when I got back to school, I was like, “Man, I’m doing an English test the day after we played this show…” It was so sad. But it’s okay. It’s okay. I have good friends at school.
You’ve done some things that bands with twice your longevity haven’t gotten to do or might never get to do. Playing Coachella, opening for the Stones, playing with Green Day. What’s left to conquer — what do you still want to do?
Eloise: Put it out there.
Bela: Okay. We want to tour with Remi Wolf. So, we’re putting it out there.
Mila: We said it!
Bela: But also, I feel like we haven’t gotten to really play South America yet, or Australia…
Mila: And we’ve only been to Europe once.
Eloise: It would be cool to play with The Go-Go’s now that they’re playing again. But I guess just keep going. It’s not like, “Oh, I want to check this off.” I just want to keep making music and playing music with my friends, ultimately,
Mila: Making more friends and peers closer to our age that are in the music industry also, which is hard to do because I’m 14, but you know.
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:: ONE RECOMMENDATION
Bela: There’s this show called A Thousand Blows on Hulu. It’s a British show, but the soundtrack is so good. It’s done by this guy from Spain, but it’s so weird, but it’s so good. And the show itself is really good. Stephen Graham is really good in it – and the whole cast – but yeah, that’s what I [recommend].
Eloise: Oh, I gotta check that out.
[long silence]
Eloise: We’re each going to do one. Mila.
Mila: Ummm… oh, wait.
Eloise: Sorry. We’re all very indecisive people.
Mila: I have two.
Eloise: Oh man.
Mila: Okay. I recently read The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It’s really good. I enjoyed it. I do recommend. It’s my recommendation.
Eloise: I really like to drink hot water. That’s one thing I would recommend. Or warm water, I guess. But I like it pretty hot. It’s like, nice.
Does it help with singing?
Eloise: I mean, I don’t really drink it to help with singing.
Bela: I’m sure it does.
Eloise: Maybe. I don’t know, but I really like to drink hot water. I think it’s ‘cause I grew up drinking hot water with my grandparents. But yeah, I would recommend. And, also, it feels really cool when you’re at a restaurant and then they ask you, “Oh, what drink do you want?” And you go, “Oh, can I have hot water?” And it feels like a treat. And you don’t even have to pay for a drink because it’s just hot water, you know what I mean? You could get a lemonade, or you could get hot water for nothing.
Lucia: Can I recommend an author instead of a book? Her name is Kiley Reid. And she has a book called Such a Fun Age and a book called Come and Get It. And they’re both just so crazy weird. You don’t think they’re weird, but you finish them and you’re like, “Wow, that was really weird.” So, I enjoyed them and they made me like, “Wow, why did I do that?” You know what I mean?
Eloise: Wait, actually, can I replace my one?
Lucia: You just talked about it for so long.
Eloise: Oh, I’m sorry. We’ll move on to the next one.
I mean the hot water is a really good one. I’ve got to say that’s one of the most original ones I’ve gotten.
Eloise: Okay, I’m done then.
Lucia: Wait, now I want to know…
Eloise: I’ll tell you later.
:: SEVEN OF SOMETHING
What are the seven coolest things that you’ve experienced as a band since getting started seven years ago?
Eloise: This won’t be in any particular order.
Bela: Meeting The Rolling Stones was wild – and there’s no photo evidence.
Eloise: No, we got to shake all of their hands, and Mick Jagger gave us double fist bumps. We swear it happened, even though they couldn’t give us a picture.
Bela: I think that there’s no photo makes it really interesting.
Eloise: Exactly. It’s just like you had to be there.
Lucia: Yeah. Like us, we were there.
Eloise: My grandpa was so happy, so happy. I’ve never seen him smile that big. He’s usually really grumpy.
Mila: I think the Palladium show with Bikini Kill.
Eloise: That was, like, our first big venue show.
Mila: Like, “real” show.
Eloise: Somehow, Kathleen Hanna saw a video of us doing a cover of “Rebel Girl,” and then she reached out and asked us to open, and we’re like, “Are you sure? We’re a kid cover band who’s only been playing for…”
Lucia: Two months? [laughs]
Bela: Did we ever ask her why?
Lucia: We did. I think she just said she felt like it. [laughs]
Eloise: I guess it worked out!
Bela: We went to Brazil as a band – that was fun.
Lucia: We went to so many museums [in Brazil] too…
Eloise: We did this job, and for some reason, it was cheaper for them to fly us out to Brazil, and we were like, “Oh, maybe you can fly us out first class?” And they were like, “Sure, why not?” So that was kind of crazy. And Brazil was amazing.
Bela: [points to Eloise] You said opening for Blondie.
Eloise: Opening for Blondie, yes. And Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Japanese Breakfast at the Hollywood Bowl. We did Blondie at the Greek and then Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Japanese Breakfast at the Hollywood Bowl.
[All four members confer, whispering]
Eloise: Okay, so the last show that we did before we went on this tour, we played with Sad Park at The Smell. It was so good! Oh, like highlight of the…yeah, I don’t know.
Bela: Highlight of your life.
Eloise: Definitely in the top five highlights of my life. So good. That was so good.
[All four members confer again]
Lucia: We’re assessing [the last one].
***
Elosie: Punkspring in Japan. The Damned played, The Vandals played, Hi-Standard played… Suicidal Tendencies played!
Bela: I think the coolest thing, though, was – a lot of the Japanese crowds, they’re super nice, but they’re very respectful. And then we played “Linda Linda,” and that was insane.
Eloise: But they were super respectful and still until we played “Linda Linda” at the end –
Mila: And then everyone lost their mind.
Eloise: Then the crowd just erupted, and everyone was crowd surfing over the barrier and trying to jump on the stage.
Bela: It was crazy. It was awesome.
THE LINDA LINDAS + PINKSHIFT :: Wednesday, April 23 at the Paradise Rock Club, 967 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston, MA :: 7 p.m., all ages, $36.35 :: Event info :: Advance tickets