In conversation with the Linda Lindas and Hole’s Patty Schemel

The Linda Lindas appear on the cover of the Summer 2024 Issue — head to the AP Shop to grab a copy.

The saying goes that you cannot be what you cannot see. It’s a phrase that feels all the more relevant in a climate where representation in alternative music is discussed and championed more than ever — listeners crave voices beyond the traditionally straight, white male paradigm, and, crucially, they want to see themselves in the people onstage. But before representation became a hot-button issue, there were bands like Hole working to tear down the walls brick by brick, determined to be seen even if people didn’t want to look their way. 

Across four albums, Hole painted a visceral picture of girlhood, albeit one colored by rage, even disgust at times. They owned their femininity yet tore it up and rearranged it into a messier, realer version, exemplified beautifully by the prom queen whose face is stained by mascara on the cover of their 1994 album Live Through This. Amid a quagmire of rancid misogynistic rumors — particularly that Courtney Love’s husband Kurt Cobain wrote their music — they fought back hard, seeing no reason why they couldn’t have the glory that their male peers could. 

Read more: 10 most criminally underrated Green Day songs

For many young women growing up in the ’90s, Patty Schemel could have been the first woman they saw behind a drum kit. She might have been one of the only. They cleared the path for scores of women-led bands to travel down, into the ears of girls who would lean on them for strength and confidence in a world that doesn’t always want them to succeed. 

Thirty years later, the Linda Lindas are writing their own stories of girlhood. Though three-quarters of the band are still in school, they were quickly spotlighted as a name to watch after going viral for their hit “Racist, Sexist Boy.” When not in the classroom, they’re spending their summers on tour, with slots opening for Green Day, the Rolling Stones, and the Smashing Pumpkins just this summer alone. 

Though undoubtedly musically influenced by Hole, their approach is rather different — in their music, they’re inquisitive and thoughtful, though acutely conscious of the challenges coming of age poses, whether that’s learning to process one’s emotions or managing social situations. They’re also biting back in real time, reckoning with a society that’s frequently unjust or dismisses its own ills. It’s why “Racist, Sexist Boy” immediately resonated, offering a rallying cry against hatred and announcing themselves as one of rock’s most important new voices in the process. 

It’s only fitting, then, that we brought the Linda Lindas and Patty Schemel together for a wide-spanning conversation about everything from music and creativity to libraries and Lego… 

PATTY SCHEMEL: First of all, I loved your record, I gotta say, and I have all these notes about it because I listen to it all the time. I noticed that your first official show was with Kristin [Gundred] from Dum Dum Girls, right? When [my daughter], Bea, was 6 months old, her first show was Dum Dum Girls. She was just a baby. But that’s cool — were you the backing band for her?

LUCIA DE LA GARZA: She had this idea where she wanted to play this event with kids playing everything.  

ELOISE WONG: She’d seen a video of me singing with another band, and she was like, “Hey, do you want to do it?” I got Lucia and Mila to do it because they were my cousins, and then we got Bella because none of us can play guitar like she can! There were a bunch of other kids, too. 

LUCIA: Then we decided that we wanted to keep doing it. 

SCHEMEL: I love that [the video for] “Racist, Sexist Boy” was shot in a library. That’s really cool, because it’s supposed to be quiet. 

WONG: I love the library so much. It’s one of my favorite places. I usually go to the Chinatown branch of LAPL. I love it there. 

SCHEMEL: You guys are named after the film [Linda Linda Linda], right? Did you know that James Iha did all of the soundtrack for that?

LUCIA: We recently learned that!

BELA SALAZAR: It’s so cool, because I knew that he’d done some soundtrack stuff, but then upon further investigation, that’s cool. I love that movie — their school uniforms are really cool, too.

LUCIA: At our first show, we wore school uniforms. 

WONG: We did it for the first few shows, but it’s cool because it’s [come] full circle now that we’re going on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins over the summer.

SCHEMEL: You’re doing the Rolling Stones, too, right? The venues for [them] are huge, but have you guys played in arenas before?

LUCIA: Arenas and stadiums! 

SCHEMEL: That’s huge. You go in there, and then [the sound] just echoes forever. 

SALAZAR: I like to hear everything, so I have one ear out, and it was rough. 

WONG: It was so funny when Mila was checking the snare. Thump! Thump! [We were like], “What are we doing? How are we going to play?” Then we listened to Paramore soundcheck right, and they’re so tight, and we were like, “Dude, how do we do that?” 

SCHEMEL: Do you ever get a little bit scared before you go on? Do you ever have things that you take on the road with you? I had my little stuffed doll, Pat, and I would take her everywhere. She’s had to be stitched up a few times. 

WONG: We have Ducky Momo from Phineas and Ferb on the drum kit. He’s a very nice companion, in case it gets a little rough. He’s been through a lot with us. 

SALAZAR: I think the cool thing is that when you’re a kid, you have no fear. We’re just getting thrown into something we’ve never seen before, so there’s no expectation. 

SCHEMEL: I love that because I was gonna ask you that exact question. When I first started playing drums, I had this sort of fearlessness. It was a little bit over the top, sometimes, but then after a while, I came back down to Earth. You have that idea, and you’re just going to forge on through, and I love that. Don’t lose it. Anyway, did you get to keep those Lego guitars?

LUCIA: They did make us little Lego figurines of ourselves.

WONG: Playing was so tough because it would scrape your skin. 

SCHEMEL: Yeah of course. I mean, everybody talks about stepping on Legos. 

WONG: It was so heavy. 

SALAZAR: They didn’t sound amazing, but they worked. 

MILA DE LA GARZA: Yeah, I was so scared to play the kick drum. I thought it was just gonna crumble. But the cool thing about the master builders is that they were like, “OK, we can just make them as props,” but they wanted to challenge themselves, for us actually to be able to play them.

SCHEMEL: Wow!

SCHEMEL: Each of you has different influences, right? It’s really cool that you have different styles that you put into your music. When I saw you play at the Rock N’ Roll Camp For Girls, you were so tight and so confident, and your songs were so good. It’s just cool that you are so fearless. 

LUCIA: I feel like we just learned that it’s always gonna go better if you go into it with a little more confidence. When we started, we were too young to think that there was any consequence to doing it bad. At this point, we’ve just stayed with that mentality.

WONG: But also with punk music in particular, it’s great that it doesn’t matter if you’re terrible as long as the energy is there. I think that’s what drew us to it initially. 

SCHEMEL: What are you like when you’re writing songs? Do you start with words first? Or do you start with a library of riffs? 

LUCIA: It’s always different. They all have different levels of collaboration that we do. They always start in different places. 

SALAZAR: I feel like a lot of my songs in particular, I bring in a riff, and we finish it together because I’m not very good with words. The cool [thing] about being in a band is that they can help me express what I want to say. Then we figure out how to say that together. 

SCHEMEL: Me and my brother when we would play, he’d come up with ideas. You’d come up with an idea. Then you do the same thing. That happened in Hole, too, where Courtney would say, “I wanted to sound like Metallica, but just this part.” We’d use another band’s song as a template to write a song in the style of them. 

MILA: My drum teacher and my dad — my dad plays drums — when they’re the ones doing it, it makes sense. But when these guys do it, it makes no sense. 

SCHEMEL: It’s funny when drummers talk to each other because we try to explain parts. It’s always like, “OK, it’s like boom, check,” and it’s just a whole other language. Oh also, your videos are so cool. Do you come up with the ideas?

LUCIA: All of them except for “Growing Up.”

WONG: We worked with Mind Palace, and the brainstorming sessions were also fun, because we’re just throwing whatever [at the canvas]. Yeah, we just draw really rough sketches, and it’s so fun. 

SCHEMEL: Is there anything that you have in the back of your mind for your next videos that you really want to do?

LUCIA: Where we are in the process, we’re supposed to be about to start kind of thinking about videos coming up. So the answer should be yes, we have ideas, but the answer is probably “Not really.” 

WONG: We have lots of ideas — they’re just secret. 

SCHEMEL: You have new songs that you’re going to be playing this summer? That’s the best way to get them, to work out to play them on the road and then go and record them. 

LUCIA: We recorded them like a year ago. They’re all done. It takes so long. They’ve been done for months. I already feel ready to move on to the next album. It’s definitely a little weird still talking about the old album, but that’s just because we’re so excited about it, and the new one has been in our heads for a while. 

WONG: I’m already over the new one.

SCHEMEL: What are you listening to right now? What are you being inspired by?

LUCIA: We went to the Palladium last night, and we saw IDLES. That was so cool. You can tell the crowd really likes them.

SCHEMEL: I would go watch bands play and then be like, “Well, I want to make up a drum part like that.” Do you ever take away stuff like that? 

WONG: Bela just sent us a Voice Memo of an idea that she had based off the IDLES set that we saw. I want to be able to get the crowd moving like that. I love being in crowds — or just with people. 

SCHEMEL: I got a question from a 14-year-old fan, Sienna Coulter. Her question is for people her and your age, there’s a strong pressure to conform to your school’s or your parents’ or other kids’ ideas of who you should be. As artists, how do you find your own voice?

SALAZAR: I feel like the cool thing about learning from your parents or from things around you is that you can listen to them, but you can make your own decisions. I think just being an observer, observing everything around you, and people around you. You should also be a critical thinker. Pay attention to things, and you’ll figure it out as you get older. 

LUCIA: As a young artist, you also have time to figure out your beliefs and what you want to do with your art, your passions, or whatever you like to do. It’s difficult, yes, because everybody has different ideas. But it’s important to just remember that there’s so many other people that also feel that way, and there’s time to figure out how you can grow into your own person. 

WONG: What’s also really cool about being artists is that it gives you this outlet to express those kinds of things that come with not conforming. You don’t owe anyone anything — you’re just making what you want, and you just gotta find what you like and what you believe in. It’s just important to stay where your heart is. 

Interview by Patty Schemel

Photos by Alice Baxley 

Hair and makeup by Faye Celeste