It’s somewhat fitting that The Linda Lindas’ third album arriving as they come out of reach the latter stages of their teens. This is a band who have spent their formative years growing up in public, going from all-ages punk shows in Los Angeles to viral fame, major tours and increasingly enormous stages. Now, with Gotta Get Out, they’re figuring out what comes next.
It’s been quite the journey. Formed after playing together in a kids’ new-wave cover band at Girlschool LA in 2018, sisters Mila and Lucia de la Garza, cousin Eloise Wong and family friend Bela Salazar quickly became regulars in the Los Angeles punk scene. Then, in 2021, their performance of Racist, Sexist Boy went viral, introducing the world to four teenagers who could turn righteous anger into something utterly infectious.
Since then, they’ve released Growing Up and No Obligation, toured with Green Day and Paramore and graduated from Chinatown matinees to headline shows of their own. Album three, however, came with a slightly different mindset.
“We definitely did just want to have fun with it,” says Lucia de la Garza. “But at the same time, we also came in with the intention of making it our best record. We wrote 30 songs for it. We recorded 20, we had to narrow it down to 12.”
The pressure, they explain, wasn’t necessarily coming from outside. “The pressure is mostly from ourselves, like to make it as good as it can be and as us as it can be.”
That last part is key. Gotta Get Out is not a band desperately trying to prove they’ve grown up. It’s four musicians giving themselves permission to change.
“I don’t think anybody really had intentions of how it was gonna turn out,” they explain. “But we all had lots of ideas, and we all had lots of reactive ideas to each other as well. So everything turned into something else, which is fun.”
The resulting album finds The Linda Lindas stretching in different directions without losing the communal spirit that has always defined them. High Horse has an unmistakable strut, while Eloise singles out Nothing Left. “It’s about environmental disaster, and how a lot of the times convenience in business is placed above the health of the planet and people.”